Designing a good poster
What the heck is supposed to be on my poster??
First, take a look at my poster on
how to make a poster.
Think of a poster as an advertisement of your work. When coke is
trying to come up with a print ad campaign, I'm betting they think, "what
can we do to make people actually read our ad rather than just turning
the page." You need to think two things:
- How can I make my poster attractive enough that people wandering
by may actually come over and look at it
- How can I make my poster informative enough that people who do
look at it will learn something about my work?
The answer to the second question is somewhat dependent upon your
audience. If you expect a mixed crowd - some people who may be very
familiar with the concepts in your work and some who may have no
clue, then it's a good idea to include all of the following on your
poster:
- A very basic overview of where your work fits into the world as a
whole
- Some intermediate information for those who may be somewhat
familiar with your field
- Something advanced that shows those who are very familiar with
your area that you did something cool!
Your poster doesn't have to have every detail about your work in
it. Most of the time you will use your poster like a kind of a
one-shot powerpoint presentation - you'll be standing next to it
talking to people about your work, and you can reference things on
your poster as necessary.
Typically a poster is presented at a poster session - you along with a
bunch of other people are going to be in a room standing next to your
posters. You want to tell people about your work. Some people may be
interested in hearing about your work regardless of what your poster
looks like. But typically most people will be wandering around
glancing at the posters and trying to figure out which ones are most
interesting.
It's important that your poster is readable from a
distance. Generally, a good rule of thumb is if you shrink your poster
to fit on your screen and it looks like a nice handout (i.e. you can
still easily read everything) it's probably pretty good.
Fast
Facts
- You really should read
this whole document. It has a lot of information that will help you be
more successful. Don't embarass yourself or the department, take some
time to do this right!
- For STEM 2010, posters are presented on an area that is 4 ft.
wide x 8 ft. high. I recommend a 48 inch wide x 36 inch high poster.
Here is a powerpoint template for
such a poster.
- Be sure that your poster has a white background. Colored
backgrounds look nice, but use up all of the (extremely expensive) ink
in the printer.
- You may not print your poster without permission from the faculty
member advising your poster
- Guidelines for making effective posters can be found below
- Guidelines for STEM (and other conference) posters can be found
below
- Directions for using the wide format plotter can be found below
First, take a look at my poster on
how to make a poster.
- If you want to look at it on your screen, you should look at the pdf version. Please note that the
pdf version has been scaled to fit on an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper for
printing.
- If you want to play with it in powerpoint, you should look at the
powerpoint version. I have two versions: one that is 24 inches high x 36 inches wide, and
one that is 36 inches high and 48
inches wide.
When I started working on that poster, I ended up with something that
was pretty good, but too busy. So it's a bad poster, but has more
details that you might want to take a look at. Here's a pdf version and a powerpoint version.
Using the CS department wide format printers
- You must have the permission of a member of the CS department
before you use the fancy printer.
- You must have your advisor check your poster and make sure they
think you're ready to print
- Here are detailed directions
on how to use the old 36 inch wide printer. These directions are probably so out of
date what you should do first is go speak with the Department
Secretary, Ms. Coughlin, and get her advice.
- Here are detailed
directions
on how to use the old 24 inch wide printer. These directions are probably so
out of date what you should do first is go speak with the Department
Secretary, Ms. Coughlin, and get her advice.
Preparing for STEM
- Answers to the following questions can be found on the STEM
FAQ page
Preparing for other conferences
- Be sure to find out how big your poster should be
- Be sure to find out whether your poster will be mounted on an
easel (in which case you'll need to have something like a piece of
foam-core to mount your poster on) on a wall (you may need masking
tape), on a fabric board (sticky back velcro hooks), or on a bulletin
board (push pins).
Sample Posters
I have copies of some posters on-line for you to look at. Some of them
are excellent, and some are not-so-good. You make the call.
Related Links
- Mary Jo Dowling taught me how to make a poster. She's a
professional artist and she wrote up some design
advice that you might want to look at.
Last updated 4/20/05