Poster Design

Joanne PaytonIKWRO, HBVAnet & Cardiff University

joannepayton.me.uk

SIT702: POSTER DESIGN WORKSHOP

Why are we doing this?• Conference posters are a

great way for early-stage researchers to introduce their work, develop presentation skills and get feedback

• They force you to refine your topic to its essence

• Good for your CV and career development

• You may wish to produce posters throughout your career as a researcher

TASK• Design a conference

poster about your research.

• Submit an A4 size version as a PDF via Learning Central – Deadline 07/05/2014  -

12 noon

• This is an assessment task and is worth 20% of your grade along with the presentation.

DesignHow can you make your poster stand out in this chaotic environment?

Design aims• Attractive• Well-organized• Self-explanatory• Informative• Appropriate text and imagery• Considers the reader

Basic design principles

Proximity

Contrast

Alignment

Repetition

(these two are deliberately bad examples)

Managing contentA poster is less about presenting the totality of your research than tempting your reader to find out more about it• Cut, cut, cut:

– Try and get body text down to less than 1,000 words. You can go as low as a few hundred.

– Pick ONE message you want the reader to take away

• Create a hierarchy of information

• Don’t use boring headings• Give your copy room to

breathe: no walls of text!• Bullets, diagrams, columns

Laying out• Consider scamping it with a pencil and

paper before you get in front of a computer. Squared paper can help you keep it tidy.

• Think about how you want to direct the reader’s gaze

• Look at other posters, but also check out magazine and newspaper spreads and infographics for inspiration

• Symmetrical design looks more staid/reliable; asymmetric design looks more edgy. – An even number of columns will look

more conservative than an odd number

• Beware of busy backgrounds• Landscape/portrait?

– If it’s portrait, be careful not to stand in front of it!

• Check out templates (see resources)

Magazines and newspaper layouts can be useful models: professional designers in these media have developed strategies for dealing with a high level of text and images while keeping it all attractive and readable

Mechanicals• Design to size using custom

settings in your software – don’t start small and scale up– Powerpoint: Design > Page

Setup– Publisher: New > More Blank

Page Sizes > Custom

• Pictures/artwork at 300 dpi - or as close as you can get it.– Images from GIS etc will be at

72 dpi: way too small! Plus you will have to consider copyright.

• Software– Graphic design software

Powerpoint/Publisher• Save down as a PDF for

printing• If you have a lot of images

pay for gloss/coated/photograph paper

TypographyNobody has ever complained that a poster is too easy to read.• FUNKY FONTS are hard to read• Sans serifs are great for headings and body text, and

for reversed text (i.e. light on a dark background). They look modern and clearn.

• Serifs may be better at small sizes and for longer text, and if you want to look classy/conservative. Very few books set long text in sans serif.

• CAPITAL LETTERS are harder to read.• Underlining cuts off descenders so italics/bold is a

better way to emphasise individual words.• If your typeface has a lot of versions (like in the

image) use these for emphasis instead of the toolbar Bold and Italicise.

• Body text should be >20pts; headings >30pts.• The title can be as big as 100 pts.• The ideal line length is 50-75 characters. Think about

this when setting your columns.

Colour schemes

Colour used to organise the various sections: looks cleaner than boxes!

Colour scheme pulled out from key photograph to unify poster

Tips:• Overly bright colours can

be tiring on the eyes• Many people are

red/green colour-blind• Light text on a dark

background is almost always a bad idea

• Lots of internet tools will help you find appealing colour schemes.

• Don’t go mad with colour: try to keep it to a couple of basic colours and a few accents.

• You could use Cardiff University colours.

• Powerpoint etc. don’t display colours accurately. It might be worth printing out a test sample to make sure your dusky rose isn’t a screaming fuchsia, or vice versa.

Graphic elements and artwork

A repeating graphic motif organises some rather unexciting, small photographs

A few strong images may be better than a ‘stamp collection’ of many.

A large image attracts attention from across the room, and can give an idea of the subject

DON’T STRETCH IMAGES. If they aren’t big enough, they aren’t big enough.

Graphic elements and artwork 2

• Copyright considerations: – Find free or creative commons

images or use your own hi-res photographs (see resources).

– Some stock photography can be cheap enough to be worth considering.

– You could politely email a professional photographer and ask for permission to use her/his work.

• Captions– People are more likely to read

captions than body text. So make them interesting!

• Think laterally– If your project isn’t very visual,

you may be able to find an image that sums up a concept or idea.

Graphic elements and artwork 2

Graphic elements and artwork 2University & funder

logosDownload them from these links:

http://sites.cardiff.ac.uk/brandtoolkit/brand/logo/logo-file-download/http://www.esrc.ac.uk/about-esrc/visual-identity/

• The ones with the file extension .eps are correct for high-quality print. For the ESRC, use the one designated CMYK.

• Most institutions will have fairly strict guidelines about using their logo. These will be about positioning (i.e. how close it can be to other elements) minimum size and so on. You should check these.

Graphic elements and artwork 3

http://www.qrstuff.com/QR code

so that people can get a link to your blog or university profile page etc…or even supplementary media content, such as a Vimeo/Soundcloud file relevant to your research

Pulling it all together

Questions to ask yourself:• Is your poster clear, concise and readable?• How does it look from 10 feet away? (Try

zooming out and then walking away from your monitor)

• What impression will your reader get if they look at it for just TWO seconds?

• Does the reader know where to start reading?• Does the reader know how to contact you? • Are all logos from institutions and funders

present?

Being a little bit boring is a far lesser crime than being a complete mess.

Presenting ideas• It’s a good idea to take some

velcro tabs in case of disaster.• Get a cardboard tube to carry it• If you put a selfie on the poster,

people can find you for questions in a crowd

• Take some business cards and a few printouts of your articles

• Take a notepad/sign up sheet to get people’s details in case you run out or you need to get back to them – with a clip or envelope to keep hold of business cards

• If you have an ipad or similar and a stand, you could use it to display video/slideshows

• If the conference has a twitter hashtag, use it to tell attendees about your presentation.

• You could dress in the same colour-scheme as your poster.

• You should definitely wear comfortable shoes.

Resources• colinpurrington.com/tips/academic/

posterdesign– Includes very useful Powerpoint

Templates which can get you off to a quick start

• betterposters.blogspot.co.uk– Another blog about conference posters

• studentposters.co.uk– More templates

• search.creativecommons.org, commons.wikimedia.org, istockphoto.com, & sxc.hu

– Find free & cheap images to illustrate your presentations. Remember you need very large images.

• publicdomainreview.org, images.nga.gov, vintageprintable.com & freevintageposters.com

– Out of copyright artwork -- all kinds of retro images from propaganda posters to classical art to botanical sketches.

• informationisbeautiful.net & flickr.com/groups/great_diagrams_in_anthropological_theory

– Inspiration for diagrams• magspreads.net

– Graphic design site focussing on magazine layout

• pictaculous.com– Generate a colour scheme from an

image• kuler.adobe.com

– Design your own scheme using a colour wheel

– Check out other people’s colour schemes

• flickr.com/groups/pimpmyposter– Submit your poster for constructive

criticism, and check out other people’s work

• postergenius.com– Specific software for academic posters.

Simple to do, but designs are limited and it costs $69!

• presentationzen.com/chapter6_spread.pdf– Very short chapter on graphic design

• youtube.com/watch?v=GJwcVWszLC4– Tutorial on poster design in general (19

minutes)• youtube.com/watch?v=syo7_IfcFgU

– …in Publisher (13 minutes)• youtube.com/watch?v=MqgjgwIXadA

– …in Powerpoint (10 minutes) – would be good to use along with a template