2. Posters

3. Focus on main points u Don’t use a smaller font to cram more stuff onto the poster. u Cull the most essential information from everything you have. That is what goes onto the poster. If it’s still too much, cut some more.

4. Posters must be coherent u A poster is coherent when – It’s easy for your audience to move from one topic discussed on your poster to another –It’s easy to see the relationships between topics u Poster coherence depends on visual connections, not textual connections

5. Posters are a visual medium u Posters almost always need visuals. –Make them the an effective size relative to their communication ability u Don’t minimize the visuals to fit more text onto the poster

6. Visuals must communicate u Clipart for the sake of an image is bad u Images for the sake of an image is bad

7. Make the poster readable u Never go below 24 points. –Yes, this will look huge on your monitor u It must be readable from 10 feet away. Easily readable….not a squint and work at it

8. 11 seconds u 11 seconds is how long you have to grab a person attention. u If the poster fails inside that 11 seconds, they don’t read it.

9. Use a consistent design u Don’t create a ransom note effect of fonts and colors u Normal page layout rules apply u Any color must have meaning. Don’t change colors for various areas without a good communication reason….adding visual interest isn’t one.

10. Use normal fonts u Don’t get fancy with font choice u Use regular mixed case –Not all caps –Not centered text

11. Simplify the image u People will look at a printed image longer than a poster image u Simplify the figure as much as possible. But not so much that the message is lost.

12. Clean margins u The margins give you a border. Posters are not gothic artwork, don’t over do the border u Use a clean margin without figures or text extending into them

13. Make the important stuff visible u The most important message on a poster should be placed in the top center. u The second most important message is top left.

14. Use columns u Posters are too wide for a single column. –Too much head movement is required. u Columns allow readers to read the entire poster as they precede from left to right.

15. Avoid web graphics u Web graphics are low resolution (96 dpi) and will not blow up to poster size well. u The jagged edges and pixelated appearance are both unprofessional

23. End