Making an effective poster

Creating an effective poster is part art and part understanding the purpose of your poster. Tell a story with your poster and be prepared to have a 2-minute “elevator conversation” telling that story ready to give meeting attendees. This is your chance to highlight your work and get constructive feedback from famous scientists interested in your work! It is important to make your poster look attractive (i.e., not filled with text or data tables) and make it easy to read (can someone actually read the text from 3 feet away?).

The format
Create a 6’ x 3’ (poster sizes vary) landscape layout template in Adobe Illustrator or PowerPoint (check physical limitations on the maximum poster size that can be plotted and how much space you will be allotted at the conference – often a maximum of 36” height on plotters, sometimes you will be allowed as much as an 8’-wide poster).


The different elements of a poster
Use layers in Illustrator to make making changes to your poster less problematic. Create a layer (a box) to fill that template and lock that layer; you can choose a background color or gradient later. In a new layer, place the title of your paper (abstract) prominently at the top of the poster board to allow viewers to identify your paper easily. Include 1) the title, 2) the author(s) names, and 3) their affiliations (addresses) centered underneath. The title should be the largest type size (a minimum of 72 point type, and perhaps as much as 120 point type depending on the font), but also highlight the authors' names and address information in decreasing font sizes in case the viewer is interested in contacting you for more information. Lock that layer. Create white boxes on which you will group text and figures of related content. Put your text and figures in yet another layer on top of those boxes.


Legibility and sizing of the different elements
Prepare all figures neatly and legibly beforehand in a size sufficient to be read at a distance of 2 meters. Be sure that text and figures pulled from a .pdf, for example, will be legible and of a high resolution when printed at the final size of the poster. Paragraph and figure caption text should be at least 24 point font (0.9 cm height) and headers at least 36 point font (1.2 cm height). Use creativity by using different font sizes and styles, perhaps even color (keep in mind some people are color-blind and have a difficult time distinguishing reds and greens – opt for dark oranges and blue-green hues instead). A serif font (e.g., Times, Helvetica, Palantino) is often easier for reading the main text, and a sans-serif font (e.g., Arial, Geneva, Verdana, Tahoma, Lucidia Sans) for titles, headers, and figure labels. Left-aligned text may be easier to read than justified text.

Organize the paper on the poster board so that it is clear, orderly, and self-explanatory. You have complete freedom in displaying your information in figures, tables, text, photographs, etc. The presentation should cover the same material as the abstract. Use squares, rectangles, circles, etc. to group like ideas (the “white boxes” described above). Don't clutter your poster with too much text and keep data tables to a minimum! Include at least the text of your abstract, captions for all figures, a short geologic background, a summary of results (even prior results) and conclusions, references, and acknowledgments (any funding that supported your work, anyone who helped with analyses or field work who is not an author on your poster, etc.).


Ready to plot?
You should print your poster out on 11” x 17” paper before heading to the plotter to check for mistakes, problems with fonts or special characters, etc. When you’re ready to plot, save the file as a pdf and format the page in Adobe Acrobat to equal the size and orientation of the actual poster.

There are more suggestions at http://www.aapg.org/meetings/instructions/guide.html, but keep in mind this was written before it was common to print out a poster on a large-format plotter…