Creating a Poster

Posters are one way to present your work. We can print large, color posters (several feet in each dimension).

In general, your poster should include

• Names of collaborators and their affiliations
• Sponsor of project
• Web site for more information, as appropriate
• Background/motivation
• Problem you're solving
• Your approach
• Results
• Future Work

Use pictures, figures, and graphs to explain your work. (You know the old adage: a picture is worth a thousand words.) Use text sparingly.

Venn Diagram of What People Want To See

1. Create an outline of your poster's content, including the problem you're solving, your approach, and your results. You can't present very much in a poster, so make sure that your problem is focused. Discuss your outline with you mentor/advisor.
   • In later iterations (after you're more sure about the content), you could create a PowerPoint presentation, where each “section” is a PowerPoint slide. When it comes time to create the poster, you'll copy the slides' contents onto the poster.
2. Create a layout design for your poster based on the story you want to tell. Discuss layout with your mentor/advisor.
   • Make sure the layout flows well and that you're allotting appropriate space for each part, i.e., give the most space to the parts you want the audience to focus on.
   • You can develop your poster on a large screen, e.g., in Library M47 to see what the poster will look like in the larger size.
3. Add the content (from the first step) to the poster. Adjust the layout as necessary.
4. Iterate over the content and the layout. The poster will evolve as you fine-tune what you want to present.
5. Print the poster, scaled to fit on an 8.5“x11” piece of paper to help you proofread.
6. Print the poster.

• W&L Graphic Standards
• How to Make a Poster
• Advice on Designing Scientific Posters
• Poster templates

Here is a poster template. Use your creativity!

We use 24“x36” dimensions for our posters so that the posters fit in the frames that we can purchase easily.

We use PowerPoint or OpenOffice to create a poster. The paper on the printer is 3 feet wide, so you should make the width of the poster 3 feet and the height 2 feet. You can usually do this in the “Page Setup” or similar menu.

The cost is $15 per poster for students and $25 for departments/faculty/staff.

Poster Printing information

• Use sans-serif fonts, such as Arial, Helvetica, and Tahoma
• Use at least 16 point font size
• For a conference, you may want to print your poster on 8.5”x11” handouts as publicity.
• Buy a poster tube for easier transportation.