Keys to a Successful Poster

© Martha J. Bianco, Ph.D.

Design Elements

Size Issues

• Poster board should be either at least a standard 27" by 29"  regular foam or trifold foam board.
• The poster must be legible from a distance of four feet away.
• Use 32-point for capital and lowercase mixed and 24-point for words in ALL CAPS.

Font

Sans serif font (such as Arial) works best for titles and large print.	Serif font (such as Times New Roman) works best for close-up reading and for web site references.

Color Issues

· Poster board. Contrasting colors seem to work well. Black poster board, for example, with text boxes that have black lettering on white paper, is attractive. Other dark colors that work well for the poster board are forest green and charcoal gray. In part, your color scheme might be dictated by the subject matter of your poster. For example, if you’re focusing on a watershed issue, you might want to use a navy blue poster board, while forest green might be appropriate for an issue related to trees.

· Font color. On white paper, fonts should in general be black. Use colored font sparingly and only to make a specific point or to help navigate the reader through the poster.

· Text paper. Paper on which the text is typed should in general be white. It is, however, very effective to provide a colored border around the text box (see above). A wide 1-inch colored border can be very effective, particularly if you have selected to use a white poster board.

So, in general you have a white or dark poster board, white text boxes – possibly with colored borders – and simple black text. Now, how to add other color to your poster to make it stand out?

· Photographs 

o Color glossies work best

o Use a slow shutter speed to capture movement (e.g., speeding traffic)

· Arrows and borders to help guide the reader through the poster (e.g., a dashed yellow line on a black poster board makes for an effective line to link themes related to traffic issues)

Layout Issues

This is the trickiest part of the poster. It is very challenging to create a poster through which a reader will be able to navigate with ease. And it must be easy! A difficult-to-read poster will only frustrate a reader. Here are some hints:

• Be sure your poster has a title, preferably in the top center. The title of the poster should be large. Your name, class, date, etc., can be placed below the title in a smaller font.
• Have a clearly identified, logical “beginning place” such as in the upper left-hand corner. Identify this beginning place with a clear title in large font, something like “Introduction.”
• It will not be intuitively clear to most readers where to go next: should they move to the panel to the right of or to the panel below the Introduction? Here is where it is helpful to use arrows and/or lines or make the transition obvious by arranging text boxes and photos in a downward staircase fashion. Most American audiences will always read in a left-to-right, top-to-bottom fashion. If you provide this, their job is easy. If you defy this, their job is difficult!
• Alternate between photos and text. Too much text can be frustrating, boring, and challenging – no matter how crucial you think it is
• Keep your text short and to the point. Eliminate unnecessary words; short bulleted phrases are easier to read than grammatically correct, long sentences.
• Each bulleted phrase should be a one-liner. This is challenging, but usually possible!

Other Important Issues

• Proofread. No typos, punctuation errors, misspellings, etc., allowed!
• Do not forget your name!
• All photos and other illustrations should include a caption and the source.
• Keep things simple and sparse.
• Your final panel should include sources and references. The font here can be small; you just want to make sure your work is documented.