Designing Posters

A research poster summarizes key information from your research to share with others. This research can be showcased with text, charts & graphs, images, and other engaging visuals - the poster can even exist as a digital object for your audience to take in or interact with virtually.

Many academic conferences have poster sessions, during which audience members circulate throughout the room and poster presenters stand next to their posters to showcase their research and answer in-depth questions .

Poster sessions are an important part of the Guilford Undergraduate Symposium (GUS), an event regularly held in the spring during which the Guilford community comes together to share research, creative endeavors, service learning projects, and more.

Image source: Michael Crouch. GUS 2017. Retrieved from Artstor.

Here are some general rules for good poster design:

• Make sure your poster is legible for your audience: pay attention to color contrast of text and background, and use a large enough font so your audience can read your words. It is recommended that you use no smaller than 24-point font for body text, and 50+ point font for titles. 
• Don't make your poster too wordy text-heavy! Rely on images, visuals, charts, graphs, and the like to convey information - and use bullets, numbers, and headings to organize your words across the poster.
• Make sure your design is consistent: use a consistent color scheme, set of fonts, etc.
• Double-check your poster before printing to make sure colors, images, etc. show up as you want them to.
• Create a poster that invites your audience in, and reflects you & your work.
  • There is a movement to create "better" research posters that upends the traditional layout and communicates findings more quickly. See more in the video at left, or in this article.

And here are some resources to learn more about poster design:

And here are a few things to keep in mind when working on designing a poster, whether it is for a class or to present at GUS:

• Make sure your poster's digital file is sized correctly: before you begin, you need to adjust the page layout so that it is 3 by 4 feet (36 by 48 inches). This sizing must be done manually: most tools don't automatically scale up your content to be poster-size.
• Remember that small images may not resize well, and may look pixelated when blown up for a poster. Always check your poster in close-up (lifesize, 100%) view before printing.
• When planning your poster, don't forget to allow time for printing. Posters must be submitted at least 48 hours in advance of pick up time, and during high-demand times like the end of the semester and GUS, additional time may be required.

The following are some tools that could be used in poster creation:

Through Hoonuit (formerly known as Atomic Learning), there are tutorials available to help you learn how to use some of the tools listed above, and to help you with poster design & graphic design in general. You can log in to Hoonuit with your Guilford username and password. Please put in a Web Help Desk ticket if you experience any issues.