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Creating an Academic Poster

A man presenting a poster

Written by: Katherine Watson

Posters are an engaging and accessible way to communicate academic research. You may be asked to create a poster during your studies. This article covers some top tips for planning and executing a high-quality poster!

Content:

  1. Consider what you will cover in your poster. Is it a pitch for a research topic? Or a summary of research conducted? It makes sense to structure your poster according to sub-headings that would be included in a longer piece of work. Likely, your poster will include an introduction or abstract, a background or literature, methods, results or expected outcomes, and a discussion or conclusion.
  2. Keep it succinct. Your poster should be easy to scan through and understand in under 5 minutes. Make sure to devise a specific message for readers to take away and convey this clearly and concisely throughout. In addition to sub-headings, you may use bullet points where relevant. Keep sentences to under 20 words and paragraphs under 100 words.
  3. Make it accessible. Academic research can be complicated, and long written pieces convoluted. Posters are an opportunity to make research accessible, engaging and exciting to non-expert audiences. Use a snappy title and include images and diagrams. Avoid jargon where possible and be sure to explain technical terms. In each paragraph, communicate the overriding message in the first sentence or two. A reader should be able to gain the overall message of your poster by skimming through the first sentences of each section!
  4. Reference. A poster provides greater scope for creativity and informality than an essay, but your research must be supported with references and concrete examples. Clearly label your figures and include a bibliography too.
  5. Name, institution and contact details. Insert your full name, email address and academic institution in a clear position. This is good practice for presenting a poster publicly where your readers should be able to easily contact you for more information.
A person sketch designing an academic poster

Design:

  1. Portrait or landscape? Either can work. Decide what works best for you; the advice below pertains to both.
  2. Draw your reader in. A well selected colour scheme will make your poster stand out. Bright colours are great but avoid those that clash. Using a colour wheel (easy to find online) can guide you on complementary colours. Consider how accessible your colour choice is for those with visual impairments. For example, avoid red font on green background or vice versa.
  3. Keep your reader’s attention. Don’t overwhelm your poster with content, whether that be text or images! The word count is flexible; some would advise to limit to 1,000 words (in the case of an A1 poster), but you might go for less if your poster will be printed A2 or A3. Use several images, diagrams, or maps to break up the text.
  4. Easy to read. When printed, a poster should be readable at 1-2 meters away. Keep the text in the main body of the post to a minimum of 24pt and use an easy-to-read typeface such as Arial, Georgia, Helvetica or Open Sans.
  5. Compositionally balanced and comprehensible arrangement. Make use of the entire page and arrange your content according to visual hierarchy. It makes sense to position your title at the top or top left as this is where the readers’ eyes will likely be drawn first. You are welcome to think “outside of the box” with your arrangement, but it is a sensible idea to locate successive sections so that your reader can follow them from left to right and from the top downwards. Following this logic, your conclusions would be in the bottom right corner.
  6. Draw attention to key information. Make use of bold or italics to draw attention to key information and use colour or larger fonts to highlight whole sections.
  7. Final touches. Chose high quality and resolution over those that are pixelated or blurry. Proofread for grammar and spelling.
A Chinese take away box

Take-away points:

  • Devise a clear “take-home” message: keep it consistent
  • Include meaningful headings, captions, images or diagrams
  • Summarise any complex concepts or datasets
  • Be creative and experiment with colour and layout
  • Remember your audience