Designing

Conference Posters
Design is about making choices
and delivering messages.
Choices are made through the
modes of writing, layout,
colour and image.

What in this environment, with this kind of audience, with the resources
I have, is the best way of shaping that which I wish to make?

As designer I am the navigator!

I endeavour to provide a safe
and clear reading journey!

= Reading line.

TIPS!
STRUCTURE (LAYOUT)

Decide on your hierarchy of information,

then top to bottom and left to
right - arrange it.
Think about relationships between
image and text and if they are relevant
Are you happy with your reading line?
Stuck?
3 (Is the magic number)
The rule of thirds is another golden rule
of design. The design of nature can be seen as
a golden ratio of 1:3, so many designers
divide their layouts into 3 sections to begin
with as this is more pleasing to the eye.
Try splitting your poster up into thirds
horizontally and vertically, and then thirds
within these thirds and so on - maintaining
the ratio. This is a fail safe way to organise
your layout.

CLARITY

Keep a consistent style - our brain searches for

patterns and understands what we see through
these patterns, so be consistent with the rules you
create - not only will this help the viewer but it
will make your poster look more professional.
Similar treatments denote a relationship.
EG: All my section titles are size 40, the same
shade of blue and in Arial, all the space around
all my sections is 2cm and I use the same think
black border around all my pictures.
Legibility - Use contrast and clean fonts.
Sans serif for the header/s and serif for body text.
Leading (space between lines) generally should
be 2px more than your font size.
Test print, the colour on the screen and the
colours which are printed appear differently,
you will never truly be able to judge what your
poster looks like colour, quality and contrast wise
until you print it.

CREATIVITY

Attract attention - be creative but make sure

its relevant and positive attention.

SPACE

Allow space around objects to

assist comprehension.
Aim for less than 800 words,
a poster is not a manuscript.
If theres anything you second guessed trust
your intuition and resolve it, if something is
unnecessary - delete it. Less is more!
Average line length should be no more than
40 characters long, the further away the eye
gets from the vertical axis, the harder it is
to read.
Stand back and look at your poster - think
about weight and areas of density vs. space.

Use Juxtaposition to create WOW points EG one patch of yellow, or a circle breaking
a square.
Involve the viewer by asking questions,
creating dynamics and using examples.
Employ the use of a visual metaphore that
compliments your reserach.

OTHER

Form before function your poster design is the

vessel for your research, so your content should
always come first and determine your aesthetics.
Do not ever try to fit your content into a
pre-established design/template.
Evaluate - get as much feed back as you can
from peers or teachers.

TIPS!
Design is driven by the end user, keep in mind
the time factor involved in reading your poster.
(The average attention span of an adult is 8 minutes,
you want to hold their attention as long as possible)

Make your poster beautiful by

remembering K.I.S.S. (Keep It
Simple, Stupid!) Simplicity is
the key goal in design.

Trust your intuition! We are bombarded by visual

information on a daily basis, and have naturally
learnt how to decode it. Think about what
catches your eye and why.

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..and a design line !

END

But what about the tech stuff?!

WHAT SOFTWARE DO I USE?

Fear not! There is a number of software options available from Powerpoint to

more advanced options like Illustrator or even the free program Inkscape.

Its really up to you how much time, energy and training you want to put in,
or how tech savvy you strive to be. At the end of the day you can design just
as good of a poster in Powerpoint as you could in a more advanced graphics
program - the key is using the design principals and planning out your poster
before you get to the technical implementation. Make the programme work
for you, use it as a tool.

RESOLUTION AND COLOUR MODES?

Screen and print have different resolutions and colours, being different environments you have to
make sure your poster can translate to print. To achieve this you need to be working at 300DPI and in
CMYK colour mode. If your poster comes out pixelated or just looks crappy - something has gone
wrong with your resolution, most likely of your images.

WHERE CAN I GET COPYRIGHT FREE IMAGES?

Flickr Creative commons: https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

Icons: http://thenounproject.com/
Vectors (resolution independent images): http://www.vecteezy.com/ and http://www.vectoropenstock.com/

Further help
A good poster cant make up
for bad research, but a bad
poster can make good
research hard to recognise.

Contact me @galahesson (twitter)

Community:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/postersessions/
(Be critical as there are a lot of terrible poster
designs on there - decide what you like and
dont like about them)

Creator/rights holder:
designbuzz.otago.ac.nz