Poster Advice, Timeless and Otherwise

wearable_poster

Wearable posters, then and now: at a geology meeting in 2004 © Andrew Alden (left) and at ASM in 2014, by Holly Ganz (right).

With the annual meeting fast approaching, it’s time once again to start putting together your poster.

There are innumerable websites offering advice on poster design (my favorite being Dr. Zen’s“Better Posters”), but most essentials are covered in Steve Block’s 1996 classic “ Do’s and Don’ts of Poster Printing.”

Some advice definitely stands the test of time (and makes me wince at all my past transgressions).

“DON’T be an eager beaver and badger the nice people who come to read your poster.”

“DO give them some space. Allow them to drink it all in. If they engage you with a question, then that is your opening to offer to take them through the poster or discuss matters of mutual scientific interest.”

“DON’T write an overlong title. Save it for your abstract. Titles that use excess jargon are a bore. Titles with colons in them are a bore. Titles that are too cute are even more of a bore.”

Others, not so relevant:

“DO consider using some kind of attention-getting gimmick, but beware that it doesn’t backfire. Some posters employ a monitor on a cart and display videotape.”

“DO be a good scout, and come prepared to your poster, armed with reprints of any of your own relevant papers that you might have… Have ready some business cards, or slips of paper you can use to provide colleagues with your address (or fax number or e-mail address or whatever).” (Instead grab your free Quartzy networking cards at the meeting that have your name, abstract, and the time and location of your poster presentation!)

“DO start putting your poster together early… Pre-cut some posterboard pieces. Make up any graphics [soon] …because the color PostScript printer queue may be jammed with jobs from all of your colleagues. Buy a can of spray mount (artist’s adhesive) so you can dry mount all of the poster segments.”

Here are some helpful tips that appeared on the COMPASS blog last year:

How to Print a Fabric Poster

How to Put Your Poster in the Cloud

How to Use Prezi to Make a Dynamic ePoster Talk

Six Uses for Old Posters

About the Author:


Jessica Polka is director of ASAPbio, a biologist-driven nonprofit working to improve life sciences communication. She is also a visiting scholar at the Whitehead Institute and a member of ASCB's public policy committee.