Creating academic posters for teaching and research.

Louise Taylor

19th Sept 2013

What is an academic poster?

• A visual means of presenting research and promoting discussion.

• More traditionally used in the science disciplines but increasingly being used in Law.

• For some examples (good and bad) click here.

• What its not – a journal article printed on A1 paper and stuck on a wall!

Benefits for teaching and research

Teaching:• Visual means of

explaining research simply.

• Opens up discussion around a research area.

• Can be used as formative or summative assessment.

• Helps bridge the teaching / research nexus.

Research:• Visual means of

explaining research simply.

• Opens up discussion around a research area.

• Can evidence research activity at an intermediary stage.

• Allows for conference attendance without pressure of presenting.

What are the basics?

• Usually A1 size (portrait or landscape) printed and laminated.

• Includes:– Introduction - Conclusions– Methodology - References– Findings / Results - Acknowledgements

• Ideally includes less than 500 words and incorporates images / graphs.

How to create a poster

• Get the content right – research your subject area.

• Think less is more where word count is concerned.

• Be consistent in your use of type size / font / colour for headings and text boxes.

• Spend time designing your layout on paper before working on PC.

Useful tools in PowerPoint.

• Grids and guides – On the ‘view’ tab go to ‘gridlines and guides’ and click on the small arrow in the bottom right hand side of the box. Make sure the following are checked:– ‘snap objects to grid’– ‘display grid on screen’

– ‘display drawing guides on screen’

Useful tools in PowerPoint.

• Ordering of images/text – Right click on the textbox/image and choose ‘send to back’ or ‘bring to front’ in order to layer items.

• Resizing images – Be caution when doing this or you may distort your image. Click on your image and in the ‘format’ tab go to ‘size’ and click on small arrow in right hand bottom corner. Make sure ‘lock aspect ratio’ and ‘relative to original picture size’ boxes are checked.

Useful tools in PowerPoint.

• Background images and watermarks – select an image, place in your slide and resize as desired. – To have the image as a background re-order

image as per previous slide.– To have the image as a watermark click on

image and go to ‘format picture’ then ‘colour’. This provides a range of effects.

Other advice

• Save file as a pdf and ‘embed fonts’ in order that your fonts and colours are not corrupted when you send your poster to print.

• Print out poster in colour in A3 size (colour printer in Psychology dept) before having it professionally printed in order to check for mistakes.

• Speak to Printshop about timings – at quiet times your poster can usually be printed while you wait (£10 for A1 colour poster + additional time and cost for lamination).

Some useful websites:

• www.colinpurrington.com/tips/academicposterdesign– Blog with a useful section on academic posters and

some templates.

• www.connect.le.ac.uk/posters– Really good online tutorial from the University of

Leicester on things to think about when creating posters.

• www.flickr.com– Online photo sharing website where you can find

useful images.