Effective Poster Presentations
George R. Hess
Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources
North Carolina State UniversityRaleigh, North Carolina 27695-8002 USA
What is a poster? A visual communication tool
An effective poster will help you …
… engage colleagues in conversation.
What is a poster? A visual communication tool
An effective poster will help you …
… get your main point across to as many people as possible.
Comment on posters Take 10 minutes to look
Note your impressions of the posters
List likes and dislikes
Your thoughts will shape discussion
An effective poster …
delivers a clear message,
is highly visual, and
is easily read from 1-2 meters away.
Know your audience
Specialists only
Wide-ranging discipline
Very general audience
Layout
Headings identify key sections
Balance placement of text & graphics
Use white space creatively
Don’t fight “reader gravity”
Use a column format
Text Keep text elements short
Use phrases and active voice
Use serif font for text
San-serif font OK for title & headings
Graphs
Graphs communicate relationships
Keep them simple and clean
Avoid 3D graphs unless you’re showing 3D data - and then be careful
Summary
Poster = visual communication
An effective poster will help you …
… engage colleagues in conversation …
… get your main point across to as many people as possible.
An effective poster … delivers a clear message,
is highly visual, and
is easily read from 1-2 meters away.
Acknowledgements
“Thanks!” to students in my poster classes, for letting me use their work as examples
“Thanks!” to people who commented on poster site – they have really improved it!
Contact Information
George Hess Department of Forestry &
Environmental ResourcesNorth Carolina State UniversityRaleigh NC 27695-8002 USA
[email protected]/~grhesswww.ncsu.edu/project/posters/
USA 919.515.7437