Poster Design Guidelines and Resources for Symposium of Undergraduate Research and Public Service (SURPS) Presenters

Research Projects and Poster Sessions

Posters and displays are specialized communications that demand careful planning and design to assure that your audience will understand your project and results.

As a SURPS presenter, you will have a unique opportunity to combine visual and oral explanations of your project. The images and text that you choose can draw your audience to learn more through one-on-one or small group conversations. Ultimately these conversations should become both a more relaxed and a more intensive form of oral presentation than the traditional conference paper presentation.

Posters and displays allow for multiple customized conversations in which you will need to tailor your explanation to the level and interests of each interlocutor. This allows you to receive focused feedback, comments and ideas that may contribute to future progress on your project.

SURPS Poster Guidelines

Instructions for setting up your Powerpoint poster file and getting it printed (PDF)
Dimensions: maximum of 36 inches by 42 inches.
Mounting: You may tack your poster up to the provided backing boards. Mounting on foamcore is not a requirement and not recommended for SURPS.
Best Practices in Planning and Design: No matter what the discipline or stage of the research process is being presented, an effective poster fulfills the following:
- Is attractive
- Well-organized
- Self-explanatory
- Careful in linking text and imagery
- Appropriate to the audience at hand

Steps for Composing an Effective Poster

Follow the five steps below when you design your poster and you'll likely to achieve all of the characteristics of effective posters.

Step 1: Determine the single most important message of your poster by asking: If my viewer carries away one idea, what do I want it to be? Or, what is the big, take-home message that I want to convey?
The answer will be the central theme that determines your entire poster design. It should be clearly expressed in the title (which should be the largest piece of text on the poster, readable from at least five feet away). It should be supported in every element that you decide to include in the poster design.

Step 2: Decide the major sections of information that you will include to support your main point and organize these into a logical flow of information.

Effective research posters include the following sections:

A statement of the problem or question investigated

A description of the method used (if relevant)

Results or conclusions

If this is a work in progress, next steps or future directions

Effective public service posters include the following sections:

Social problem or community need addressed

How you addressed it through your summer service work

Future directions for the work (for you or the organization)

Connections between your service and future academic and / or career plans

You should adapt these section categories according to your project, method and stage. The important point is that your information be divided into chunks and blocks. Then it can be organized into a self-explanatory, logical progression that someone can understand, even in your absence.

Think carefully about your audience as you compose your text. The SURPS audience will be multi-disciplinary and well-educated, but not necessarily specialists in your field. Finally, keep in mind that you can only make a limited number of points in the space of your poster; often, less is more.

Step 3: Select images and graphics that are closely tied to your major points. A clear reason for each image should be apparent and each image should be tied to the text.
Avoid cluttering the poster with too many images. If the connection between an image and one of your main points is not immediately clear, don't include it just for visual appeal. At the same time, be sure that your poster is not too text-heavy and unappealing or overwhelming. Aim for balance between text and graphics.

Step 4: Experiment with layout and presentation. Move things around before gluing them down. Decide on a layout that best fits the above five characteristics. Keep in mind the following design basics:

White space (the area not covered with text or graphics): Not too much (or the viewer's eye will wander). Not too little (or you'll confuse and overwhelm your viewer).

Fonts: 18 point to 24 point minimum font size. Use no more than three or four text fonts. Avoid all-capital letters, except in titles.

Color: Background should be a solid color, not a pattern. Avoid juxtaposing colors that clash or fade each other out. Avoid using too many colors. Use more intense colors only as borders or for emphasis, but be conservative. Overuse of color is distracting.

Cropping, Margins and Spacing: All edges and margins should be straight and even. Use a ruler and razor knife. Don't overcrowd space and be attentive to balance from top to bottom and from the side margins. Organize your elements into columns (rather than book-style, left-to-right page layout).

Step 5: Do a final edit of text, graphics and the links between the two to assure that your poster meets the above five characteristics.

Tips for Posters in the Humanities

Humanities research is increasingly presented through posters and other visual displays. But many students may still be unfamiliar with such presentations. So we would like to offer a few tips for students working on projects in history, literary studies, philosophy and other disciplines in the humanities.

A poster cannot possibly be comprehensive, but you will be standing by your display. So you have the opportunity to talk, display a website on a laptop computer, offer printed handouts and further explain your research in other ways. A poster should therefore be evocative, even provocative, and can employ symbolic imagery — all in order to intrigue and attract your audience.

You need to determine a hierarchy of information so as to foreground the most crucial elements of your project. Set less important information in the background (or edit it out entirely). The most important or most intriguing element can become your poster’s visual focal point.

You can use all sorts of visual elements, including photographs and other graphics. Text can also be an exciting element of a visual presentation: words can be enlarged or artfully arranged, for example.

However, the temptation is often to overload the poster with explanatory text; that urge needs to be resisted. Remember, once again, that the poster attracts people to your project but cannot represent the project in its entirety. You will have many opportunities to expand upon the display as people come to view your work.

One possibility is to design your project to incorporate hands-on, interactive components, encouraging viewers to actively get involved in your quest for knowledge or creative expression. Finally, try thinking about your poster as telling the story of your project. The more effort you put into making it clear, easy-to-follow, succinct and visually engaging, the more genuine interest and positive feedback you’ll get from viewers!

SURPS Plotter-Printing Guidelines

Printing your poster
All SURPS presenters are eligible to use the VPUE plotter to print out posters. A plotter is a large-scale printer that can produce a full-sized poster on one large piece of paper.

PowerPoint files are strongly encouraged. Other file types will not have priority in the print queue.
To print on the VPUE plotter, email your file to undergradresearchposters@gmail.com and then come back to Sweet Hall to pick up your poster when it is ready.
Do not leave the printing of your poster until the last minute! The printing process may take as long as 45 minutes depending on the complexity of the file. Keep in mind that many other SURPS participants will need to print their posters as well.
It is also highly recommended that you have someone else take a look at your poster to help you check it for mistakes.

Preparing Files for Printing on the Plotter

Design your poster as a slide in PowerPoint, and save the file as a .ppt file. To do this, create a new slide show and add a new slide by choosing “New Slide” from the “Insert” menu. To change the dimensions of this slide to poster size, select “Page Setup” from the “File” Menu. Then change the width and height to 36 inches and 42 inches. Your slide can be 42 inches high and 36 inches wide or vice versa.
The computer connected to the plotter is a PC. If you are working on a Mac, check your file on a PC before submitting to ensure your fonts and images appear correctly.
If your file contains special fonts, submit those as well. PowerPoint does not automatically embed fonts in files. If you don't send them, substitute fonts may be used instead.
Before printing, double and triple check your file for errors such as spelling mistakes or overlapping images.
File size should not exceed 5 megabytes!

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