Research Posters: Turning Drab into Fab

We’ve seen them…we’ve made them…and we’ve walked right past them…Research Posters.

The purpose of a research poster is to visually represent the general overview, data, and most relevant findings of a research project. When preparing to design your poster you’ve likely taken your thoughtful research or well-drafted manuscript and you’ve widdled it down to the bare bones with just a few remaining sentences; next you probably chopped those sentences into bullet points and then plopped those well-crafted statements into a sterile three-or-four column template, adorned with some sort of chart, cladly themed in the university colors.

We’ve been using the same academic research poster templates for the last three decades. Why?

Science has advanced tremendously since the 90’s, why hasn’t research poster design?

In this session, we will:

• discuss research poster basics
• critique traditional poster design
• apply updated design techniques
• recognize better poster design 2.0
• explain where to go for help