Alternative scientific poster designs
May 22, 2015 12:17 PM Subscribe
I'm presenting a poster at a scientific conference. I'm an old hat at this, but am tiring of the boilerplate designs that we all use. Can you point me to more minimalistic, aesthetically pleasing scientific posters?
This particular presentation is on the casual side, and I have other props as well, so it might be an opportunity to experiment with cleaner, modern designs. I would like to have the usual hypothesis, methodology, results, etc. info on the poster (4ft by 3ft), but just the basics, and not much text. The emphasis should be on the content, of course -- templates that sacrifice clarity for aesthetics won't work. I'm not very good at coming up with original ideas from scratch, but poking around a few templates can get me started.
This particular presentation is on the casual side, and I have other props as well, so it might be an opportunity to experiment with cleaner, modern designs. I would like to have the usual hypothesis, methodology, results, etc. info on the poster (4ft by 3ft), but just the basics, and not much text. The emphasis should be on the content, of course -- templates that sacrifice clarity for aesthetics won't work. I'm not very good at coming up with original ideas from scratch, but poking around a few templates can get me started.
I like Karolinska Institutet's template, personally. From an informatics standpoint, I think it strikes a good balance in what a poster's structure should allow for without being boring. The three-column layout is clean, simple, and it reads from left to right without requiring viewers to be given an explicit set of instructions on how to read the poster. There is space to add large eye-catching figures or photos in the lower-left corner below the abstract — a good spot for presenting the data that is most directly relevant to the abstract printed above, as there is clear directionality from the abstract to the graphic space below. The text space in the right 2/3rds forces one to be succinct and only put in what needs to be said, for the benefit of those who want more detail than what is provided in abstract and core figures.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 12:44 PM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by a lungful of dragon at 12:44 PM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
I direct you to the Better Posters blog.
posted by quaking fajita at 12:44 PM on May 22, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by quaking fajita at 12:44 PM on May 22, 2015 [4 favorites]
Colin Purrington has some good tips and an example of what not to do (5 MB pdf).
posted by lukemeister at 12:53 PM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by lukemeister at 12:53 PM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
A grab bag of templates and advice:
Colin Purrington
Nathaniel Johnston
Better Posters
Make award winning posters
Fabric Conference Posters FTW
posted by zamboni at 12:56 PM on May 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
Colin Purrington
Nathaniel Johnston
Better Posters
Make award winning posters
Fabric Conference Posters FTW
posted by zamboni at 12:56 PM on May 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
I designed a lovely, simple, easily-personalized template that I have used for two medical conference poster presentations. I'd be happy to send it to you for your perusal - memail if interested.
posted by honeybee413 at 5:20 PM on May 23, 2015
posted by honeybee413 at 5:20 PM on May 23, 2015
Are you required to create the poster yourself? (I am unfamiliar with the academic requirements for these presentations in the sciences.) If not, just hire a graphic designer - someone with that kind of skill can take this further "outside of the box" than you'll be able to on your own.
posted by Kalatraz at 3:44 PM on May 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Kalatraz at 3:44 PM on May 24, 2015 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:33 PM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]