Designing academic posters, part B.

Apart from simple posters announcing a lecture or presentation, more complex posters are sometimes required which sum up your work.

These can be displayed at conferences, in halls where other similar posters are set up. They are meant to complement lectures and publications, as a way of making people in your field aware of your research. These large-format designs have been compared to the trailers of films, which try to attract viewers. In practice, these posters have even less time than movie advertisements, since people walking by may only devote a matter of seconds, if that, to glancing at your work.

How to be bold.

You will need to make the subject and the way you deal with it as intriguing as possible for colleagues to pay any attention in the usual crowded and distracting atmosphere of a conference gathering. If you are shy and do not behave confidently in this kind of challenging public situation, remember that many actors are shy too. They take the occasion to portray a different character to be outgoing, assertive, and confident, all the qualities they do not have in real life. Similarly, when you are presenting your subject, you must present yourself as a bold researcher and not a student or ajarn plagued with doubts and worries about the value of what you have done. If you seem to rate your achievement at a low level, people who are busy will probably just agree with you and move on to the next poster.

Design your poster according to the conference.

While it may seem like an annoying amount of work to have to change a poster, once it is created, for each conference, if the attendees or purpose of gatherings change, then your poster should change with it. For example, if a colloquium is devoted to your field of study then you can assume most people who will be attending will know the specialized vocabulary of your research work. Yet if the conference is on a more general subject, you can no longer make that assumption and you must use general language that can be understood by all educated people.

Make things easy to read and see.

All too often, Thai students design things on a computer as if they are going to be seen close up on a computer screen instead of printed out and studied from some distance away. Keep in mind that your poster must be eye-catching. If you have time, look at one of the books on poster art in the TU Libraries collection to get an idea of what is possible:

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=496052

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=516991

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=600139

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=243541

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=143627

http://koha.library.tu.ac.th/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=169343

You are not expected to have cutting-edge graphic design techniques, but looking at some modern posters can give you an idea of how talented people attract viewers’ attention with a combination of letters, numbers, and images. You may be surprised at how many effective posters do not try to fill every inch available with information. By leaving some blank space, the data that is included becomes easier to read and understand. That means only putting in what is absolutely essential for realizing what you are trying to do. At conferences, you are often expected to stand next to your poster in a hall to explain things to passersby. This makes it easier to leave things out of the poster, since you will be able to add them verbally to people who care about your subject.

Use pictures intelligently.

If you add a table or figure to your poster, this usually means you can omit many words which would otherwise be needed to offer the same material. Then you can discuss the table or figure with fellow conference attendees. Also try to include a photo of yourself, since busy people at conferences may have trouble connecting people with their research. They may even forget your name, but if they know what you look like, they may be able to find you at a meal or reception if they want to discuss your work. One of the points of any conference is this kind of networking for advancement of mutual understanding in any subject. All too often people go to conferences, exchange business cards if they have them, and then never hear from the people again. Students sometimes have the habit of registering new names, email addresses, and the like on portable phones, but the little time you will have while meeting new colleagues should be devoted to discussion and not to typing on phones. It is best to use old-fashioned business cards, if you have them. Many university offices in the Kingdom do not provide business cards for faculty and certainly not for students, so people have to get them made for themselves. Be sure that you do so without any mistakes in English. I have been shown more than one business card by a Thai ajarn with basic errors in English, and after breaking the news to the card’s owner, it became clear that it would be necessary to pay for a whole new set of business cards to avoid passing along such bloopers to new professional acquaintances. If you are a graduate student, mention that on your card since if you just put your name and TU, some people may think you are an ajarn.

Be prepared.

If anyone does take an interest in your work, make sure to have copies of your research work available to hand out as well as your poster in a reduced scale on standard-sized paper. A bibliography or printed details about your research techniques, even including images if necessary, can complement your presentation. Include your own contact info on such handouts, and invite people to sign in with their own info on a visitor’s sheet. If someone challenges your work or your conclusions, be polite. They may be providing a real service, since any opposition to what you have done is good to learn about as soon as possible. Even if the critic is wrong and you are right, this reaction may prepare you for how to deal with future complaints, whether from a prospective editor or thesis committee. So cordially thank anyone who hates your work.

Practical details.

When you make a large-scale poster that you must travel with, it is easier to work with a group of small pieces that may be assembled into a large item. Otherwise you will have to carry a big clumsy thing onto airplanes or in trains, an experience best avoided. You can number the sections of your poster to make it easier to assemble the whole thing when you have arrived at the conference, and this can also make it easier for visitors to read in a logical sequence. When you choose a font for your brief title, make sure it can be seen from many feet away. The same is true for the text of your poster, which would never be less than 20 point type, and the title should be in considerably bigger type. Include the names of all authors of the work, fully spelled out. Some researchers only use a first initial in published research, but if you do this, visitors will not know what to call you. Make sure your first and last names are specified. Try not to be too adventurous with fonts, since the most popular fonts such as Times New Roman or Palatino are used for a reason: they are the most legible. For the same reason, although you may think wild colors may make your research look more exciting, stick to black and white as much as possible, for the simple reason that they are by far the most readable way to present information, especially from a distance. Your colleagues will spend a matter of seconds looking at what you have done, so whatever is not communicated in that time will probably not be communicated at all. Since you are representing TU and the Kingdom wherever you go, be sure to mention your faculty and anyone else who made your trip to the conference possible. This type of acknowledgment makes you look polite and gracious.

(all images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).