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

george_hess@ncsu.eduwww4.ncsu.edu/~grhesswww.ncsu.edu/project/posters/

USA 919.515.7437