Getting Involved

Backstage...Workshop coordinator. Finding and organising the

volunteers, making a timetable. Follow up with teachers,

museums etc… Writing a final report to the

funding body. Proofreading and editing of

grant proposals, posters, booklets, etc...

Backstage... Planning and working behind the

scenes. - setting up and clearing up of

exhibition, school visit, etc... Time keepers Getting exhibits from and back to

other Departments or Institutes e.g. Zoology Museum, British Museum

Designing Posters Design flair - Producing visual/audio aids. Podcasts, blogs, websites. Forget what you already know. Academic

posters for meetings and conferences are text heavy and leaden with academic jargon. You need to think very differently if you want to communicate with the public.

Think about what you want to do. Do you want to develop a large, interactive, modular stand? Or maybe you would prefer simple, mounted posters. Is it a travelling exhibition? If so, portable, pop up banner stands may be appropriate. All of these decisions will have cost and time implications.

Designing Posters Think poster/ exhibition

not book. If you want to tell a linear story with lots of text – put it in a book! 

People will engage with exhibitions in different ways and may read your conclusion before your introduction. So make sure every part of the exhibition speaks for itself.

www.edwardross.co.uk

What can it be used for...?

To advertise, or create momentum, for further engagement activity.

To engage hard to reach groups who might be unlikely to attend a public event. (Particularly if your exhibition takes place in a generic venue such as a supermarket, museum or roadside).

To raise awareness among wider audiences– if you are hosting a long-term or permanent exhibition, you will be able to reach significantly higher numbers of people. 

National Schemes to Engage the Public I’m a Scientist, Get me out of Here. Researcher in Residence. Famelab. British Science Association Media Fellowships. STEM Ambassador.

West End Festival

Meet the expert days at the Science Centre

Ways to get involved

Jamie Hall

Posters Posters and exhibitions are a great way to engage the public and

will help you to think of new ways to explain your research so that non expert audiences can understand. Posters can be used as stand-alone methods to raise awareness or they can be used to draw an audience in and encourage them to talk to you, or take part in a demonstration.. Exhibitions and posters can be hosted in a number of venues:

Your university or institution, during open days and other public events

In public spaces such as shopping centres, libraries or cultural venues

At festivals, conferences or other special events In museums or science and discovery centres (usually in

partnership with the host venue) At roadsides, bus stops or subways, or even on the buses

themselves

Getting more from posters Posters are a great way to catch someone’s eye and draw them in.

Make the most of the opportunity to further engage them, by providing additional opportunities, such as:

The opportunity to talk to a real researcher (you, your colleagues, or students)

Tangible objects and props the audience can hold and feel Intriguing demonstrations, including hands on activities and

experiments the audience can participate in Further literature, worksheets or table top exhibits to interrogate Opportunities for the audience to give feedback or share opinions

and experiences i.e. a ballot box or wall chart they can add to Handouts such as samples, flyers, small posters and other

literature that they can take away To draw audiences in for further engagement – a striking poster or

exhibition might intrigue passers-by and encourage them to stop and find out more.

Posters Discover the kind of imagery and messages that

are most likely to draw your audience in, and what might interest them about your work. It would be an idea to consider audience research to help you find out more about what could work. Either mock up samples or use previous examples of posters and test them with focus groups, representative of your target audience. 

Posters

Do your research. Look at other posters, flyers and exhibitions to see how other messages have been communicated visually to your target audience. You could learn a lot from commercial advertising.

Posters Plan, plan, plan. Plan your design, plan the

message and the preferred layout, think about the images you need and what your message is. Think about the point of the exhibition and create a narrative which the audience can easily follow. Make sure you leave plenty of time to develop your poster or exhibition. The design process can be lengthy, especially if you want to test and re-draft the imagery on members of your audience. Host venues may also have lengthy lead times to consider.

Posters

Think about what you want to do. Do you want to develop a large, interactive, modular stand? Or maybe you would prefer simple, mounted posters. Is it a travelling exhibition? If so, portable, pop up banner stands may be appropriate. All of these decisions will have cost and time implications.

Posters A good poster should: Be eye-catching, with images which are identifiable

at a distance Be accurate, clear and concise Communicate a clear message Draw people in to interrogate further (i.e. prompting

the viewer to ask questions and to look closer) A picture paints a thousand words. Your poster

or exhibition should be clear and highly visual. Make use of striking imagery to draw in the crowds, but don’t be afraid of white space. It would be a mistake to clutter your poster.

Posters Get help. Not everybody has a design flair –

getting the colours, layout and message right for audiences is not as easy as it sounds. If you want your exhibition to look professional, it would be advisable to seek help from a professional designer. A designer may have ideas you would not have thought of and can produce something more eye catching, much more quickly than you can (but be sure to brief them properly). Your organisation may have its own design department.

Graphic design department.

Things to bear in mind Don’t swamp your poster with text As Blaise Pascal said: “If I had more time I would write a shorter letter.” Take disability considerations into account. The colours red and green

can be difficult for people with red/green colour blindness. Green is the hardest colour for people with vision impairments to read.  Avoid capitalisation and underlining. People with dyslexia often recognize words by the patterns they form.

Be aware that screen colour (RGB mode) is different to printed, mixed-ink mode (CMYK). If you want to print your image as you see it, switch to CMYK mode in your image editing programme.

High quality printing requires images that are no less than 300 dpi. Large formats may even require 600 dpi. Never include web graphics as these are usually low in terms of dpi.

Stick to one platform PC or Mac Make sure your poster stands alone – if you are on a tea break or talking

to someone else, does it make sense without your explanation?

Poster Costs Design Fees may vary but professional designers charge

approximately £500-£650 per day. Depending on the number of iterations, and the amount of work required, a poster design could cost £500-£1000; while a larger exhibition design would cost approximately £1000-£3000.

Printing costs will vary depending on the size of the poster or exhibition. If you work with a professional designer, they may be able to get preferential rates for printing.

£60-£200 for simple roller banners and mounted posters £300 - £2000 for larger exhibitions, modular kits and larger pop

up displays Host venue cost is variable. Some venues will only require a

nominal fee but others are surprisingly costly. You are competing with commercial ventures for placement in shopping centres, hotels and public transport, so be prepared to pay commercial rates.