Unlike event posters, research posters are used to disseminate research and its results.

Colin Purrington defines a research poster as a:

"A large-format poster is a big piece of paper (or wall-mounted monitor) that can communicate your research at a conference, and is composed of a short title, an introduction to your burning question, an overview of your novel approach, your amazing results in graphical form, some insightful discussion of aforementioned results, a listing of previously published articles that are important to your research, and some brief acknowledgement of the tremendous assistance and financial support conned from others — if all text is kept to a minimum, a person could fully read your poster in under 5 minutes (really)."

Creating and Designing Your Poster

Posters and movie trailers have a lot in common. In both instances, the goal is to convey sufficient information to get the audience to take the next step. In your case, read your full article, review your research, or come to your presentation. Keep this in mind as you design your poster. 

The usual mistakes made by students creating a poster include:

• Including too much information.
• Present brief-on-point information that encourages the audience to follow up.
• Underestimating your audience. (If you are presenting at a conference, your audience has some basic knowledge - skip the background.)
• Avoid poor design that may detract from your work:
• Use clear readable fonts
• Use appropriately sized fonts. Suggested 72 pt for header; 54 pt for subheader; 30 pt for paragraph text
• Use coordinated colors (look at a palette from a PowerPoint theme for guidance)
• Use clear, sharp, relevant images (see "Images" Tab for attribution)
• Use consistent alignment of elements and text. Left alignment for text; limit center alignment for titles.

Software Options

Powerpoint is an easy option to use to design a poster. The poster is essentially a one-slide presentation.  If you use Powerpoint you can simply print the slide as a handout. Other options include Keynote and Publisher.

Selected Resources

Poster "how-to" advice and information is easy to find on the web. The following are examples of helpful (without being overwhelming) sites that are good to review for ideas and advice before you start developing your poster.

• Tips for Creating a Poster by Colin Purrington
• Detailed advice for creating a poster
• Includes free templates
• Designing Communications for a Poster Fair
• Includes advice on planning, layout, fonts, color, and images.   
• Better Posters, A resource for improving poster presentations (part of DoctorZen,net)
• Blog focused on helping researchers create better posters.

The Mulitmedia Production Center (MPC) on the second floor of the IUPUI Campus Center is a cost-effective and helpful option. If you ask, the MPC will review your poster for sizing before it is printed. You can contact the MPC via email at iupuimpc@iu.edu for specifics on printing charges.

A 24" x 36" poster typically costs $25. The MPC will also mount your poster on foam board for an additional fee of $20. A cheaper alternative is to buy foam board at a craft store or discount store and mount your poster using spray adhesive.

Custom Fabric Posters, Poster Presentations the Easy Way provides information about printing your poster on cloth that you can roll up. This is a good option if you plan to take your poster to a conference.