Poster Guidelines

The Chief Scientist will be giving 10 Poster Awards to posters that adhere to the following principles of good poster design.

Create an easy-to-read title that conveys your main message and attracts passers-by.
Use an easy-to-follow, left-to-right organization to expedite the flow of viewers and avoid congestion.
Organize your material into sections; give each section a sentence heading summarizing it.
Create a design with lots of white space. People will quickly tire and move on if a poster is crowded with text and figures.
Use the same artistic style throughout your poster.
Ruthlessly delete details that don't contribute directly to your main message. "Details as decoration" is a lethal design strategy.
Lead your viewer graphically through the display. It should be obvious where to begin looking at the poster and how to maneuver through its elements.
Use type size that is readable from 5 feet away. Title text should be at least 80-pt, headings at least 54-pt, and body text at least 36-pt. If several people gather around your poster, they should all be able to read the text simultaneously.
Avoid all caps.
Use text sparingly; use graphics as much as possible to get your message across.
Use illustrations that are simple and bold. Journal figures are almost never poster friendly without simplification and larger fonts.
Use consistent fonts throughout the poster. Choose strong-bodied sans-serif fonts that are easy to read from a distance.
Provide a card or handout with your contact information (name, phone, email).