Anatomy of a poster

A poster has a few core elements (see example):

• Text: Usually in different sizes and split into easily readable chunks
• Visual elements: These include decorative elements, diagrams and other images
• Call to action: This could be text, a visual element or both which clearly indicates what your audience should do next

Drafting your text

Here are some things to keep in mind when drafting your text. Remember to keep your answers to the questions in the introduction in mind as you do this.

• Keep the amount of text on your poster to a minimum. The less text you include, the more likely it is that someone will read it! Think carefully about what you choose to include. Try to put yourself into your audience’s shoes - how likely are you to read large blocks of text when you’re not in a work or education setting?
• If your audience is going to come across the poster at an event where you are also there e.g. on an interactive stall, remember that they can’t read text and speak to you at the same time. Ideally the poster should contain just enough information to get them interested in the stall or include details on where they can find more information. Think carefully about what the poster is for in these situations.
• Limit your use of jargon and technical words, and think carefully about what your target audience will already know about your subject. This text editor is a fun way of seeing if the words you are using are in the top 1000 most used words. There are a lot of other readability testing apps online including this one which looks at both meaning and structure.

In this 'up-goer' example below, the words underlined with red zig-zag lines are not in the most used 1000 words. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them, but you might want to think about what those words mean to different people.

• Use a ‘hierarchy of text’ - this is a way to guide the reader from the most important, attention-grabbing information on your poster through to the details. Think about when you read an article online or in print, and how your attention is usually drawn to the headline first before any smaller text.

  • Your heading should contain the most important information. It should be visually striking - larger, bolder, maybe in a different colour to the rest of your text.

  • Your subheading contains the next most important information before moving on to the main body of the text.

In what order do you naturally read the text on the 'smell test' poster here? Do you think it is the most useful or engaging order? If not, how could the poster be improved?

• Keep your text simple - limit yourself to two or three fonts and a handful of colours.
• Keep the layout of your text simple - this will be easier if you have less text to start with.

Using images

• Images can:

  • Grab your audience’s attention e.g. The sneezing person in the allergy poster or the animals on the smell test poster below.

  • Provide information on its own e.g. a simple graph could be added to the hot cities poster below.

  • Clarify information in the text e.g. imagine a diagram of a racing car instead of an image on the racing car poster below.

  • Provide decoration or be aesthetically pleasing e.g. The noughts & crosses image below.

These aren’t mutually exclusive e.g. the noughts & crosses image below is both attention grabbing and decorative.

Credit Wapcaplet.

• As with your text, think carefully about what images you are including and why you are including them. Don’t clutter your poster with lots of images, it can make it less attention-grabbing and make the text harder to read.
• Think about whether the image will actually clarify a concept for someone with no/minimal background information on the subject? Is there a risk it might confuse someone further? For example a detailed anatomical diagram of the heart like the one above might confuse more than it clarifies.

A note on image permissions

If you didn’t take a photograph or create an image yourself and don’t have the permission of the creator, make sure to check whether you can use it.

Just because an image is available on the internet, this doesn’t mean that you have the right to use it in your own work. Check whether an image is in the public domain, and whether you need to provide attribution (usually some text next to the image with a name e.g. with the heart above) when you use the image.

Lots of creators use the Creative Commons system to make this clear, and you can find out more about this here.

Some good places to find images you can use:

• Wikipedia - You can either search the Wikimedia CommonsLink opens in a new window or find images from Wikipedia pages, click on individual images and check the permissions below the image (see the screenshot below).
• UnsplashLink opens in a new window - This is one of my favourite image sites. The rules for using the site are here.Link opens in a new window
• The Noun ProjectLink opens in a new window - Great site for finding icons of lots of different things. On an unpaid plan, you must provide attribution.

Call to action

This is a clear indication of what you want your audience to do next.

It could be text telling them where to find information, or with details of an event they could attend. Or you might want to include a link to an event, questionnaire or more information.

Ideally, try to use both a short link that someone could write down as well as a QR code that someone can immediately scan with their phone.

Some ways to create these:

• Some sites e.g. survey sites allow you to create your own short links & QR codes directly from them
• Google has a link shortener Link opens in a new window
• Bit.ly Link opens in a new windowallows you to create short links and QR codes
• Adobe has a free QR code generatorLink opens in a new window

Layout

As you’ve been considering the elements of your poster, you may have already had some ideas about how to lay everything out. Now it’s time to nail down your poster layout.

Some ways to work through your layout:

• By sketching out ideas - either on paper or on a tablet/similar (see the cities example below)
• Using cut out pieces of paper or post it notes with the different text and visual elements and moving them around until you’re happy with them (see the race car example below)
• Blocking out your layout using the software you’re planning to use to design your poster (the allergies example below used PowerPoint)

Things to consider when deciding on the layout for your poster:

• Remember that English language speakers generally look at a page from left to right and top to bottom
• If you want to change that, you need to clearly guide the eye. This could be by:
  
  • Having a very clear text hierarchy (see above) e.g. if the heading is clearly in the middle or bottom of the page.

  • Guiding the eye using visual directions e.g. a circular arrow clearly directing the eye through a series of text blocks as in the race car poster.

• As always, keep your page as uncluttered and simple as you can.

Tools

Focusing on who you’re trying to reach and why, and the content you need to do that is a lot more important than using tools. Use what you’re most comfortable with, and if in doubt keep it simple!

Tools you can use: