Undergraduate Chemistry Research Symposium

How does one arrange a poster? Prepare a few pages of material (described below) summarizing your project. You will then arrange these on the poster board in such a way as to depict the project clearly. All text should be in large font and comfortably read from a moderate distance. Many are now bringing laminated single sheet, or two sheet posters, already arranged and clearly presented.

Layout Recommendations:

• Title of the project: place somewhere near the top of the display, along with all names of people involved. Font size for this information should be between 40 and 72 pt.
• Textual description of the project: Ought to be clear and concise. Try and avoid pages with lots of dense text, but separate sections of a few sentences at a time and spread them out generously on the page. Font size should be a minimum of 24 pt.
• Total information content: Remember that you will be present to discuss the work with visitors, and hence the displays shouldn't contain "information overload." They should give the viewer a nice overview, the details of which can be brought out in discussion. This should also help you in preparing the poster ... it's not meant to be a fully prepared paper.
• Use graphics wherever possible: (photographs, diagrams, graphs, etc. are great)
• Avoid crowding pages on the poster board: spread them out generously and arrange in logical flow.
• Add contrast: A sheet of colored construction paper placed underneath a page and slightly offset from it adds contrast and gives the page a "framed" look. It can also help to place blocks of text in boxes.

As the picture above shows, the posters are 5 ft wide and 6 ft tall.