Epic Expo: Poster Design Guide: General Instructions

Start from scratch OR Choose a template and skip to “Fill in your Template”

What is the purpose of a poster?

• Your poster is a visual tool that facilitates conversation and is meant to communicate your main point(s) to the audience in a structured, engaging and concise way.

Consider your structure:

• Walk the audience through your experience (location, goals, highlights, outcomes, etc.)
• Use bullets when possible to make key issues stand out. Keep them parallel.
• Use active voice. Strong, active verbs cut to the chase and eliminate extra verbiage.
• Be precise. Don’t bother with vague modifiers; search for adjectives that express exactly what you mean. 
• Place important info at top and up front. 
• Label images and charts clearly so you don’t have to explain them in the text.

Create your canvas

• Open Powerpoint, Create a new (blank) slide
• Change the size of the slide to poster-appropriate using Page Setup to 42''Wx36''H.
• Decide about columns. You will likely need three columns – they can be of equal size OR one wider column in the middle, two slightly more narrow outside columns.
• Use Insert to create text boxes. You might not fill all these boxes with text, but that’s ok.
• You will likely need to have:
     1. Title box (across the top)
     2. At least one box in each column
     3. A box for your references
• Text boxes expand and contract based on how much text they hold, so you may have to edit your text or be flexible with your structure.

Add design to your template

• Choose a color-theme. Don’t use too many colors, but use some!
• You can add the Earlham College logo or the seal of the College – download them from the Design Elements tab and then Insert them.
• Font sizes – bigger than usual! (Title – 100, Heading – 60, Body text – 30)
• Use Insert to add high quality images, charts, graphics, etc.
• Remember to cite image and graphic sources (APA, MLA, Chicago)
• Make sure you aren’t accidentally using more than one font! Highlight all your text and select the font you’ve chosen.
• Zoom in and out to make sure your text is perfect, your images look ok, that you spelled your name right.

Best practices before you submit

• Download your poster as a PDF.
• Print a test version of your poster on regular 8.5 x 11 inch paper.
• Do this by selecting FILE...PRINT...and then check the box for FIT TO PAPER SIZE and then print your document.
• Adjust as necessary and finalize.
• Submit to the Box Folder on the home page.

Open a blank PowerPoint page

On the Design Tab - choose Slide Size (Custom)

Change Width to 42 in. and Height to 36 in.

Use "Insert" to make Text Boxes and insert Pictures

To Save to PDF

File-->Export -->Create PDF

These templates are Google Slides files.  In order to make changes, make a copy of the template and save that to your Google Drive. You will be able to edit the copy. Go to File/ Make a Copy.

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