Academic Poster Design

A Doctorate plus^BIGS workshop offered by the Bonn Graduate Center

Academic posters are a useful communication method to present your d project, engage people in fruitful discussions and gain new input for your research. To suit that purpose, a poster needs to be carefully designed, both from the contents' side and the visual appearance.

In-person Workshop

Friday, June 28, 2024
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Monday, July 8, 2024
individual online coaching sessions

Please register your interest in this workshop by stating your BIGS affiliation in the form linked below by March 10, 2024.

Trainer

Dr. Susanne Berger

Language

English

Location

Alte Sternwarte
Poppelsdorfer Allee 47*

^{*The premises have limited accessibility. Please contact
us if you need assistance.}

Target Group

Doctoral students from the Bonn International Graduate Schools (BIGS)

Track(s)

Research

Certificate

9 units are applicable within the Doctorate plus certificate

Eine Wissenschaftlerin und ein Wissenschaftler arbeiten hinter einer Glasfassade und mischen Chemikalien mit Großgeräten.

Description

Starting with the content, we will extract the key messages from your projects. All the way from the research question at hand, to the results and finally to the discussion and open questions. Keeping the target audience in mind, we will determine what should be on the poster and how we can communicate it efficiently.

With the aim in mind to reduce text to an absolute minimum, we will focus next on the visuals that should go on the poster. These can include photographs, maps, schematic drawings, diagrams or other data visualizations.

Having determined the contents, we will address the graphic design both of the individual visuals as well as of the poster as a whole. You will learn how to use a grid and white space, choose colors, fonts and font sizes etc. to produce an aesthetically pleasing and effective poster.

Requirements
During the workshop each participant will design his / her poster about his / her own doctoral project. You need a PC with a software to create your poster in (Powerpoint is fine), text and figures (diagrams, charts, schematics, photos etc.) describing your project. Poster drafts are welcome as well.

Content

Participants know the typical elements / contents of an academic poster.
They learn to extract and focus on the key messages from their projects.
They are able to differentiate key points from by-standing information. They learn how to adapt their communication to their target audience. Thus, they can determine what contents at which level of detail / expertise should be on their poster and what can be skipped.
They know how much information in words and visuals should be on a poster (information limit).
They learn how to visually structure a poster with a grid.
They are able to use graphic design (color, white space, typography etc.) to achieve a visual hierarchy, guide the viewer through the poster and give an overall aesthetically pleasing result.
They know technical details such as how to save a poster for printing, required resolution of figures and file formats.