Posters are viewed, not read. Use as few words as possible to tell your story. Very few people will take the time to read large amounts of text. As one guideline on preparing posters put it, "Densely packed, high word-count posters attract only those viewers who are excited by manuscripts pasted onto walls, and you typically don’t want to talk to those types of people. They’re weird."
Identify your topic and yourself Put the title of your poster at the top, with your name below in slightly smaller type. Use either title case ("This Is the Title of My Poster") or sentence case ("This is the title of my poster") but not something in between ("This is the title of my Poster"). Do not use ALL CAPS, italics, or ornamental fonts.
Use large, clear fonts Type should be easily readable at a distance of about 3 feet (which is where most of your poster viewers will be standing). Another benefit of using large type is that it forces you write concisely. Use plain, clear type (either serif or sans-serif), not script or other fancy fonts.
Keep width of text lines short and do not use justification. Fairly narrow lines of text (no more than about 60 characters) are easier to read on a poster and are less visually intimidating than wide lines of text. Justified alignment with narrow text causes distracting variations in the space between words.
Use readable graphics Pictures and illustrations are more appealing than blocks of text and can be an efficient way to make your point – remember, "a picture is worth a thousand words". All images should be crystal clear. Fuzzy lines and pixelated images make you look careless.
Tell a story Make sure your material builds a coherent message. This does not mean you need to use formal paragraph structure. Other ways of presenting your material may be more effective.
Tell the audience what the story is about Summarize the main point of your poster, ideally in just a sentence or two. Make this visually prominent.
Organize your story by using clear headings. Consider putting each distinct sub-section in separate text boxes.
Size The poster boards we will use are about 36 inches wide by 48 inches tall. Make sure your poster does not exceed this size.
Printing You are responsible for printing your poster and for its costs. There are many commercial services that can print your poster (do a web search for "poster printing"). You can also have it printed using the Agronomy Department's facilities. To do this drop it off on a USB drive at the Agronomy Department main office (2104 Agronomy Hall), where you will find forms to specify your poster size and printing options. If you have your poster printed through the Agronomy Deparment, the deadline for dropoff is one week before the pickup date.
Here are a few web pages that give useful advice for making your poster:
Designing conference posters by Colin Purrington. See especially the list of "Do's and Don'ts". (Items 18 through 26 on the list apply mainly to research posters and may not apply to your poster.)
You might learn how to make a good poster by keeping in mind what's wrong with a bad poster. See Example of a bad scientific poster, also by Colin Purrington.
The American Geophysical Union has some brief suggestions for how to create professional posters.
A group at North Carolina State University has put together guidelines on all aspects of Creating Effective Poster Presentations.