WPA Poster Design Information
Poster Sessions
Poster sessions are scheduled for either 75 or 90 minutes. Bring pins or velcro dots/squares for attaching posters to the poster boards and arrive 15 minutes prior to the beginning of your poster session to attach your poster. Consider having a handout that includes your e-mail address. Some presenters arrange for a friend to do a short video of your poster presentation that you can post on youtube or a department website. It is also fun to take some photos that you can share.
Poster Size and Material
The poster boards will be either 48 in. high by 96 in wide (4 x 8 ft) or 48 x 72 (4 x 6). WPA does not require a specific poster format or size. However, most colleges have a large format printer that can print attractive posters (or you can use retailers such as FedEx Office or online printing services). Large format printers allow you to print posters that are 36 in. or 42 in. high. A good poster size for our boards is 36 in. high by 48 to 60 in. wide.
Posters are usually printed on a paper surface and rolled for transport in a tube. There is no need for lamination or mounting. New services now feature printing on fabric that can be folded (see, for example, https://betterposters.blogspot.com/). Paper is still the less expensive option – many schools will do the printing for student posters for a nominal charge.
Poster Design
We strongly recommend reviewing the following websites when planning your poster:
FREE Poster Templates
Most commonly, you will use PowerPoint to design your poster. You can import text from Word, graphs from Excel or a statistics program, and graphic images if appropriate. Your department may have poster templates available for you. These are PowerPoint files already set for a specific size. The school logo is already in the template and there is a space for your title and authors. If your department does not have a template, there are several websites with templates available for you to download. These include:
Download the WPA Poster Design Information to help with your presentation.