WORDS OF ADVICE

How to design an outstanding poster

Rita Gemayel
The FEBS Journal Editorial Office, Cambridge, UK

Introduction This instalment of the Words of Advice series features

Picture this: your poster session is about to begin. Your the art of designing an outstanding poster. Here, we
poster is up – along with a hundred other posters – in a summarise some of the key ingredients of a successful
big, noisy room. Your fellow scientists walk in after sit- poster that will help you get the most out of your meet-
ting through yet another session of talks. They are ing. Before you read any further, take a look at Box 2,
already tired and saturated; their attention levels will where we have summarised the basics of writing a strong
wane after they have looked at a few posters. But you abstract that will help draw an audience to your poster
need them to be alert and fully engaged while you are and hopefully get you closer to a poster prize too!
presenting your poster. You probably want feedback
on the manuscript you are preparing or you want to
Why and for whom?
showcase your skills to a potential future advisor or
Before you start preparing your poster, ask yourself the
collaborator. If you want to get the best out of a poster
following questions: ‘why am I preparing this poster?’
session, you, as the presenter, and your poster need to
and ‘for whom?’ A generic answer such as ‘to let people
stand out from the crowd. Viewing a poster session is
know what I’m working on’ will not get you very far.
like visiting an art museum; visitors are bound to feel
A clear purpose, e.g. ‘to get feedback before I submit
saturated at some point, and no longer able to appreci-
my manuscript’, or ‘to share the very useful reporter
ate the paintings on display. So, your poster should be
constructs that I’ve synthesised’, will help you design
like a Caravaggio painting: eye-catching, engaging, and
your poster for that specific purpose, and get the most
it draws the viewers closer – no matter how tired they
out of your meeting. If your aim is to get feedback on
are – because they want to see the details.
the manuscript you are preparing, a detailed experimen-
If you are a graduate student in the middle of your
tal section, or too many figures, will deter your audi-
PhD training, or a seasoned postdoc, you will, most cer-
ence. Less is more, so focus on your key observations
tainly, get the chance to present a poster at a meeting.
and results, and make your main conclusions very clear.
Posters are one of the commonest means through which
Clearly identify what you want your audience to take
you will communicate your results to the scientific com-
away from your poster, as this will really help you
munity, especially early in your career (Box 1); and like
decide what to include and what not to. If you want to
preparing a manuscript or giving a talk, making a stand-
out poster is a skill that can be polished and honed to
get the best return on your effort. Box 1.
We have previously advised you on how best to pre- Did you know that the first appearance of posters at an
pare a scientific manuscript [1] and how to avoid some of international conference was at the 6th FEBS meeting in
the most common pitfalls in figure preparation [2]. And Madrid in 1969 [3]? The organisers had a high number
this advice is certainly also valid for posters, in the sense of registered participants at the meeting and to give
that you should prepare your poster with the same dili- everyone a chance to communicate their results, they set
gence and attention to detail that you would apply to up so called ‘Demonstration sessions’. Horizontal
your manuscript. Before you start, you should think boards were installed so that the participants can ‘pin
about the narrative, the importance of the title and what their cards’ before the session is scheduled to begin.
key figures you will include. But do not forget that posters Some participants even ‘drew their presentations in situ’
are meant to be a visual display of your work, so they [3]. We have come a long way since then. Posters are
require a unique set of guidelines and should be visually now part of every scientific meeting and they are of
attractive and engaging. However, the work does not end better quality (in terms of graphics and style), but the
with printing the poster. You also need to practice how to initial idea behind the poster session, to promote the
showcase your results, using your poster as a visual aid. communication of scientific data and allow broad
participation at meetings, is still the same.
doi: 10.1111/febs.14420

1180 The FEBS Journal 285 (2018) 1180–1184 ª 2018 Federation of European Biochemical Societies
 Words of Advice

Box 2. Purpose and audience

The abstract. Writing an abstract for a scientific meeting Have a clear aim for preparing a poster
is very similar to writing one for a manuscript [1]. Your Know your target audience
goal may be different – you would like the organisers to Tailor your poster accordingly
select your work for a short talk or you want your fellow
attendees to look at your poster – but your approach
should be the same. You should, however, consider that
Design
conference organisers have to read thousands of posters Visually segment the content for an easy-to-follow
in a relatively short time, so your abstract needs to make narrative
an immediate impact. You need to engage your readers Dedicate most of the space to figures and graphics
with enough enticing details, but keep it brief. Aim for a Use clear headings
short abstract (ideally, less than 150 words) and write it Use bullet points
for a broad audience. Start with a brief background Leave enough white space for a clean, uncluttered
statement and the motivation behind your work. High- layout
light only your main experimental approach and your
Use 2 - 3 matching colours
strongest result and conclusions. Readers will go to your
talk or check your poster if they want details. Use
keywords to get the attention of your audience but stay Content and data
focused on your main findings – do not overreach. Compose a strong (and short) title
Combining brevity and scientific accuracy is a delicate Convey one clear message
balancing-act. It requires a lot of practice and feedback. Showcase quality of data & soundness of
Be ready to rewrite the abstract multiple times until it methodology
reads effortlessly; and always ask for feedback.

Pitch
highlight a specific experimental method that you have Practice giving short, clear answers
optimised, including a detailed protocol will draw Rehearse your questions if seeking feedback
attention to your poster. Knowing the audience will Promote your poster (social media, email )
also help inform the poster’s content and design. For Be enthusiastic
example, if you are attending a broad-scope meeting,
your poster should not be the same as the one you have
Fig. 1. The four essential elements of a successful poster.
used before in a more specialised meeting. If your audi-
ence is not entirely familiar with the model organism
browse through the posters outside of the normal pos-
you are working on, you need to highlight the advan-
ter session times, coming back later to speak to the
tages of this system and how your results could be
presenter during the scheduled poster times. Therefore,
extrapolated to other organisms. Once you have com-
your poster should stand out on its own, even when
bined these two factors, purpose and audience, you
you are not standing next to it. So how do you design
should already have a clear idea of what goes in the
a poster that fits these criteria? (see also Fig. 1).
poster and how you will organise the content (Fig. 1).

A clear message begins with a strong title

The elements of a successful poster
As mentioned above, a poster is meant to be a visual The first thing that anyone will read on your poster is
display of your work. It should be designed for a the title. A strong title should communicate your main
specific purpose, have a main message and should message and why it matters, and should also entice
get all the key information across quickly and clearly. people to visit your poster to find out the full story.
Consequently, it should be visually attractive, unclut- Do not make the title too generic, or too specialised.
tered, well illustrated and be easy to digest. You will Short, punchy titles that are explicit and informative
use it as a visual aid that helps you illustrate your tend to work well. Asking a question (e.g. ‘Is autop-
point faster when you are interacting with the viewer, hagy essential for development?’) can also be effective.
but it should also be understandable even if you are Keep in mind your audience and what they will find
not there to explain it. Many conference delegates interesting. And most importantly, keep it short. One

The FEBS Journal 285 (2018) 1180–1184 ª 2018 Federation of European Biochemical Societies 1181
Words of Advice

[1] Title
[5]

Background Results Results [6]

[2]

[7]

Motivation Summary
Result 1 Result 2
Fig. 2. Arranging the content in boxes is
[3] one way to achieve a clean, uncluttered
layout. [1] Title: sans serif, dark font on a
light background. [2] Text: left-aligned – less
[8]
gap between the words equals faster
Experimental design Future directions
reading. [3] Short bullet points. [4]
Computational
+/+ Analysis Illustrations replace a lot of text. [5] A
colourful, engaging figure in the centre. [6]
[4] References
-/- Headings: same level of importance, same
[9]
Output font size. [7] Matching colour combinations.
[8] Light coloured background, dark fonts
for high contrast. [9] References: up to 5.

way to compose a strong title is to list a set of key- stand out to the viewer. Here are some examples of use-
words and verbs from your content and link them ful boxes that you could include:
together in as few words as possible. You will need
1 Purpose or Motivation
multiple iterations before you get to the best title.
2 Background
Make the title font big enough so that it can be seen
3 Methods/Experimental Design
from a reasonable distance. Use a sans serif font and
4 Results
high-contrast colour combination. Avoid using all cap-
5 Summary/Conclusions
ital letters (Figs 2 and 3).
6 Future Directions
7 References [five maximum – be sure to note whether
Make it easy to follow your work has been published]

One of our Editorial Board Members, Professor Lawr- You do not necessarily have to use the above titles
ence Banks, says that one of the first things he always as labels for the boxes. Get creative. You could formu-
looks for when judging a poster is the ‘overall clarity and late a strong message as a title, instead. For maximum
ease with which the message is conveyed’. His advice is impact, use dark, legible font over a light background.
to ‘keep the message straightforward and easy to follow’. Overall, use text sparingly. Replace sentences with
Your poster will stand out to the viewers and the judges bullet points; but keep them short, otherwise your bul-
if it quickly conveys a clear message. And since the lay- let points will lose their effect. The judicious use of
out controls the narrative (i.e. motivation, approach and bold or italic font will help draw attention to key
conclusions), it determines if your main message gets points (but don’t overdo the fancy formatting!). Try
across clearly and quickly. So, this should be your main combining figures and text within the boxes, and
task: laying out the content in a way that makes it easy matching colours between the figures and the text to
for the viewer to follow the narrative. The worst thing make complex figures more accessible. But be consis-
you could do is to simply convert a ‘manuscript format’ tent with the use of colours and try your best to use
into a ‘poster format’ by copying pieces of text and the colours that match (Figs 2 and 3).
figures into PowerPoint or Illustrator. Instead, aim to
visually segment the material in a clean, uncluttered and A figure is worth a thousand words
aesthetically appealing layout. For example, you could
Most of the space (70–80%) on your poster should be
arrange the content in boxes (Fig. 2) or 2–3 columns
dedicated to figures and graphics. Find creative ways to
(Fig. 3). Use clear headings to make every box/section

1182 The FEBS Journal 285 (2018) 1180–1184 ª 2018 Federation of European Biochemical Societies
 Words of Advice

[1] Title

Background & Results Summary

[2]
Motivation

[5]

Future
directions
Fig. 3. Arranging the content in 2–3 [3]
columns is another way to achieve an easy-
Experimental
to-follow layout. [1] Title font size: 72–85 pt. design
[2] Headings font size: at least 36 pt. High
+/+
contrast between background and text References
colours. [3] Enough breathing space
-/-
between sections. [4] Content arranged in
2–3 columns for a clear, easy-to-follow Conclusions [6]
Computational
message. [5] The main message in an eye- Analysis

catching central figure. [6] References:

include a citation to your manuscript (if
published). [4]

replace text (for e.g. the experimental procedures) with also important. Keep in mind that a strong poster
an illustration. Viewers will be deterred by too much conveys a straightforward, easy-to-follow message.
text and will move along to the next poster. This is also Include only the key experiments that support your
why you need to capture their attention very quickly by main message. Tangential or secondary data will dis-
making the main message stand out (see above). One tract the viewers.
way to achieve this is the put a colourful, engaging fig- These are the design elements that will help you pre-
ure in the middle of the poster or to include a nice gra- pare a successful poster. But your work is not done
phic summarising your results and conclusions. yet. During the meeting, you need to interact with
According to Prof Banks, the other elements that your fellow scientists, some of whom will be judging
make a poster stand out from the rest – and these whether your poster should receive a prize, while
will be closely evaluated by the judges – are the others could be potential collaborators or future
‘quality of the data and a logical thought process employers. In fact, how a candidate interacts with the
behind the (experimental) approach’. Therefore, along person judging their poster is extremely important,
with an easy-to-follow layout, you need to showcase according to Prof Banks. So, how can you excel dur-
the quality of your data, and that your methodology ing a poster session?
is logical and unbiased. Good quality data are gener-
ated by well-designed, well-executed and correctly Practice makes perfect
analysed experiments [2]. But how you represent your The most common question at any poster session –
data is equally important. And this is also useful for and this is certainly the first thing that Prof Banks
your manuscript, so it is worth putting the time to asks the candidate – is some variation on ‘Tell us
learn the different options for data visualisation. about your work’. If you give a strong answer that
Think about using box plots to show all the data sparks interest, you could start a meaningful discus-
points, instead of histograms, or use violin plots if sion or a future collaboration, or receive a poster
you have enough data points and want to show the prize. And a strong answer is a short answer. Judges
full distribution of the data. You could use chord typically have no more than 5 min per poster as Prof
plots to display relatedness (or similarities) between Banks says, and ‘what sets the good candidates apart
data sets or different groups of data. Chord plots are are those that can be succinct and to the point’. So,
not only visually appealing but very informative. cut to the chase, if the judges wish to know more
Which data you choose to include in your poster is about the background to the work or the fine details,

The FEBS Journal 285 (2018) 1180–1184 ª 2018 Federation of European Biochemical Societies 1183
Words of Advice

they will ask. So, when asked what ‘the take home an audience? Once you know your poster number
message is’, you should aim to answer this question in and session, share it on social media (using the
1 min or so. Keep the details to a minimum. If you appropriate conference hashtag, of course). Invite
give a laundry list of all the experiments that you have people to your poster when you bump into them at
done, you will lose your audience. If you do not coffee breaks and dinner. If you know that potential
clearly (and quickly) state your main objective, no one collaborators or future employers will be at the meet-
will be able to follow your explanation no matter how ing, email them beforehand to let them know you’ll
amazing your results are. So, how do you answer such be presenting and ask if they’d like to stop by. A lit-
question in less than 60 seconds? The trick is to break tle groundwork in the days before your presentation
down your answer as follows: will ensure a steady stream of interested visitors.
Then, take full advantage of the chance to get direct
1 What is the problem/scientific question I am work-
feedback on your unpublished work and to see how
ing on?
your results will potentially be perceived when you
2 What has been done?
finally submit your paper. Use this as an opportunity
3 What is missing?
to test different approaches to frame your narrative.
4 What did I do?
When you explain your discovery to scientists within
5 What do my results mean/why are they important?
your field, but who are not intricately familiar with
You should expect to be asked other questions too, every detail of your work, you will not only get ideas
relating specifically to your project and data, or the on which experiment to do next or what is the most
broader implications of your work. It is a good idea suitable figure type to visualise your data but also on
to anticipate these questions and practice how to how best to organise your results to get a clear and
answer them too, in a quick and engaging manner. engaging manuscript. Use your interviewers as (hope-
You could use the same approach as above (i.e. break fully) unbiased test subjects. Take cues from their
down your answer, and follow the 60 seconds rule). questions, their level of engagement to improve on
You may need multiple iterations to reach the best your performance and the preparation of your next
way to answer. But it will be worth it. The more effort poster and manuscript. If you had not thought about
you put into this preparation, the more effortless your a poster session in this way, I advise you to do so. It
performance will be. You will also appear less stressed will be very rewarding.
and more enthusiastic about your work; a bonus
point, according to Prof Banks. If you are seeking
References
feedback on your project, be sure to rehearse your
questions beforehand. Make your questions short and 1 Gemayel R (2016) How to write a scientific paper. FEBS
specific, and have pen and paper at the ready to jot J 283, 3882–3885.
down notes as they occur to you during conversations. 2 Collins S, Gemayel R & Chenette EJ (2017) Avoiding
It is also a nice idea to leave a stack of sticky notes at common pitfalls of manuscript and figure preparation.
your poster in case visitors have questions or want to FEBS J 284, 1262–1266.
leave their contact details while you are off enjoying 3 Purton M & Perham R (2014) FEBS at 50. Half a
the other posters (Fig. 1). century promoting the molecular life sciences. Third
Millennium Publishing Limited, London.

Getting the most out of your meeting

Now that you have polished your poster and per-
fected your pitch, how do you ensure that you’ll have

1184 The FEBS Journal 285 (2018) 1180–1184 ª 2018 Federation of European Biochemical Societies