- Keep it simple and professional.
Allow the data to speak by being clear and concise
with your use of text and other visual information.
- Use one or two typefaces at most.
If you want to use two, choose one with serifs, and one sans serif.
Be judicious in your use of CAPS, bold, underlining, and
italics. These features can help organize your material
so that it is easier to read and understand, but overusing these features
tends to dull their effectiveness.
- Since your audience will be standing in a public place as
they look at your poster, they will likely be distracted or interrupted
as they read.
- Keep your column widths easy to scan.
This helps viewers maintain focus on your material and find their place
easily if they have to step away for a moment. The size of your text
should also facilitate reading while standing in a public place.
- Try to be judicious in your use of colors and/or high contrast
borders.
These features can give your work impact and can direct the viewer towards
key information, but too many colors or borders can be distracting,
especially if used in an arbitrary manner. (This is a common design
problem with many poster displays at Wellesley.)
- Layout the entire poster arrangement before you attach anything
permanently.
Your viewer is likely to begin at the top, and the left, scanning the
arrangement for aspects that jump out, then skipping to the bottom right.
How does your eye flow as you scan the overall arrangement? Where does
it stop? Which parts are most essential? Which parts are details of
other material? Do they seem that way visually? Look for a balance
between elements such as the title, the blocks
of text, and the graphics. This
is not to say that there needs to be an equal amount of each, but that
all of these kinds of elements should complement each other.
- Above all, try to keep an eye on the empty spaces between
elements.
This is essential "rest" space for the eye, and most good design depends
upon being sensitive to apparently negative spaces and intervals.
- Keep your margins even, and the lines of text in alignment
with each other horizontally.
If your poster display is contained within an overall rectangular format,
plan to leave a bit more space at the bottom margin (rule of thumb is
equal top and side margins, but extra space at the bottom, to visually
"weight" the material)
- Use a level if you aren't sure whether your elements
are straight.
Use a T -square or right angle to make sure
your cuts are clean and square- unless you have a purpose to the wavery
line or odd angle. If possible, make use of a page layout computer program
to generate your text. Microsoft Word can do some of this, but Adobe
Pagemaker or Quark Express have
been the publishing world's standard programs. Pagemaker is supported
on campus at Knapp Center.
- There are several good references in addition to the ones
listed on the current Ruhlman web site:
Robin Williams, The Non-Designer's Design Book,
Peach Pit Press
Robin Williams, The Mac Is Not a Typewriter,
Peach Pit Press
Robin Williams and John Tollet, The Non Designers' Web Book,
Peach Pit Press.
Also recommended, is a quick look at the the last few chapters of Frank
Ching's, Architectural Graphics, which is
currently on desk reserve in the art library for my ARTS 113 class.
Good luck with all your preparations!
Phyllis McGibbon
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