Academic poster design that people stop to read

Designing for the ninety-second visit

At a busy poster session, most people decide in a few seconds whether to stop, and those who do rarely stay longer than a minute or two. That reality should drive every design choice. A poster isn't a paper pinned to a board; it's an invitation to a conversation.

We design around three reading distances. From across the room, a visitor should see your title and one striking visual. From a few steps away, the headline findings should be readable. Up close, the methods, details and references are there for anyone who wants them.

Getting that hierarchy right is mostly a matter of discipline. Every element earns its place by helping a passer-by understand what you found, and anything that doesn't is moved to the handout, the QR link or your conversation at the board. Posters built this way also photograph well, which matters now that many attendees share them on social media after the session.

From abstract to layout

We begin with your abstract, paper or slides and agree a plan with you. A typical layout looks like this:

1. A title written as a finding or question, with authors and affiliations
2. Background and aim in two or three sentences
3. Methods shown as a simple flow diagram rather than paragraphs
4. Results given the largest share of space, led by one main figure
5. Conclusions as three to five plain bullets
6. References, acknowledgements, funding and a QR code to the full paper or your profile

Text usually needs to shrink by half. We show you where, and you approve every cut so the scientific claims remain exactly as you intend.

Figures, type and colour that work on the wall

Charts made for a journal often fail on a poster: axis labels vanish, legends are cramped, and six panels compete for attention. We rebuild figures from your data at poster scale, simplify where possible and label lines and bars directly so readers don't have to hunt through a legend. Body text sits at around 28 to 36 point for an A0 or 48-by-36-inch poster, with headings much larger. We choose palettes that stay distinguishable in greyscale and for people with colour vision deficiency, and we check the contrast of every text block.

Tools, templates and sizes

We work in whatever suits you. PowerPoint is the most common choice because co-authors can edit it easily; Keynote suits Mac users who want fine typographic control; Illustrator or Affinity give the most precision; and Canva is handy for quick community or recruitment posters. If you want to build future posters yourself, we can deliver a reusable template, such as a scientific poster template in Keynote or PowerPoint, with styles already set.

Sizes vary more than people expect. A0 portrait is standard at many European conferences, while North American meetings often specify 48 by 36 inches in landscape. Always check the call for abstracts, and send us the exact dimensions.

Timeline, preparation and presenting

Allow at least a week before the print deadline; five working days is our usual turnaround for a poster with one revision round. Send your abstract or paper, data or existing figures, logos, the size requirements and any template from the organisers via the quote form.

On the day, the poster does half the work and your pitch does the rest. We'll suggest a short spoken summary you can deliver in under two minutes. If you're also giving a talk, our academic presentation design keeps slides and poster visually consistent, and if you're turning the poster into a full paper, our guide to writing an abstract is a good next step.

How it works

1. Describe your project

   Level, deadline and what you need help with.

2. Agree a written scope

   What's included, the price and the timeline.

3. Work in stages

   Check-ins so you can steer the work.

4. Review and ask

   Explanations and follow-up questions included.

Frequently asked questions