Poster Tips

Large Format Printing: Tips for Creating Posters

Articulate your message clearly – What are the primary and secondary messages you want to deliver to the audience? Make sure your title and the contents reflect the key points you want to deliver.
Be clear and concise – Avoid clutter as it confuses the message. Your poster should be readable from at least four–five feet away. Put details on a handout or direct the audience to a Website for more information.
Make it readable – Don’t use more than two different fonts. Serif fonts such as Times New Roman tend to be easier to read. Avoid using all caps and use bold sparingly to emphasize only key words. Use bullet points and save long sentences for the handouts.
Grab the interest of your audience – Use color, photos, graphics and timelines to illustrate your project. Make sure that your graphics are high quality (150 dpi or higher) so that they’ll be crisp when the poster is enlarged.
Provide contact information – Put your name, title, school/college, phone, e-mail and Web address on your presentation and on all literature you distribute.
Use the power of the institution – “Brand” your work by using the UWM preferred logo. Be sure to use the 2-color logo for full-color posters or the black and white logo for 2-color. Logos can be downloaded at branding.uwm.edu.

Your poster presentation is a way to communicate to your target audience. Use it to open doors for future dialogue and collaboration.

Need help with your design? Contact the Creative Services Visual Design department at cre8-design@uwm.edu with questions.

Have questions about poster printing?

E-mail cre8-design@uwm.edu or call Lesley Kelling at 414-229-3719 to learn more. Visual Design Poster Printing is located in Sabin Hall, Room 353B.