Anthropology How-to: Academic Posters

Academic posters are a representation of your work, communicated through text, visual imagery, infographics and/or tables and graphs to summarise your project and its conclusions. Information is laid out in sections, using headings and subheadings to draw the attention and eyeline of the viewer.

Unlike an essay, there is no standard format to an academic poster and therefore you have the freedom to play with colour, composition and the style in which you’d like to display your information.  (Canturbury Christ Church University, 2023). 

What Makes an effective Poster?

• Important information should be readable from about 10 feet away
• Title is short and draws interest
• Word count of about 300 to 800 words
• Text is clear and to the point
• Use of bullets, numbering, and headlines make it easy to read
• Effective use of graphics, color and fonts
• Consistent and clean layout
• Includes acknowledgments, your name and institutional affiliation

(New York University Libraries, 2023, https://guides.nyu.edu/posters) 

Academic posters, like other forms of academic work, need to be readable, accessible, and clearly written.  Always consider your audience.  Readability and Accessibility can be tested using tools within Microsoft Word or with other software designed for that purpose.  

When using images that you did not personally create, be sure you are doing to ethically. Consult UVic Copyright if you are unsure. 

You can find images that are licensed for reuse via Google Images (select 'usage rights' under 'tools') , Flickr Commons, Wikimedia Commons, plus many other online sources.  Always provide attribution for the images that you use (even your own).  

Ordinarily, academic posters display the author's affiliation, often in the form of a logo. You may also choose to display the logo of any funding agencies who've supported your work, partner agencies, or other corporate  or government bodies.  Be sure to use their official logo, without distortion or editing.