Poster Tutorial

Poster Tutorial

Poster Design 

Clear message 

Accurate information 

Balanced with 

Visual appeal

Poster Design 

• This is a sales job 

• Convince the reader: 

• You speak their language 

• You have the solution to a problem 

• Make it easy for your reader to 

understand what you are presenting

General Design Issues 

• Ensure logical flow 

• Everything used has a reason 

• Images and colour – all demand attention 

• photos, drawings, maps, graph, logos 

• Background images – tasteful, not to complex 

• Complimentary colours – simple palette 

• Not to many fancy fonts 

• Asymmetry (groups of 3 or 5) 

• White space = breathing room

Content – must haves 

• Background 

• Why you are doing this research and possibly for whom 

• What / How 

• You visited 16 sites, worked on an oil rig, ran 

simulations…whatever it was 

• …built 5 specimens and burned them under different 

conditions. 

• Outcome/Conclusions 

• What did your test reveal – what you expected? Not what you 

expected? Do you suggest more research be done? 

• University logo

Visual - images 

• Use images that add value 

• Background images 

• simple – non-distracting – relevant 

• Keep the same style 

• Good quality for printing 

• Consider copyright issues

Microbrewery Planning Summary 

Colour 

Background images – tasteful, not to 

complex 

Complimentary colours – shades plus 

a highlight 

Simple palette 

Not to many fancy fonts 

Asymmetry (groups of 3 or 5) 

White space 

Ensure logical flow 

Everything used has a reason 

‘YES’ design: 

logical, 

simple, 

coordinated 

Colour 

Background images – 

tasteful, not to complex 

Complimentary colours – 

shades plus a highlight 



Asymmetry (groups of 3 or 

5) 

White space 


Everything used has a 

reason 







5) 

White space 



reasontasteful, not to 

complex 






5) 

White space 



reason 

Colour 








5) 

White space 



reason 







5) 

White space 




complex 






5) 

White space 



reason 

Colour 








5) 

White space 



reason 







5) 

White space 




complex 






5) 

White space 



reason 

This text is more important as it has some 

sort of comclusion or outcome here.

‘NO’ design 

busy, 

distracting, 

unprofessional 

Microbrewery 

Planning Summary 

Colour 

Background 

images – 

tasteful, not 

to complex 

Complimentary 

colours – 

shades plus a 

highlight 


Not to many 

fancy 

Colour 


tasteful, not to 

complex 

Complimentary colours 

– shades plus a 

highlight 


Not to many fancy 

fonts 

Asymmetry (groups of 

3 or 5) 

White space 



reason 

Colour 


complex 


a highlight 




White space 



Colour 


complex 


a highlight 




White space 



Colour 


complex 


a highlight 




White space 



This text is way to big hard to read and is very very 

distracting…. This text is way to big hard to read 

This text is way to small and too hard to read – why is it here??

Tools (Corel and you) 

• Corel 12 Suite is available in the Grotto 

and on many of the machines in the Civil 

computer lab. 

• Use CorelDraw for your poster layout and 

Corel Photopaint to edit your images. 

• Feel free to ask me questions. 

My office is in the civil computer suite, 

2 nd floor of the Civil/Mech 

building. or 

call me on ext 7338 or email me at 

melody.callahan@civil.canterbury.ac.nz

CorelDraw 12 

The next set of slides provides some 

information on the basic tools available to 

you in CorelDraw. 

These should help you get started – if you 

need more help just let me know.

How to set 

your page 

size.

Object Manager 

Use your object 

manager for ease of 

manipulating your 

poster content.

Object Manager 

• Set up layers, grid and 

guidelines 

• Control layer function 

with eye, printer and 

pencil icons. 

• Lock layers things 

can’t move around 

Tip: make one layer for 

images and another for 

text

Toolbar – Key tools 

• 1 st Arrow – move whole objects 

• 2 nd Arrow – edit objects (bezier( 

curves) 

• Magnifing glass – zooms in on drawing 

• Line tool 

• Shape tools (squares, circles, grids, etc..) 

• Text 

• Interactive flyout 

• Paint

CorelDraw12 – Text tools 

• When writing blocks 

of text – use 

Paragraph Text 

• Titles, callouts and 

captions – use 

Artistic Text 

• Keep fonts to 

Verdana, Arial, Times 

New Roman 

• Don’t go below 18pts 

for text (unless it’s a 

caption or callout) 

Tip: Cut and paste 

text from MSWord.

Adding images 

• Cut and paste (works but can 

be unstable or have strange 

results) 

• File: Import (very stable, but 

must have image ready to 

put in) 

Tip: Do your image edits 

BEFORE importing them if 

possible. Resize, crop, rotate, 

colour…etc

Drawing 

• Use the bezier line tool. 

• Line width no less than 1pt 

Tips: 

Straight line: Hold down the Ctrl 

key and click where you want 

each end of the line 

Curved line: click starting point, 

move to ending point click again. 

With mouse button down, drag 

mouse – will form a curve.

UC Logo usage 

• Do not change it in any way 

• If possible put on the right hand side 

• Make sure there is space around the logo

Dos and Don’ts 

Do 

• Keep it simple, clear and 

consise 

• Follow given criteria 

• Use good images (hi-res 

images – not something 

stolen from the web and 

blownup 300%) 

Don’t 

• Regurgitate your entire 

report on to an A1 poster 

• Use to much techno-jargon 

• Use too many fonts or 

fancy fonts 

• Wait until the last minute 

• Think outside the square

Finishing 

• Proof read and spell check! 

• Have someone else proof read your 

poster. 

• Printing and laminating is done at the 

Library Copy Centre. Must be done during 

working hours.

Don’t t leave it to the last 

minute !!!

Poster Tutorial

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?