Helpful Resources for Making a Great Research Poster

Sometimes it’s tricky to know where to start when creating a poster presentation. We’ve collected some tools, resources, and templates to start you on your poster research journey.

Design Tools

• Download a presentation in PDF format that talks about the basics of Poster Design (conventions, general ideas) and some examples of posters that don’t work
• A handout that walks you through how to design a basic poster in Adobe Illustrator CC.
• You can easily use PowerPoint to design a scholarly poster. Here’s a file that you can use for inspiration for your own scholarly poster.

Campus Resources

• The Margaret H. Ordoubadian University Writing Center at MTSU: The University Writing Center can help with designing your poster, developing content, and coming up with ideas.
• The MakerSpace: Located on the second floor of Walker Library, the MakerSpace can help with using software products like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Indesign.
• Scholars Week’s Research and Creative Activity Exposition is a great opportunity to get inspiration. Their website offers poster guidelines and templates that you can use for your projects.

Printing Your Poster

• You can easily use on campus resoruces, such as Blue Print or Walker Library’s technology services, to get your poster ready for the Celebration of Student Writing.

Links for Other Helpful Tips, Templates, and More

Still looking for more ideas, inspiration, or help? We’ve got you.

• Colin Purrington’s design blog offers some additional design tips (more geared towards scholarly science posters), with some nice design templates and printing tips thrown in for good measure. 
• NYU’s library offers a guide for poster basics, along with good and bad examples of poster presentations.
• Northern Arizona University has a poster creation website specifically geared towards undergraduate research. Their page contains tips on design, layout, and even how to prepare for the presentation itself.