Making a poster for a philosophy presentation
Posters are a standard way of presenting research in the sciences, and they are becoming more common in philosophy. I’m not really an expert, but I’ve done a few poster presentations. If you’re making your first poster, here are some examples and guidelines that might help you get started.
Generally, the easiest way to make the poster is with one (very large) powerpoint slide. Here is a bare bones template that you can use to get started.
1. A poster that is 36” x 48” will probably be the right size. Since people will be reading it from several feet away, the font should be 28 point or larger.
2. I suggest making the poster in black and white (and gray). Most people do color, but it triples—or more than triples— the cost of having it printed, and most of the time, doing it in color doesn’t make much of a difference.
3. Although posters can be a good way to talk about your project and get feedback, they’re not a good way to present a whole project. Ideally, you just want your poster to be an extended abstract. Try to limit how much text you put on the poster. (I have too much on the two examples above.)
4. If someone is reading your poster, they should be able to get through it in less than six minutes. Generally, no is going to read for longer than that while standing in a packed auditorium. (And keep in mind that you reading through it yourself in six minutes isn’t a good guide for how long it will take someone who is seeing it for the first.)
5. Instead of just letting people read it, some of the time, you will want to talk people through the poster—that is, go through it with them by giving them the main idea for each section. When you’re doing so, you want to be able to explain it in even less time. Ideally, what you’re aiming for is to get people asking questions and discussing your project with you.
6. Regarding getting people to ask questions and discuss your project, one thing that you might consider is having a one or two question survey that they can fill out first. I did this once, and it worked pretty well. It got people to stop, think about my topic, and once they had written down their responses, they wanted to talk about it.
7. Once you’re done creating the poster, turn the slide into a pdf and take it to Kinkos or Office Depot to have it printed (or there might be somewhere else at or around your school). If you do go with black & white, it will probably be less than $100. Once you have it printed, you’re stuck with it, unless you want to pay to have it printed again, and so I would suggest creating the poster (that is, the slide) sooner rather than later, editing and tweaking it, and then printing it as a poster right before your conference.