The term “Poster Presentation” isn’t something I ran into in my previous career. I’m used to “multizone multimedia displays” and the occasional “synergistic brochureware for vertical portals.”
I don’t know what I was expecting out of my virgin poster presentation experience — maybe a really good poster? — but I was underwhelmed by the whole thing. The posters I encountered at a recent shall-not-be-named conference were all moderately informative, but I was taken aback by the liberal use of construction paper, chunky Crayola markers and CVS-brand posterboard. I think I saw glitter, too.
I’m not much of an aesthete, but c’mon now … construction paper? At a professional conference? Wouldn’t it be worth the effort to design the poster with a modicum of fancy-shmancy sheen? It doesn’t take much to whip something up in InDesign or Quark, and I have to imagine most schools and colleges have someone on-campus who knows a thing or two about printing.
Of course, all my ranting means my first poster presentation (release date: TBD) will be made of highly flammable glue that’ll ignite an epic conference hall fire. It’s karmically inevitable.
