Creating a Research Poster

One way to add meaning to your poster is to use images.

1. You can find images on the web but you should be concerned with copyright law.
2. You can legally use photos in four ways: 1) find photos that are licensed as Creative Commons (flickr), 2) ask permission from the photographer, 3) buy your photos from a stock photo site (e.g. http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php) or 4) take your own photos.
3. Make sure that you don’t increase the photo from the original size. If you copy and paste the image and it’s too small, enlarging it will only pixilate your photo and it will not print properly on the final poster.
4. If you are attending a national conference, it is essential that you identify yourself as an affiliate of Humboldt State University.
5. Generally speaking, photos as background images rarely look good. The image tends to overpower the text and make the poster hard to read. (If you must, you can fade out your image by using image editing software.) Instead, try using a background color or boxes to set off your text and images.

Everystockphoto: The advanced search allows you to limit your search by license type

Stock.xchng: In the drop down menu that says "Restricted OK," be sure to select "NO" to find images that you can use

Clker.com: Archive of royalty-free vector clipart in the public domain

PDclipart: Public Domain clipart in browseable categories

Image*After: Public Domain images which can be searched or browsed by category

You can view and download Cal Poly Humboldt logos and wordmarks at the Marketing & Communications Official Cal Poly Humboldt wordmarks & logos page. Be sure to follow the directions on the proper use of the logos, but if you are creating a poster as a Humboldt project, you may add a wordmark and/or logo.