Creating posters to present scientific data
Common style sheets
Fortunately, you don’t always have to wrestle with this question because sometimes the decision is made for you as there are specifications regarding the layout, e.g. when a team (like a research association) is presenting itself collectively. Even though you might not personally like the layout, you have a framework that you can use without further ado.
It is worth considering two things before deciding on the colours:
- common associations
- target group (see next page)
Goethe already commented on the significance of colours. Colours are always linked to certain associations. In Central Europe, the colour black is still very often associated with mourning, grey is often perceived as dreary, blue conveys professionalism, pink is seen as babyish, and so on. At the same time, though, there are also cultural differences when it comes to colours. Colours may be perceived completely differently, e.g. white as a colour of mourning. Finally, colours are of course subject to fashion. While drab greys and browns were fashionable for home design in the 1980s, they disappeared and only reappeared in more intense versions of browns and earth tones in recent years.
Does this mean you have to confine yourself to boring, but very objective seeming combinations?
Muted colours more frequently come with helpful associations: professional, high quality, structured, clear, pleasant.
On the colour wheel, complementary pairs of intense and pastel colours are placed opposite each other. Complementary in this case means that the opposites produce the best possible contrast. It is good to select a colour in its pastel shade and to use the corresponding contrasting colour for highlighting.
The opposite of complementary colours is the effect of colours contrasting very badly with each other. For instance, green writing on a red background is difficult to read, as is red on black.
Captions for colour figures where the font colour is supposed to provide a contrast to the displayed content are often even trickier. This problem arises, for instance, with microscope images. Here, you should use effects and borders to improve the contrast and ensure legibility.