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FIRST TEMPLATES & YOU WOULDN'T EAT SOUP WITH A FORK

The first two templates are available! They’re by no means one-size-fits-all, but they are a starting point for you to edit and make your own. Please contact me if you have any issues downloading or using them.

Download the horizontal one here and the vertical one here, and check out the notes below for a few pointers on editing them. Download the fonts I used here.

But first, a word on PowerPoint: yes, I did make these templates in this devilish program, but that doesn’t mean we should be designing posters here. PPT was born to create slideshow presentations, not posters, and really, we should all be using Adobe InDesign or Illustrator, or an equivalent program especially designed for the task.

I know, InDesign is expensive, it’s overwhelming (not once you try it!), it’s this, it’s that… but I urge you to consider trying it if you create posters on a regular basis. The way you’d execute a basic action like, say, creating a text box and changing the text’s properties is not so different from how you’d do it in PPT, but InDesign has so many better functions that help you create beautiful layouts. You don’t have to be a whiz to use it, and Adobe has so many online forums that you’re pretty much guaranteed to find answers to any questions.

So for now, I’ll keep posting templates made in PPT since I know many of you use it and the reason I started this blog was to help you, but consider this: you wouldn’t eat soup with a fork, so why use a program that’s not fully equipped for what you need to do?

Happy postering!

P.S. It would be so awesome if some of you sent me posters of yours to redesign – that way I have the real elements that you’d actually put on a poster rather than guessing what sections you need.

Notes:

Both posters are 48” x 36” – you’ll need to adjust this in File > Page Setup if you want your poster to be a different size.

The vertical guides help with column width and spacing. They’re on the master slide, so you’ll have to go to View > Master to delete them.

Also go to the master slide if you need to edit the guides (e.g. make them wider or thinner); you’ll especially have to do this if you change the dimensions of the poster. To distribute them evenly across the page, go to “Size, Rotation and Ordering” and select “Distribute Horizontally.” This may be in a different place depending on the PPT version you’re using.

Note the typefaces used on each poster and only use these throughout – pay special attention when you create a new text box. On each poster, I used one typeface for the header and another for everything else, taking advantage of bold, etc. to differentiate between sub-headers and body type.

Also note that the text is a very dark grey, not black, so be consistent on using that throughout as well.

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