3: Graphics

to go up a level.

Creating a Poster

When you create a poster or a display, you need to draw attention to a message. To begin, focus on an element that will capture a passerby’s eye and draw them in to your poster (a word, a picture, or even a colour). Once you have the reader’s attention, focus on a clear, concise message that delivers your key points. Avoid excessive text, which can overwhelm, confuse, and disinterest the reader.

Designing a Poster or Display

When we first learn to read, we are taught to start at the top left corner of the page and move right. Our eyes are trained to follow a Z pattern, starting at the optical center (the upper-left corner of the page). Knowing how your eye scans a page will help you decide where to place your text and graphics. Think of what you want your reader to see first, consider how the eye scans the page and makes connections between the graphics and the text, and decide what you want the reader to remember as they finish looking at the page.  A good place for business logos and contact information is in the bottom-right corner of the page.

Effective use of white space (blank space with no text or graphics) can highlight information, as well as provide a clean look.  

Using graphics is one of the most effective ways to create an interesting display. You know the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words”? Be discerning and choose just the right graphic.  Use the Insert tab, Images group to add clip art or pictures saved from the internet, your digital camera, or a scanner.

Text should be large enough to read at a distance — if your readers can’t read the text quickly as they walk by, your poster won’t get a second look. Sans serif fonts, such as Arial and Helvetica, are easier to read than serif fonts, such as Times New Roman, because the letters of the fonts don’t have the “serifs” — hooks or end strokes — that characterize serif fonts. (If you have taken any French courses, remember that sans means without, so sans serif means without the hooks or end strokes.) Use only one or two font styles for a more consistent look, and adjust the spacing between the text to make it easier to read.

Use capital letters, bold, italics, colour, and lines to highlight the main points of your poster, but use these features carefully—over-formatting a document makes it difficult for your audience to pick out what is important.

Bullets and numbers make information stand out, drawing the eye to each bullet or number marker in the text.

Watch the “Adding Text Boxes and Images to Google Docs” and “Making a Poster in Google Documents”. These videos will teach you how to insert a text box, format the text, change the font (style, size, colour, bold, italic), and how to insert and format graphics in your documents. To create a visually appealing document, you may need to move and adjust the size of objects on your page.

List Assignment

In this practice, you will be asked to create a bulleted, numbered, and multilevel list with provided information.

• 1. Open a new, blank Google document.

  2. Save the document as “List - Firstname Lastname” in your INF1030: Graphics folder.

  3. Create the following shopping list as a bulleted list.

SHOPPING LIST

• 1. Milk

  2. Cheese

  3. Yogurt

  4. Carrots

  5. Broccoli

  6. Celery

  7. Apples

  8. Oranges

  9. Bananas

  10. Change the list to a numbered list.

  11. Change the list to a multilevel list by adding the categories “Dairy,” “Veggies,” and “Fruit” in the appropriate spots.

  12. Make your list similar to the one above (but instead of numbers for the second level, you'll have a, b, c):