Design Officer

Responsibilities

• Design and create the public lecture schedule poster at the beginning of each season
• Design and create the series of public lecture posters (7-8) at the beginning of each season
• Approximate time commitment is 12 hours / semester.

Directions for Poster Design

You have a lot of flexibility in terms of the programs/methods you can employ to create outreach posters. In the past, people have used Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Powerpoint, Open Office, GIMP and Keynote to design the posters. Whatever software you're comfortable with works, but I prefer Keynote (inexpensive program, easy to use, etc.) We have copies installed on the Lab laptops and Lab macs.

There are Keynote template (example) files available for a lecture schedule, lecture poster, film & lecture schedule (i.e. Summer), and film poster. They're accessible ​here.

Public Lecture Schedule Poster

• A couple of weeks prior to the semester, the Outreach Director will give you the lecture series including dates, times, speakers and titles. Typically, this schedule will be on the wiki in this directory (like here).
• Using this information, generate a poster for the upcoming semester. Try to finish it with at least one week prior to the first lecture.
• Include a blurb at the bottom of the poster with a general description:

These are Free Lectures at a Public Level Followed by Guided Star-Gazing with Telescopes
All Events are At Pupin Hall on the Columbia University Campus. No Reservations are Needed.
Lectures are Wheelchair Accessible, Star-Gazing on the Roof is Not. Lectures are 30 min, Star-Gazing lasts for 90 min.
For Directions and Other Information please Visit Our Website: ​http://outreach.astro.columbia.edu

• Examples of past posters can be found ​here
• While designing the poster, keep in mind that it will be rendered both on a computer and on paper (so watch out for weird color contrasts ie blue lettering on black background).
• Print out a version before you finalize it, just to make sure the color looks ok in paper form and that it renders the same on paper as it does on your computer.
• Consider a large background image across the poster. We'll be posting this on College Walk. At a distance, people can see the large background image without reading the smaller text.
• Run the final version past the Outreach Director just to make sure it works for everyone.
• Generate three different versions of the poster.
  • One pdf version that has a small enough file-size to download from the webpage (<=1 MB). This will be linked on the webpage.
  • One jpg/png version that has a small enough file-size to download from the webpage (<=1 MB). This will be linked on the webpage.
  • One pdf version that is high-resolution fit for printing to a large poster (18"x24") (no limit on size). This will be printed and put on College Walk.
• According to Destry, the best way to create these 3 files using Illustrator is to:
  • Design the poster on an 8.5"x11" canvas
  • Flatten it, rasterize it, and save it to pdf. This will produce the high-resolution, large filesize version.
  • Open up the file in Acrobat and save it using the "reduce file size" feature, save as pdf. This will produce the smaller file-size pdf.
  • Open up the file in Acrobat and save it using the "reduce file size" feature, save as jpg/png. This will produce the smaller file-size jpg/png.
• When you have generated these files, send them to the Outreach Director.
• Use the naming scheme <Season><Year>schedule.pdf (e.g. Spring10schedule.pdf)

Public Lecture Posters

After you have completed the lecture schedule poster, you'll need to complete the individual lecture posters. These are generally pretty similar to the schedule poster, typically using the same header and footer. However, you are free to design them however you want. Because we get all of the information (title, abstract, presenter, etc) for all of the lectures before the semester begins, it might make sense to devote several hours of one day to generating all of the posters in one fell swoop, but of course, it is up to you.

• Using the title, abstract, date, time, presenter, etc, generate a poster for each lecture. Try to finish each with at least two weeks prior to the lecture.
• Include a blurb at the bottom of the poster with a general description (same as for schedule):

These are free lectures at a public level followed by guided star-gazing with telescopes
All events are at Pupin Hall on the Columbia University campus. No reservations are deeded.
Lectures are wheelchair accessible, star-gazing on the roof is not. Lectures are 30 min, star-gazing lasts for 90 min.
For directions and other information please visit our website: ​http://outreach.astro.columbia.edu

• Examples of past posters can be found ​here
• While designing the poster, keep in mind that it will be rendered both on a computer and on paper (so watch out for weird color contrasts ie blue lettering on black background).
• Print out a version before you finalize it, just to make sure the color looks ok in paper form.
• You are free (and encouraged) to find images online to put on to the poster.
• Save each poster as a small filesize pdf and a small filesize jpg/png (same as lecture schedule). You will not need a high-resolution, large filesize version.
• Save each poster with a filename according to: YYYYMMDDposter.pdf
• When you are done, upload them to the webserver in the directory /home/cal/groups/www/outreach.astro.columbia.edu/images/posters/ (from Saturn, Pluto or a CW). Be sure to run "chmod 775 *" and "chgrp outreach-owners *" in that directory after uploading them to give them the appropriate permissions.
• Print out three copies of the poster and hang them on the bulletin board on Pupin 13th floor, Pupin 10th floor, and Pupin 5th floor.