28 April 2011

Critique: Ovarian cancer cells

The third and final entry in the American Association for Cancer Research poster competition. This one is from the Stanford University School of Medicine... (Click to enlarge.)


Virtues:

  1. Definite and distinct columns. Although the columns are unequal, at least they are almost always a consistent width from top to bottom.
  2. The red section headers are effective at breaking up the gray text.
  3. The colours are mostly consistent, tying in with some of the cell pictures on the right.
  4. At least there’s only one logo next to the title.


Vices:

  1. Too text heavy, especially in the all important upper left corner, and the top half of the poster.
  2. Having the text crawling up into the title bar.
  3. The methods are in a strange place, no doubt a compromise emerging from poor planning.
  4. The blues and green in the central graph are so different from the rest of the colours, they stick out like a sore thumb.

Based on purely graphics considerations, this one is my favourite of the three. It has the cleanest layout overall, and appears to have had the most thought put into the design. This one has my vote.

Thanks again to Angela Alexander (@flutesUD on Twitter) for handing me three blog posts on a silver platter! See the other two finalists in this competition here and here.

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