Critique: Bee DNA

Today’s poster comes from Mark Davis. This was, as far as I can tell, presented at a US Department of Defense (DoD) environmental restoration workshop last December. Click to enlarge!

This poster was designed by Danielle Ruffatto.

I spotted Mark’s poster on Twitter, and invited him to submit to the blog. It stood out from a lot of posters because of how it used the zone of the poster sitting at eye level. No text. Just a solid banner of visual delights from one side to the other. The pictures are not laid out in a grid – they are different heights and widths – but it doesn't matter because all the outer edges align.

The right half of the photo banner has a pointer leading down to “Phase II.” It’s not entirely clear what the relationship between those pictures and the “Phase II” section is.

The lack of an underlying grid makes me a little more uneasy in the bottom section where the main text resides. The varying widths of the text sections bothers me a little. For example, the “Methods” section is not quite twice the width of the “Objectives.”

When varying column widths, I like when they are clear multiples. The “Objectives” section is the narrowest, and could be used as the basis for other sections. If the “Methods” section was exactly twice the width of the “Objectives,” it might make for a slightly cleaner layout. That there is a decent amount of what space under each section indicates there is a little room to play.

The typography is sharp throughout. I like the combination of the plain type for the main text with the condensed font for the title and headings. Bolding is used judiciously for emphasis. The use of drop caps for numbered lists in the “Objectives” section is very slick and well done. It would have been nice is the “Methods” list had the same format.

The graphs in the results are nice, but would benefit from a little more colour or heavier line weight or something to make them “pop” against the background. From a distance, they fade away to near invisibility. And again, the graphs don’t align with the bars of pictures above them. In the reduced thumbnail above, the graphs look like empty space at a glance.

I like the marginal dividing lines between the sections, but they don’t align with the lines between the photos above them.

While the logos are in the appropriate “fine print” section, I would have liked it if they were the same height.

The “Acknowledgments” are likewise in a good position, but the line length is around three or four times longer than ideal.

This is a strong poster in concept that is well executed, particularly in the typography.