I will be presenting a poster in a few weeks but have no experience with them. I've seen and given plenty of talks, read and written papers, but I have never made or even seen a poster in pure mathematics. Googling I was able to find LaTeX templates but was unable to find any examples or tips on presenting pure mathematics in a poster format. So what experience and examples does the math.SE community have with posters in pure mathematics topics?
This mathoverflow question https://mathoverflow.net/questions/21401/how-do-you-make-a-good-math-research-poster-for-a-non-mathematical-audience is related but here I'm asking about a poster aimed at research mathematicians, not a general audience.
I hope this is in the scope of the website. I'm also not sure what the appropriate tags are.
Best Answer
Since most of book covers on research mathematics is intentionally kept sober, to make a poster you may want to keep it simple yet not too boring. Also, it depends on the subject, audience, medium and budget.
Some tips:
keep it simple or to borrow the term: minimalistic
Visual wordplay or pun (as long as it is not overdone) OR, allusion to artwork such as Magritte or Escher if you are dealing with a topic that is self-referential, but avoid being cliche. Since mathematics is hotbed for symbols and logos, you can alter the font to mold into an object. The zero-sharp, zero-dagger, club suit, diamond suit, etc. Example, a bird morphing from "w" (the smallercase Greek omega letter)
You can also use an equation in a Rebus style such as the much abused meme of $i$, complex number and irrationality. Although memes can be rather cheap humor, you can browse to keep ideas flowing. This cartoon was quite interesting. (It can also be a simple Euler's identity with the tagline: Thus God exists.) Also, try to make a campaign - to borrow advertising term- so that you keep one constraint, eg: Thus God exist and you show mathematical equations such as the the one already mentioned, Kurt Goedel's proof, etcetera. Only caveat: keep it simple and connect in a non-sequiter manner. If you show the image of two balls from one of Banach-Tarski paradox, your tagline could be something of the nature such as: Never a boring day at the classroom.
Probably a historical image in a monotone shade either a sketch of the mathematician if he is obscure or of the university or locale
Keep in mind of that if it is posted on a bullet inboard, passerby will have very short span to notice it, so it cannot be too deep to "get it"
Another idea could be "ambient"-a term in advertising, where you use the surrounding to prove a point, such as a life-size ballerina image around revolving door. Stickers on calendars, numpad on phone, mirror, trees can be ways to spread the message. Taglines like: Average person sees a tree, a number theorist sees the sequence: 1 1 2 3 5... or, Average person sees an coffee, but a topologist sees a a donut. (The last one is cliche, but for illustration purpose).
Some examples:
The famous book cover wittily shows and tells the theme
A Cantor one I found online that shows but does not tell the theme