[Tex/LaTex] Creating this poster layout using minipages

Question

I am making a poster in LaTeX. I am using the minipages enviroment to split the poster into three columns. I have some boxes which spread over multiple columns. The difficulty arises when I try to have two boxes which spread over 2 different seperate columns.

How can I arrange this layout using minipages? The issue is getting the bottom arrangement to work.

Desired output

MWE

\documentclass[final,a0,portrait]{a0poster}
\usepackage{quantum,natbib,graphicx,placeins,rotating,bm,amsbsy,amsmath,mathrsfs,caption,mathtools}
\usepackage[svgnames]{xcolor}
\usepackage{siunitx,float}
\usepackage{tcolorbox} 
\usepackage[font=Large,justification=centering]{caption}
\setlength{\bibsep}{0.0pt}   
\usepackage{float}
\floatplacement{figure}{H}
\floatplacement{table}{H}
\floatplacement{tabular}{H}
\usepackage{mdframed}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{newtxtext,newtxmath}
\usepackage[scaled]{helvet}

\begin{document}

\pagecolor{Blue!50}

\Large

\tcbset{center title, left=35pt,right=35pt,top=35pt,bottom=35pt, colback=white,colframe=DarkBlue!80,title=\textcolor{White}, toptitle=0.5cm, bottomtitle=0.5cm}

\begin{minipage}[t]{0.19\linewidth}

\end{minipage}
%
\hspace{0.27cm}
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.62\linewidth}
\begin{center}
\color{White}
\Huge \color{White}  \textbf{\textsf{Title here}} \\
\huge \textsf{Name1\textsuperscript{*} and Name2$^\dagger$}\\  \Large
\emph{Department} \\ \textsuperscript{*}    \textit{email1}, $^\dagger$\textit{email2}
\end{center}
\end{minipage}
%a
\hspace{0.27cm}
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.15\linewidth}

\end{minipage}


\vspace{1cm}


%Top Left
\noindent
\begin{minipage}[b]{0.64\linewidth}
\begin{tcolorbox}[title=\textcolor{White}{\huge\textsf{Title 1}}]
Some text
\vspace{5cm}
\end{tcolorbox}
\vspace{20pt}
%
%
\begin{minipage}[b]{0.485\linewidth}
\begin{tcolorbox}[top=10pt, bottom=10pt, title=\textcolor{White}{\huge\textsf{Title 2}}]
a
\vspace{60.8cm}

a
\end{tcolorbox} % THIS IS THE END OF THE QFI TEXT BOX

\end{minipage} 
%
%
\quad
\begin{minipage}[b]{0.50\linewidth}
\begin{tcolorbox}[top=10pt, bottom=10pt, title=\textcolor{White}{\huge\textsf{Title 3}}]
\vspace{0.8cm}
\noindent
Some text
\vspace{25.5cm}
\end{tcolorbox}

\begin{tcolorbox}[top=10pt, bottom=10pt, title=\textcolor{White}{\huge\textsf{Title 4}}]
\vspace{0.8cm}
\noindent
Some text
\vspace{30cm}
\end{tcolorbox}

\end{minipage} 


\end{minipage} 
%
\quad
\begin{minipage}[b]{0.32\linewidth}
\begin{tcolorbox}[title=\textcolor{White}{\huge\textsf{Title 5}}]
Some text
\vspace{65cm}
a
\end{tcolorbox}
\begin{tcolorbox}[top=40pt,bottom=40pt,title=\textcolor{White}{\huge\textsf{Title 6}}]
Some text
\vspace{5cm}

\end{tcolorbox}

\end{minipage}


\begin{minipage}[b]{0.35\linewidth} 
\end{minipage}

\begin{minipage}[b]{0.61\linewidth} 
\begin{tcolorbox}[top=40pt, bottom=40pt, title=\textcolor{White}{\huge\textsf{References}}]

\vspace{10cm}

\end{tcolorbox}
\end{minipage}


\end{document}

Answer 1

Motivated by the answers of @Ignasi, I made a new library poster for tcolorbox which is part of the package starting with version 4.10 (2017/07/06).

The main purpose of the new library is (of course) the support of tcolorbox placement for posters in a similar manner as baposter does.

I took the two examples of @Ignasi with his definition of a private posterbox style and modified them for the new library. I hope you will find that the new library allows to write the code much shorter and better readable:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[most,poster]{tcolorbox}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\tcbset{
    posterbox/.style={%
        enhanced jigsaw, size=fbox,
        colback=#1!10, colframe=#1!10!black,
        colbacktitle=#1!70!black
    }
}

\begin{document}

\begin{tcbposter}[
  coverage={spread,phantom=\thispagestyle{empty}},
  poster={columns=3,rows=8,spacing=3mm,showframe=false},
  fontsize=12pt,
]

\posterbox[title=Top left box,posterbox=blue]{name=A,column=1,below=top,span=2,rowspan=1}
{This is some other text}

\posterbox[title=Bottom right box,posterbox=blue]{name=B,column=2,above=bottom,span=2,rowspan=1}
{This is some other text}

\posterbox[title=Bottom left box,posterbox=green]{name=C,column=1,between=A and bottom}
{This is some other text}

\posterbox[title=Central box,posterbox=red]{name=D,column=2,between=A and B}
{This is some other text}

\posterbox[title=Top right box,posterbox=green]{name=E,column=3,between=top and B}
{This is some other text}

\end{tcbposter}

\end{document}

The second example uses a breakable box. Note that this box can be used directly with the new library:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[most,poster]{tcolorbox}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\tcbset{
    posterbox/.style={%
        enhanced jigsaw, size=fbox,
        colback=#1!10, colframe=#1!10!black,
        colbacktitle=#1!70!black
    }
}

\begin{document}

\begin{tcbposter}[
  coverage={spread,phantom=\thispagestyle{empty}},
  poster={columns=3,rows=8,spacing=3mm,showframe=false},
  fontsize=12pt,
]

\posterbox[title=Top left box,posterbox=blue]{name=A,column=1,below=top,span=2,rowspan=1}
{This is some other text}

\posterbox[title=Bottom right box,posterbox=blue]{name=B,column=2,above=bottom,span=2,rowspan=1}
{This is some other text}

\posterbox[title=Some long text,posterbox=orange]{name=C,
  sequence=1 between A and bottom then
           2 between A and B then
           3 between top and B }
{\lipsum[1-5]}

\end{tcbposter}

\end{document}