Great design enhances written and visual communication, making it more coherent, effective and accessible. 

The foundations of great design are balanced composition, consistent and meaningful typography, appropriate and engaging colour and imagery - and good planning. You don't need to be 'artistic' or an expert to utilise these concepts; we believe that with a little knowledge and practice, everyone has the potential to improve their design skill. 

In this lively session we examine:

• Key principles of design - we look at core concepts of composition, typography, colour and images, and how these apply to print and digital formats; understanding these fundamentals is valuable to all visual communication projects, from PowerPoint presentations to diagrams to infographics
• infohackit hacks for creating a poster - we share our top tips and simple steps you can follow when developing a new design or improving an existing one
• Planning exercise - preparation is essential for great design; we undertake an exercise to learn how by developing a plan for a visual abstract; you will need a research paper to use as source material (it doesn't have to be your own as this is an exercise only, but you do need to be familiar with the content)

Attendees will receive a summary document to remind you of the key lessons so you can apply them to your future design projects.

Delivered by infohackit: infohackit provide training in design and visual communication, targeted to the needs of PhD students and researchers. Peter and Lucy have had 20-year careers in information design, working with clients in research, Higher Education and health care. They founded infohackit in 2015 and have since trained hundreds of researchers to improve their visual communications, through in-person and online events: infohackit.com