Annemarie Ashton-Wyatt
PhD candidate

It is easy to get hooked on words and numbers, especially when your life revolves around a word count. Research authors who are pressed for time may skimp on their images – clip art or a graph (or five) is considered sufficient. Yet, the right picture can bring life and interest to a poster, a presentation or even an article. Images draw people’s attention. They provoke an emotional reaction and activate different neural pathways in the viewer’s brain. Investing time in design helps to get research the attention it deserves.

You don’t have to be an artist to create good images. Your own original photographs can be cropped and added to a poster or power-point. Alternatively, stock photos from professional photographers can be purchased quite cheaply via the internet. You can also use the work of creative artists, with the appropriate permissions, if it is relevant to your subject matter.

My PhD research is on families with a child with disability in Australia. This is a very small group – approximately 1.7% of the Australian population. When preparing a conference abstract, I realised that looking for this sub-group was like looking for the Where’s Wally? character within one of Martin Handford’s wonderful illustrated books for children. 

Using Where’s Wally? imagery gives me a great way to make my work stand out from the crowd. It provides a point of connection with an international audience, as Where’s Wally? is published in 30 languages across 38 countries and has sold over 56 million copies. It also injects a little fun into the (occasionally) stuffy world of academia, without being gimmicky.

The permissions process was not complex. The publisher’s website provided an application form, which I submitted with a design ‘mock up’ and a clear outline of where, how and when I intended to use the images. I received an initial response within 48 hours. Granting of a licence required the publisher to co-ordinate with a number of people, including the author’s agent, so the whole process took 8 weeks. The licence was granted at no charge. I have licence conditions to abide by, including use of specific images, permissions wording and agreement about where I can display the poster. These conditions are easily met and worthwhile to enable use of such eye-catching images.

So give some thought to your images when you are planning an abstract. How can you make your work come to life? An attractive design or framing concept accompanying your sound and solid research work could increase your chance of publication or participation. PhD students and early career researchers especially may find such work is a valuable portfolio inclusion for current and prospective employers. Most importantly, design can be a fun way to spend an afternoon when you have been bled dry by wrestling with statistics all week!

My poster, Learning from WHERE’S WALLY? Measuring a missing population of families caring for children with disability, was presented at the European Population Conference in Stockholm on 13-16 June 2012. 

Photo: Annmarie with her poster at the European Population Conference.