Critique and makeover: Tickled zinc

The makeover is small, because this poster is so good

Author

Zen Faulkes
May 26, 2025

The title of this post is a direct swipe from the poster because Meg Mindlin’s title is reigns supreme and is undefeated. It’s just one of many things I love ❤️ about this poster. Click to enlarge!

Pink poster titled, "Tickled zinc."

Before I get into my few comments, I will let Meg describe her process of making this poster (lightly edited).

I presented this poster at the very first CephNeuro conference at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA.

When starting this poster I wanted to make something that was pretty to look at. I do not like traditional academic posters; they’re ugly and boring.

My background before becoming a scientist was in art and design, and I do a lot of science communication on social media. Even though it was my first poster, I wanted to showcase my skills in those departments.

 I had originally hand drawn various different designs with an all black theme to add my own personal aesthetic to my work. I hated all of them and they just weren’t fun. I was taking myself too seriously.

I decided I needed a fun title. Because zinc fingers were a main result of my research, I used an online pun generator to create “tickled zinc.”

From then, I knew this poster had to be pink.

I absolutely loved the idea of standing in a room surrounded by serious posters and having a bright pink one. I went to this conference looking for PhD positions so having a memorable poster was a plus. If a PI didn’t appreciate my humour and approach, then they weren’t a good fit for me anyways.

I used Coolors to pick the specific pink colour scheme and then used Canva to create my poster. All the graphics I used are free. I just altered them to fit my color scheme, which is super easy to do in Canva.

I didn’t want a wordy poster so I kept everything as minimal as possible, because I also wanted conversation. Keeping things minimal forced me to have to explain things. 

In terms of organization, I just looked at what I had and organized it how I felt it looked best, using lower opacity rectangles to separate sections. I tried to stick to two fonts only to keep things cohesive, though I ended up including more text so added a third that was more legible.

The only part I’m unhappy with is the bottom right corner with affiliations. It feels messy and inconsistent.

And here I want to break into the narrative to say that I agree with Meg’s self assessment here. The affiliations could use some work. Here’s a closeup of the original:

There are two issues here. One is that none of the elements align. Now, this is hard, especially with the hard edges of a square QR code and the soft curves of a circle. The second is that the white of the QR code disrupts the colour scheme. Here’s a quick revision:

I lined up the logos. I flipped the position of the logos, too. The straight lines of the QR code matched the straight lines of the column in the Walla Walla University logo, and the curves of the marine lab logo were closer to the curves of the octopus arms.

And I painted in the QR code, so that now it is the same black on ink as everything around it.

Other minor suggestions, mostly around typography:

  • It is unusual to list authors as “Surname, A.” I don’t see any advantage to that, and would try “A. Surname” instead.

  • Usually small numbers like “3” are spelled out as “three.”

  • “CO2” should be “CO2.”

  • “OA” is an undefined acronym, presumably for “ocean acidification,” rather than “open access.”

  • “Zinc Fingers” might make a great character name in Star Wars, but because it is not a proper noun, there is no reason to capitalize it. Same with “Octopus Genome.”

How was this poster received, Meg?

The response was overwhelmingly positive.

I presented a slide for their “flash talk” to showcase posters, which was also bright pink. The room definitely laughed when my slide was put up. I heard through the grapevine that people were asking others if they saw the pink poster. Everyone wanted to check out the pink poster, which allowed me to talk to more people than my research alone would likely bring! I had great conversations with people, and I accomplished my goal of being memorable!

I worried that having so little on my poster I’d get a lot of questions that I wasn’t prepared for, but that wasn’t an issue. I got far less questions than I was expecting, which I hope is because I concisely represented my project. 

I will likely continue the pink theme going forward with this project. My thesis slides are also pink, and when we publish I will definitely push to keep the pun title and pink colour scheme included, because why not? It makes science fun.

And here is the poster as presented:

"Tickled zinc" poster on poster board

This poster could have been very data heavy, with sequences or blots or who knows what else. Instead, it is focused, visual, and can be ready quickly. And the playfulness is just a bonus!

I think this poster is going to become a personal favourite, and one I will probably share often in talks.

Great thanks to Meg for sharing her work and story!