Sometimes people worry too much about the appearance of their poster and forget that at the heart, a poster is simply a visual presentation of one's scientific research. The bottom line is if you don't have good science forget the presentation. At this stage of your career, the encouragement and support you have already no doubt received from your advisor should assure you that you have some interesting new science to present. Consequently your focus should be on making sure that the information presented on the board reflects the quality of your work.
Although the size of a poster may vary somewhat in general poster boards tend to be 4' high by 6' long. Since there is variation in poster dimensions, be sure to find out in advance what the dimensions of your poster board will be as this will determine what/how much information you can put on your poster. Last but not least, now that you know how much space you have, be sure to use it wisely!
The title of your presentation, the names of all the authors and their institutional affiliations should appear at the top center of your poster. So that interested attendees can quickly identify the subject of your poster, be sure to use a font size that produces lettering at least 1.5" high.
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