In making use of presentation boards, one needs to take note of the quote “Seeing is believing”. This would be so since the use of presentation and display boards add to the impact of the message you want to portray. Whether they are used as a silent sales tool or as complements to a verbal pitch, they reinforce your communication efforts. In small businesses, presentation and display boards can be utilized in six ways namely: tabletop or booth display at tradeshows; visual aid in a sales presentation; tool for in-house meetings; and as a silent salesperson in the company showroom and office.

Board presentations can be done formally or creatively through the use of different materials that will suit the type of display you want. These boards come in a wide array of styles and designs. Among some of these board types are:

Black presentation board – boards under this classification are specialty boards that are a favorite for backing photographs, art works, presentations, and more. These can also be used for mounting prints and graphics. These serve as the industry’s standard for graphic presentations. These come with intense black surfaces that allow for a more dramatic presentation. Some of these types have matte finishes on them to hide fingerprints, dirt, and handling marks. Its matte finish is also non-reflective to minimize glare. They help to highlight your prints.

Fashion presentation boards – these can be of great use in displaying fashion designs and can be utilized in a way that they appear very informative. This gives a clear representation of what the design is. For optimum use, fashion designers are advised to make use of readable fonts and an adequate font size that is big enough to read but not too big. They are also advised to check for the quality of their technical drawings (flats), textile designs, fashion illustration and photos before placing or mounting them onto the board. In terms of layout, one must keep in mind to preserve some space as a visual frame for the fashion board. You should economize the space on the fashion board by overlapping drawings (flats), and other visuals such as textile swatches.

These boards come in a range of sizes from 48” x 36” to 24” x 36”. They usually come in white or colored on the front side and have a Natural Kraft at the back. You can also have add-ons like presentation board headers, which are corrugated headers with slots for use on regular and heavyweight presentation boards.

Among the commonly used varieties are:

Architectural presentation boards – these are great for presenting architectural presentation drawings, which serve as key materials used in marketing by architectural firms when pitching their designs.

An architectural presentation board is used as a medium to present the proposed design but can also serve as the company’s promotional tool. Mounting presentation drawings on these boards always give that professional edge thus, making it ready to be presented to the client.

Interior design presentation boards – these suit persons who are working on a design project and would want to give a clear and thorough speech on the project. Placing designs on these types of boards serve as an additional plus point to informing the audience of the cold, hard facts, which may not be enough to convince the customer. These serve as part of the key preparation of interior designers when they are getting ready to stand in front of people to present the products/designs they have come up with.

Heavy duty presentation boards – these are tri fold double wall corrugated display boards used for projects, booths, science fairs, and other types of displays. These are white in color on the front side and Natural Kraft on the back. These boards are recyclable.

Skid packed presentation boards – these are tri fold single wall corrugated display boards that utilized in various display projects. They are not cartoned but come 300 on a skid and are protected on the edges. These are white on the front and Natural Kraft at the back.

Half-size presentation boards – are tri-fold, single wall display boards with corrugation and are used for study carrels, projects, booths, science fairs and other forms of display.

A presentation board comes in a variety and some of them are here below:

Electronic display boards – these are usually composed of LED displays, LED signs, and ANDON systems that are used as lean manufacturing solutions that will help companies in controlling costs and improve production. These automate information gathering processes and have been claimed to have helped a lot of companies in realizing immediate improvements in terms of their productivity and cost savings. These are also of popular as signs in restaurants, display information about products and services in shop or store, and public transportation vehicles wherein they are used to indicate travel destinations.

Science fair display boards – these are usually used by students who join science fairs. These are mainly utilized to organize experiment data and results. This can be organized in a manner that shows how the experiment was carried out by laying out a step-by-step process on it. Plus, the details on how each step was performed may also be included. Graphs, pictures, and diagrams are also attached here to better portray the meaning of the experiment –plus this helps the board in catching people’s attention. Other information, which may also be included here are the experiment’s background research, related literature, as well as statistical treatments that were used to come up with the data presented.

Trade show display boards – which are also known as flat panel table top displays, can be used by companies who are to represent themselves in a trade show. Through the use of these boards, companies can assure that their displays will attract people. When in a trade show, customers have a lot to look at and choose from, so adding something extra to the company’s presentation through a display board can go a long way. These displays are usually divided into panels for easy packing and portability. They are available in a range of sizes from mini 3 panel displays to large 10 panel displays. These can also be folded into a carrying case so you can easily take it with you.

In using a presentation board such as in communicating an experiment that has been done, make sure to place its respective step-by-step processes or procedure and the results that have been gathered. In portraying experiments make sure to include as well as the project’s abstract, question, hypothesis, variables, background research and so on.

Next would be to make sure that the texts on your science fair display board are readable. In order to do this, you need to make use of a font size of at least 16 points for the texts on the board. You need also to make sure that the font you use can easily be read. However, you can make use of smaller fonts for captions on tables and pictures. After this, make sure that your title is big enough to be easily read even from across the room and the actual title should also best describe the work you’ve done and be interesting enough to catch people’s attention.

A picture speaks a thousand words. So, make use of photos, images, or diagrams to present non-numerical data, proposed designs, and explain the details of what you are presenting on your display boards. However, you should refrain from placing texts or captions on the photos themselves since it can be very difficult to read.

The most commonly used type of boards used in science fairs is the tri fold display board, which allows the user to have more space in organizing the contents of the board. This may also serve as divider to separate various types of information placed on the board.

Display boards are not only used in science fairs but as well as in showing signs like what a led display board does. This is actually a video display that makes use of light-emitting diodes. These are typically used outdoors such as in store signs and billboards. However, recently they have grown more popular in use for destination designs like the ones placed on public transport vehicles like buses. These are also used to display currency in many banks and money exchange counters. Another use for this would be in displaying moving messages such as those used for displaying advertisements, greetings, and information dissemination on products and services.

A marker board is another form of presentation board on which you write the actual contents of what you want to portray to your audience as you speak in front of them or as you discuss your topics. These are mainly used in classrooms and in offices during meetings.

In contrast to white boards that are more common, black marker boards are also available in the market. These combine a smooth-writing dry erase surface with contrasting dark background that makes white and neon-colored markings eye-catching. Its dry surface also won’t leave behind dust and air pollutants that might be seen on chalkboards.  When using a black marker board, you know you’re presentation is really going to get the attention that it deserves.

A white board marker is basically the writing material used on white boards. A white board is also known as a wipeboard, markerboard, dry-erase board, dry-wipe board or a pen board. This term refers to any glossy surface most commonly colored white where non-permanent markings can be made. White boards operate in the same manner as chalkboards in the sense that they allow markings to be temporarily written on them.

Materials used on the surfaces of a dry erase marker board come in four types namely melamine, steel or aluminum, glass or magnetic glass, hardcoat laminate, and porcelain, enamel-on-steel.

Melamine is a resin-impregnated paper which is usually used over a pressboard substrate. This type of writing surface is the cheapest and is therefore commonly sold in a lot of office supply stores. A disadvantage of this type of surface is that it can be easily scratched and will show some staining as it gets older over time. As it ages, it will also become less and less erasable usually within just a few months of use. Permanent markers, if used on this surface, cannot be erased.

Painted steel or aluminum surfaces consist of paint sprayed on a steel or aluminum surface. These types usually last longer. These surfaces are also smoother making it easier to erase. However, paint is porous and may eventually cause staining over time.

Glass or magnetic glass surfaces can be used with dry erase or permanent markers and do not retain any ghosted inks on them.

Hardcoat laminate surfaces are less porous and are highly resistant to staining. These types of surfaces are, however, less common compared to other white board surfaces. These usually have a lifetime surface warranty against surface staining since they do not absorb inks of permanent and dry erase markers.

Porcelain, enamel-on-steel surfaces are ceramic or made from glass, which is fired onto a steel surface. These types are the most durable and most carry a lifetime warranty with them. These surfaces are highly scratch resistant although materials harder than glass such as diamonds can scratch them. These also don’t absorb inks from permanent and dry erase markers.