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Stock images libraries are full of pictures of models that look towards the lens, but are not really look at you. The man in these ads does better than the woman (maybe the squinting, or his age), but it is hard to beat a painter’s ability to get those penetrating eyes.
The ads were taken from Ads of the World. The painting is “Girl resting on her arms” by Eugene Vidal (1847-1907), Oil on canvas, 47 x 59 cm.
A meeting of 2 generations yesterday, when I sat down with a retired graphics designer who spent his professional live designing logos and visual corporate identities (some of which are highly visible icons in the Israeli high street). He has not used a computer ever to support his design work, and is now focussing on art.
I opened my lap top and showed him some of my work. Some of the points he made:
He showed me his own slide deck that an assistant prepared for him, mainly filled with copies of his own work (logos, paintings, building exteriors). What struck me is the breathing space around each slide. I also use a lot of white space in my slides, but keep the margin around the slide very small. Maybe time to change that.
An interesting meeting.
My role in some presentation projects reminds me of the character “The Wolf” in Pulp Fiction. The clock is ticking, (many) people are running around, but the presentation is not progressing towards a final end product…
You can call in The Wolf if you really have to, but these situations are best avoided. And, the talents of a professional presentation designer are most useful in stress-free situations. Energy spent on cranking out the deck comes at the expense of creativity.
I hope Miramax does not mind me borrowing these videos and images, it might just remind people to buy a copy of this classic movie to watch it again this weekend (Affiliate link to Amazon).
I often have to explain the concept of “the curse of knowledge”: it is actually harder for an expert to explain something than a reasonably intelligent outsider (here is why presentation designers should be reasonably intelligent :-) ).
Dan and Chip Heath use a musical metaphor in their book “Made to Stick”:
For executives who are keen to load their slides with data for an external audience, I use the cockpit analogy. A pilot can interpret all the signals of all the instruments in a split second and understands the situation the plane is in. The novice needs a bit more time to digest the information…
Thank you Brett Morrison for this beautiful picture of a Space Shuttle cockpit.
When you insert a data chart in PowerPoint, chances are that the font in which they pop up is the default Calibri. Why? Because you did not bother to change the fonts in “design” “fonts” “custom fonts”. Set the heading and body fonts to whatever you want it to be, and you save yourself a lot of time re-formating data charts.
This ad by Webroot Internet Security reminded my of many discussions with clients in the technology sector. The VP Product is meticulously scanning the slides to make sure ALL the product features have made it in the deck.The result: a bored audience that will not understand the value your product brings.
Still, there is a way to include them though, but with a different headline: cram them all in page using a neat table in 7pt font with a title: “Powerful specifications”. The audience will believe you without reading all the text.
Via Ads of the World.
Corporate logos get used a lot in presentations: our customers, our partners, our competitors. You find them via Google image search. When you do, make sure you get one in a good quality (earlier post), but more importantly go to the home page of the company you are looking for to check whether you got the latest logo, and/or the logo in the right colors. Don’t just rely on Google image search.
I heard this complaint a few times. “My CEO can’t present. She goes off on a tangent. Ignores the slides. Stutters. I create these beautiful slides for her, but somehow it is a waste of time.”
Usually, CEOs are good story tellers (that’s how she got the top job). How can you make sure that she gets the best out of the slides that you prepare for her?
Most CEOs are good presenters.
Unlike PowerPoint 2007, it is possible to customize the tool ribbon in PowerPoint 2010 (review). I still use my 2007 workaround in the 2010 version of PowerPoint though. The screen dump below shows those very important buttons that any PowerPoint designer should have always on hand (click for larger image).
Seth Godin made a wishlist of iPad app and readers of his blog created them. One them is nonlineair: “it lets you import a PDF or PPT file and then jump around. It’s not for building slides, it’s for navigating them, and even includes a way to drive an external monitor in a clever way.” It is available or $10 in the app store, $2 of which will go to the Acumen Fund. I still need to find time to review it.