Design Inspiration for Your Slides

I am no artist; that's for sure. I can draw stick figures pretty well, and have managed to draw the same doodle (a vase with some flowers) for about 20 years now, but that's about it as far as my natural drawing talent.

But over the years, looking at design magazines has helped me hone my "design vision," and as I look at billboards and advertisements and other magazines, I get ideas that I can then go and use in my own presentation slides.

The title cards from the trailer for the movie Inside Man, for example, use a black and blue color combination that I really liked and which could be used as a good color combination for slides. Company annual reports are also good sources for slide layout inspiration. Looking at magazines you wouldn't normally pick up, especially ones your audience might be reading, can give you some ideas on how to lay out information on your slides.

My point is that inspiration for spectacular slides is all around you. Don't be afraid to "open" your eyes and see what inspires you and what techniques you can adapt for your own presentations.

A new blog I stumbled upon might also provide you with some graphic inspiration: http://www.beadesigngroup.com/.

Have a great day!

Lee

Can't Wait to Get My Hands On...

Electric Rain's StandOut presentation software (http://www.erain.com/products/standout/).

This new software, available soon (I hope) for Windows Vista, makes my inner geek shine. From what I've read and the videos I've seen on their website, it will blow regular PowerPoint presentations away.

Waiting with anticipation...

Lee

Slideshare - Great Place for Ideas

Hello! Sorry for the egregious delay between posts; I have been finishing up a manuscript and have been locked away with my computer, furiously writing and preparing images. The book, Presentations for Librarians, will be published in October by Chandos. In any case, it's good to be back on the blog.

If you are in need of some fresh ideas for your slide presentations, visit Slideshare(http://www.slideshare.net). It is a site where people can upload and share their presentations with one another.

They recently held a World's Best Presentation Contest and there were some excellent award-winners. I particularly like the first- and second-place winners.

There are some dogs on the site as well - it has some superb examples of what a presentation should NOT be. But learning from bad examples can be just as instructive as learning from good ones.

I am always on the lookout for new ideas for presentations, and Slideshare has quickly become one of the places I look for inspiration.

Have a great weekend!

Lee