Today's post is all about color.
Color Symbolism
One way that you can subtly enhance the message of your presentation is through the judicious and intentional use of color. To promote the "feeling" of growth, for example, you might use a green color scheme, since it is representative of nature. For a more serious presentation, you might use grey or navy blue, since they are often found in offices everywhere (look around at the colors of the suits of the men working near you) and it evokes a feeling of seriousness and business confidence.
Every color carries a message; be sure the colors you use in your presentation are reinforcing the message you want to convey and not distracting from it. On my website, you will find a PDF listing some of the most common Western cultural connotations of different colors.
Selecting Harmonious Color Schemes
Do you have trouble creating color schemes? PowerPoint 2007 has many new options for selecting foolproof color schemes, and Adobe has created kuler, which is a nifty, Javascript- and Flash-based application for creating color schemes. Kuler members can download posted color schemes and upload their own for others to use. Schemes can be saved and used in the new CS3 versions of Photoshop, InDesign and the other Creative Suite products. Best of all, it's totally free!
Good Sources of Information
For more information and resources on color, visit the following sites:
http://www.colourlovers.com/ (Learn more about colors and swap and share color palettes)
http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/ (Awesome, Flash-based presentation on color symbolism)
http://www.colormatters.com/ (Another excellent resource for color selection)
Have a great day!
Friday, June 15, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
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
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
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
Friday, May 18, 2007
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
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
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Media for Your Presentations
Creative Commons has a search engine (http://search.creativecommons.org) that allows you to search for media you can download and use in your presentations. Users can search Google, Yahoo, Flickr and other sites to find photos, music, videos and more that can be freely used in your presentations.
Presenters should be aware of BOTH their rights and responsibilities with respect to the copyright status of media materials used in their presentations. You can start with the US Copyright Office (http://www.copyright.gov) for more information on using copyrighted materials, but check with your own institution's legal department if you're unsure about a particular item you want to use.
In future posts I will add other sites for free media on the web.
Peace out,
Lee
Presenters should be aware of BOTH their rights and responsibilities with respect to the copyright status of media materials used in their presentations. You can start with the US Copyright Office (http://www.copyright.gov) for more information on using copyrighted materials, but check with your own institution's legal department if you're unsure about a particular item you want to use.
In future posts I will add other sites for free media on the web.
Peace out,
Lee
Friday, March 9, 2007
Font Choices
Greetings all!
I recently attended a very prestigious conference and I can report with confidence, that yes, even Nobel Prize winners could use a little extra help with their presentations. Overall, the quality of speakers was excellent, though I would only give top marks for presentation visuals (i.e., slides) to just two out of the 8 speakers whose presentations I attended.
Note: I will use the terms 'font' and 'typeface' interchangeably, in this post and any others in the future - for our purposes they are essentially the same term.
The most common 'mistake' I observed was poor choice of typeface. One presenter used Papyrus which, in me at least, evokes an exotic, informal and somewhat 'Egyptian' feel. It's perfect for more colorful occasions, but was inappropriate for the content of the presentation.
Coupled with the presenter's use of a parchment-paper background, the typeface contributed to the overall impression of "the past," even though this conference was about the future of libraries. In addition, the typeface, with it's thin lines, was hard to read from the rear of the auditorium, and even the speaker, who lamentably used the slides as a teleprompter, had trouble reading them though they were much closer to them than the rest of the audience.
Let me point out that there is nothing inherently wrong with either Papyrus or Comic Sans - I have used them in the past and will use them again. The fonts themselves are not the issue (I'm actually quite fond of Papyrus); it is their use (or misuse) that I am concerned about.
Having studied this topic for several years now, I was concerned that my own impressions were too nit-picky, so I double-checked my impressions with several colleagues at this conference - all concurred that there was a disconnect between the impression conveyed by the typeface used and the speaker's topic and/or spoken delivery.
What's the lesson here?
Presenters usually only get one good chance to make an impression on their audience and to communicate a message to them. All elements of your presentation, from the delivery of your spoken remarks to what you wear to the visuals you select should enhance, reinforce or complement the content of your presentation and your intended goal/message. This includes selecting a proper typeface that conveys support for your content or the impression you are trying to create.
Serious subjects need "serious" fonts such as Times New Roman or Palatino Linotype. Presentations about the future at least need a "forward-looking" font, such as the new Calibri (included in Microsoft(r) Office 2007(r)), or Eras Light or Franklin Gothic (included with Microsoft Office 2003(r)).
Bottom Line: Match the typeface to the content of your presentation and the impression you want to convey to the audience. And get a second opinion before you present. Identifying these often nebulous "impressions" is a skill that comes with practice and experience. One good place to get a feel for type "trends" is the FontShop feed (http://www.fontshop.com/fontfeed/).
TIP: To minimize the risk of unintentional font substitution, especially if you will not be using your own computer when presenting, stick to the fonts installed as part of your Microsoft Office installation. You can sometimes embed fonts into your PowerPoint files, but this depends on the font's license, and does not always work well.
Notes:
Papyrus was designed by Chris Costello and is distributed by ITC. Comic Sans was designed by Vincent Connare for Microsoft. Learn more at the Comic Sans Cafe (no kidding) or Ban Comic Sans.
I recently attended a very prestigious conference and I can report with confidence, that yes, even Nobel Prize winners could use a little extra help with their presentations. Overall, the quality of speakers was excellent, though I would only give top marks for presentation visuals (i.e., slides) to just two out of the 8 speakers whose presentations I attended.
Note: I will use the terms 'font' and 'typeface' interchangeably, in this post and any others in the future - for our purposes they are essentially the same term.
The most common 'mistake' I observed was poor choice of typeface. One presenter used Papyrus which, in me at least, evokes an exotic, informal and somewhat 'Egyptian' feel. It's perfect for more colorful occasions, but was inappropriate for the content of the presentation.Coupled with the presenter's use of a parchment-paper background, the typeface contributed to the overall impression of "the past," even though this conference was about the future of libraries. In addition, the typeface, with it's thin lines, was hard to read from the rear of the auditorium, and even the speaker, who lamentably used the slides as a teleprompter, had trouble reading them though they were much closer to them than the rest of the audience.
Let me point out that there is nothing inherently wrong with either Papyrus or Comic Sans - I have used them in the past and will use them again. The fonts themselves are not the issue (I'm actually quite fond of Papyrus); it is their use (or misuse) that I am concerned about.
Having studied this topic for several years now, I was concerned that my own impressions were too nit-picky, so I double-checked my impressions with several colleagues at this conference - all concurred that there was a disconnect between the impression conveyed by the typeface used and the speaker's topic and/or spoken delivery.
What's the lesson here?
Presenters usually only get one good chance to make an impression on their audience and to communicate a message to them. All elements of your presentation, from the delivery of your spoken remarks to what you wear to the visuals you select should enhance, reinforce or complement the content of your presentation and your intended goal/message. This includes selecting a proper typeface that conveys support for your content or the impression you are trying to create.
Serious subjects need "serious" fonts such as Times New Roman or Palatino Linotype. Presentations about the future at least need a "forward-looking" font, such as the new Calibri (included in Microsoft(r) Office 2007(r)), or Eras Light or Franklin Gothic (included with Microsoft Office 2003(r)).
Bottom Line: Match the typeface to the content of your presentation and the impression you want to convey to the audience. And get a second opinion before you present. Identifying these often nebulous "impressions" is a skill that comes with practice and experience. One good place to get a feel for type "trends" is the FontShop feed (http://www.fontshop.com/fontfeed/).
TIP: To minimize the risk of unintentional font substitution, especially if you will not be using your own computer when presenting, stick to the fonts installed as part of your Microsoft Office installation. You can sometimes embed fonts into your PowerPoint files, but this depends on the font's license, and does not always work well.
Notes:
Papyrus was designed by Chris Costello and is distributed by ITC. Comic Sans was designed by Vincent Connare for Microsoft. Learn more at the Comic Sans Cafe (no kidding) or Ban Comic Sans.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Some of My Favorite Resources
To get you started, here are a few recommended books:
Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson (ISBN: 0735620520) 2005.
This is a superb book describing an audience-centered approach to creating and delivering PPT presentations that is based, in part, on Richard Mayer's research into multimedia learning. I HIGHLY recommend this book.
Presenting to Win by Jerry Weissman (ISBN: 0130464139) 2003.
Another highly-recommended resource which incorporates best practices and guidelines from broadcast journalism and tv production. Easily read on a cross-country flight and well worth it.
For more on the visual design of your slides, check out:
Before & After Magazine. http://www.bamagazine.com/ Subscription: $24.00/year PDF.
Seriously, whether you are an expert designer or a novice PowerPoint user, each issue of this magazine offers superb ideas for website and print design which (with a little bit of your imagination) can easily be adapted and modified for slide design. (Any of the Before & After books are also useful).
Chuck Green's Ideabook. http://www.ideabook.com/.
Similar in scope and content to Before & After, this is another great resource for getting design ideas that you can apply to your slides.
Enjoy!
Lee
Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson (ISBN: 0735620520) 2005.
This is a superb book describing an audience-centered approach to creating and delivering PPT presentations that is based, in part, on Richard Mayer's research into multimedia learning. I HIGHLY recommend this book.
Presenting to Win by Jerry Weissman (ISBN: 0130464139) 2003.
Another highly-recommended resource which incorporates best practices and guidelines from broadcast journalism and tv production. Easily read on a cross-country flight and well worth it.
For more on the visual design of your slides, check out:
Before & After Magazine. http://www.bamagazine.com/ Subscription: $24.00/year PDF.
Seriously, whether you are an expert designer or a novice PowerPoint user, each issue of this magazine offers superb ideas for website and print design which (with a little bit of your imagination) can easily be adapted and modified for slide design. (Any of the Before & After books are also useful).
Chuck Green's Ideabook. http://www.ideabook.com/.
Similar in scope and content to Before & After, this is another great resource for getting design ideas that you can apply to your slides.
Enjoy!
Lee
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