A dark or light background for your presentation slides? Dark backgrounds work better for very large stages, where a big bright screen takes away the attention from the speaker. In smaller meeting rooms, a light background work better.
It is very inconvenient to edit and work with 2 masters of the same presentation, it is a lot of work and you always end up with inconsistencies. Presentations with a dark background give less flexibility to work with colors, and are harder to print (there are still audiences that do this, especially when presenting to institutional investors).
So as a result, I recommend sticking to a light background for most business presentations, unless you have a very specific, high-profile event that merits the design of a custom slide deck.
Dilbert on PowerPoint
PowerPoint has become such a core element of corporate culture that it features often in Dilbert comic strips. These one is from yesterday for example:
The full archive of Dilbert is now searchable by keyword, and you can license images for use in your presentations just like a stock photo site. For example, this search shows a whole lot more Dilbert comics on PowerPoint.
The full archive of Dilbert is now searchable by keyword, and you can license images for use in your presentations just like a stock photo site. For example, this search shows a whole lot more Dilbert comics on PowerPoint.
Changing the presentation culture
If you are reading this blog, you are probably already part of the tribe of people that want to change the way the world present ideas to each other. The problem is how to convert the other 99% of your co-workers. I see two routes.
Robust PowerPoint templates. Leaving aside the discussion of what is a beautiful PowerPoint template, and what is not (you know my preference for the white page), and assume that the design has been agreed. Usually, people stop here, but there is important programming work to do afterwards. Setting the fonts and the colors to the right default, removing the standard bullet point opening framework from the slide master, etc. This is a computer programming, not a design job that should make the PowerPoint template “idiot-proof”. This is the technical route.
Low-risk events. It is hard to experiment with a new way of presenting in a high-stakes external presentation (i.e, your next earnings announcement). Instead, pick an internal presentation. Maybe the annual sales conference? Have an employee who is converted to the tribe give his presentation in a new and unusual way. Give unusual restrictions for the slide decks to be used in the internal conference: instead of telling people not to exceed 5 slides, tell them that they are not allowed to use bullet points in their deck. As people get exposed to a different way of presentation, the confidence might be getting stronger for the next generation of people to join your tribe, and bit by bit, take the new presentation culture to external presentations as well.
Robust PowerPoint templates. Leaving aside the discussion of what is a beautiful PowerPoint template, and what is not (you know my preference for the white page), and assume that the design has been agreed. Usually, people stop here, but there is important programming work to do afterwards. Setting the fonts and the colors to the right default, removing the standard bullet point opening framework from the slide master, etc. This is a computer programming, not a design job that should make the PowerPoint template “idiot-proof”. This is the technical route.
Low-risk events. It is hard to experiment with a new way of presenting in a high-stakes external presentation (i.e, your next earnings announcement). Instead, pick an internal presentation. Maybe the annual sales conference? Have an employee who is converted to the tribe give his presentation in a new and unusual way. Give unusual restrictions for the slide decks to be used in the internal conference: instead of telling people not to exceed 5 slides, tell them that they are not allowed to use bullet points in their deck. As people get exposed to a different way of presentation, the confidence might be getting stronger for the next generation of people to join your tribe, and bit by bit, take the new presentation culture to external presentations as well.
Presentation = web site
The new web site of the Acumen Fund is a great example of how presentation and web design is blending. Gone are the navigation menus, environmental statements, and other wasted screen real estate. Instead, the site is a vertical series of visuals that equally could have gone into a presentation.
I often recommend this web site design approach to early-stage start ups. Once you have designed your investor presentation deck, you can simplify slides, take out the confidential ones (financials, pipeline, IP) and you have the ingredients for a great, simple web site, that shows potential investors clicking through to your URL a message that is consistent with your pitch.
By the way, Acumen is doing some great work to tackle poverty. If you are interested, join the community here to find out more.
I often recommend this web site design approach to early-stage start ups. Once you have designed your investor presentation deck, you can simplify slides, take out the confidential ones (financials, pipeline, IP) and you have the ingredients for a great, simple web site, that shows potential investors clicking through to your URL a message that is consistent with your pitch.
By the way, Acumen is doing some great work to tackle poverty. If you are interested, join the community here to find out more.
Compressing images in PowerPoint
PowerPoint files with images can get very large. As soon as a file exceeds 10MB, it becomes difficult to collaborate on it via email. This probably one of the main reasons office collaboration will ultimately go into the cloud, but before that time arrives we need to deal with the current situation.
You can find the standard compression options in the format menu after you have clicked an image. Sometimes, more brutal force is required though. Somehow, if you right click an image in PowerPoint, save it is a JPG, delete it, and then copy paste it back in, the files size has shrunk a lot.
In the heat of CTRL-C, CTRL-V work, PowerPoint sometimes puts in images as bitmaps or PNG files that take up a lot of space. This trick trims them down again.
Be aware that compressing files hurts the quality of the images. So if this is a presentation destined for a huge screen at an important conference, keep the original photos somewhere in a safe place in order to be able to re-construct the full size version once you have agreed on the final document with your team.
You can find the standard compression options in the format menu after you have clicked an image. Sometimes, more brutal force is required though. Somehow, if you right click an image in PowerPoint, save it is a JPG, delete it, and then copy paste it back in, the files size has shrunk a lot.
In the heat of CTRL-C, CTRL-V work, PowerPoint sometimes puts in images as bitmaps or PNG files that take up a lot of space. This trick trims them down again.
Be aware that compressing files hurts the quality of the images. So if this is a presentation destined for a huge screen at an important conference, keep the original photos somewhere in a safe place in order to be able to re-construct the full size version once you have agreed on the final document with your team.
Oops, forgot the sales pitch
Big market disruption, check. Experienced team, check. Company traction, check. Trimmed down the investor pitch deck to 10 minutes, check.
But you forgot one thing: the sales pitch. Yes, this is an investor presentation and not a sales presentation, but still, every pitch to an investor should include an example pitch to a potential customer. The investor needs to get a feel that a customer will actually buy your product. The sales story on the slides is important, but even more important than that: they way you present the slides as a salesman.
But you forgot one thing: the sales pitch. Yes, this is an investor presentation and not a sales presentation, but still, every pitch to an investor should include an example pitch to a potential customer. The investor needs to get a feel that a customer will actually buy your product. The sales story on the slides is important, but even more important than that: they way you present the slides as a salesman.
One word per line
With an elegant font such as Helvetica Neue Medium, breaking a short sentence in one-word lines can create a beautiful effect. Here an example of a poster by Dutch designer Ben Bos.
See how he reduced the space between the lines (looks better with bigger fonts), and did not use capitalization to create a more harmonious composition. I would have left a bit more white space under the text though.
For those who are interested, the poster reminds students to order their school books before the summer holiday. Via AisleOne.
See how he reduced the space between the lines (looks better with bigger fonts), and did not use capitalization to create a more harmonious composition. I would have left a bit more white space under the text though.
For those who are interested, the poster reminds students to order their school books before the summer holiday. Via AisleOne.
Every sentence should matter
I recently made the switch back to literary fiction after it took me around 25 years to overcome the bad memories of high school teachers forcing me to read this genre against my will.
Reading these books showed me just how empty corporate language is. Over the years I have developed a pretty high speed-read rate. Non-fiction books, annual reports, PowerPoint bullets can all be digested in very limited time without missing a beat of the content.
So, when I tried to apply this to literary fiction I was forced to back up. Every sentence actually matters. The world would be a much better place if corporate language stuck to this principle.
Reading these books showed me just how empty corporate language is. Over the years I have developed a pretty high speed-read rate. Non-fiction books, annual reports, PowerPoint bullets can all be digested in very limited time without missing a beat of the content.
So, when I tried to apply this to literary fiction I was forced to back up. Every sentence actually matters. The world would be a much better place if corporate language stuck to this principle.
Disguising bullets in boxes
Fancy frameworks (pentagons, triangels) are bullet slides in disguise. Here is a concept that I recently used to put the 6 most important building blocks of a business on a slide. Keep the text really short.
Speaking in Munich at the end of September
I will be speaking at an investor relations conference in Munich at the end of September. The conference is a closed event, but feel free to contact me if you live/work nearby and would like to discuss a potential project, or just would like to shake hands and say hello.
A better slide 1 of your presentation
The cover page of your presentation is important: it will be sitting on the projector for a long time as the audience comes into the room, and even more important: it determines how many people will open your deck on online presentation sharing platforms such as SlideShare.
Presentation designers (including me) still have lots to learn from book cover designers. I enjoyed browsing through this book: The Best of Cover Design: Books, Magazines, Catalogs, and More (affiliate link). It reminded me of all this design options I have in PowerPoint that I actually do not use at all for cover slide design.
There is some irony though. The introduction of the book states that the cover designs presented in the book are proof that print media is here to stay forever. I disagree, we digital designers are learning to bring the quality of digital design up to the same standard as print.
Presentation designers (including me) still have lots to learn from book cover designers. I enjoyed browsing through this book: The Best of Cover Design: Books, Magazines, Catalogs, and More (affiliate link). It reminded me of all this design options I have in PowerPoint that I actually do not use at all for cover slide design.
There is some irony though. The introduction of the book states that the cover designs presented in the book are proof that print media is here to stay forever. I disagree, we digital designers are learning to bring the quality of digital design up to the same standard as print.
Cliché stock compositions
On stock photo sites, many photographers and illustrators try to do the slide design work for you and create ready-made compositions. Often, they are not very good.
The one below for example. It requires a lot of technical skill to make it, but somehow the colors and the look and feel do not seem right. Also, the concept is a bit forced. You could equally show the 2 logos of the joint venture partners on the last slide and you convey the same message.
And worst of all: because these type of images have been over-used so much in bad presentations, putting one up will immediately make your audience assume that this presentation will fit into that category.
The one below for example. It requires a lot of technical skill to make it, but somehow the colors and the look and feel do not seem right. Also, the concept is a bit forced. You could equally show the 2 logos of the joint venture partners on the last slide and you convey the same message.
And worst of all: because these type of images have been over-used so much in bad presentations, putting one up will immediately make your audience assume that this presentation will fit into that category.
Image housekeeping
In the heat of the presentation design process, you can easily forget some basic image house keeping. You search Flickr for a Creative Commons image, find it, CMD-C/CMD-V into PowerPoint, go back to find the name of photographer and put it in small letters on the PowerPoint slide. Done.
What next? PowerPoint reduces the resolution of the image to 72 DPI, and crops off the bits you do not use (if you compress files). Also, inside a PowerPoint file, it is much harder to find that image when you want to use it later. So instead: save your file to disk with a good description, including the name of the photographer. If you want, you can add meta data in workflow applications such as Aperture. In this way, you are building on a useful photo library for the future.
Milton Glaser: To inform and delight
The wonderful thing about movie streaming services like Netflix is that it opens up a long tail of movies that you normally would not buy on DVD. I am digging through the art and design section and stumble of some really interesting documentaries.
Last week, I watched “Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delight ” (affiliate link), a documentary about U.S. graphic designer Milton Glaser (probably best known for the design of the I heart NY logo). The film provides excellent food for thought for any designer. Here are some random insights from the movie.
Last week, I watched “Milton Glaser: To Inform & Delight ” (affiliate link), a documentary about U.S. graphic designer Milton Glaser (probably best known for the design of the I heart NY logo). The film provides excellent food for thought for any designer. Here are some random insights from the movie.
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| An album cover for Bob Dylan (fragment) that became a symbol of the 60s |
- A designer should not everything on a silver plate to the audience, but leave something to solve. His I heart NY is an example of that.
- Art and design create symbols for people to connect. Through art they have something to share rather than killing each other. Milton thinks this is the gift of art
- Upon graduation from high school and after his decision to gor art rather than science, his art teacher handed him a pencil box as a gift and said: “Do good work.”. Makes sense.
- The movie title was inspired by a quote from the Roman poet Horace: “The purpose of art is to inform and delight”
- Another good one: “drawing is thinking” to describe the intuitive process of free sketching on a white sheet of paper.
- And his insight that every object is defined by its opposite. It reminds us how important it is to use contrast in design.
What a potential investor really means when she requests a business plan
The traditional business plan used to be a 200 page Microsoft Word document. A large part of it was filled with fluffy market background information and more fluffy industry buzzwords, frameworks and mission statements. It was always out of date. Its primary purpose was to rest your hand on it and say: “We have a business plan”. Nobody would really read it.
In most startups, the business plan is replaced with a large PowerPoint slide deck that evolves rapidly over time. A selection of the slides in this document are upgraded to be used in standup presentations. The vast majority of them are dense appendix material.
Daniel Tenner wrote a good blog post about what it means when an investors asks whether you can email her a business plan. In short, after the initial pitch, the investor wants a document that can be emailed (forwarded to partners) that answers some fundamental questions about your venture. The content should be good, the content can be short, and you can afford to invest less in the design of the slides.
In most startups, the business plan is replaced with a large PowerPoint slide deck that evolves rapidly over time. A selection of the slides in this document are upgraded to be used in standup presentations. The vast majority of them are dense appendix material.
Daniel Tenner wrote a good blog post about what it means when an investors asks whether you can email her a business plan. In short, after the initial pitch, the investor wants a document that can be emailed (forwarded to partners) that answers some fundamental questions about your venture. The content should be good, the content can be short, and you can afford to invest less in the design of the slides.
The usage context is enough
Many of today's VC pitches are about some sort of mobile technology. It is very hard to find good images of people using modern phones at shop check outs (stock photographers: this is a business opportunity). I actually am not to concerned about showing the device. Giving a good feel for the usage occasion is much more important.
Asking the stupid question
In the middle of a design project, I decided to ask the client the fundamental question again: “So what is this about again?”. It was followed by a short silence in which I could imagine the eyes rolling at the other end of the phone line. The short and candid answer to the stupid question was actually very useful in the design process. It is OK to ask stupid questions. It is useful to have an outsider do it.
JPEGmini compresses file size not quality
JPEGmini has a new technology to compress the sizes of JPG files dramatically without quality loss. I took it for a test drive in snow-covered Amsterdam. My file was reduced from 2.4MB to 0.4MB and only by zooming into the image (click on the second image) you can see a slight, but only slight loss of brightness (can you tell which one is the original?). A pretty impressive result. The question is whether the JPEGmini offering will stay free, and whether will get used to adding another step to an already complex image processing workflow (find image, save it with key words, crop/extend for presentation, adjust dimensions, save Photoshop file, save for web, drag into presentation).
Your monitor device
Rock bands use massive monitor speakers to hear themselves play in a concert. When you run a virtual presentation, you need something similar. Slide transitions can be delayed especially when you use high res images. You are on the next page, but your audience is not.
To prevent this, log into your own webinar with a second computer, or even an iPad or internet-enabled smart phone to see what your audience is seeing. The really skillful presenter switches slides on his own computer but continues to talk about the slide that is still in front of the audience.
Image by Anirudh Koul
To prevent this, log into your own webinar with a second computer, or even an iPad or internet-enabled smart phone to see what your audience is seeing. The really skillful presenter switches slides on his own computer but continues to talk about the slide that is still in front of the audience.
Image by Anirudh Koul
Infographic overload
The blog Bitrebels posted a number of infographics that compare the salaries of self-employed people in the U.S. versus those the U.K. Without picking on this particular design, this graphic shows common mistakes that often apear in infographic illustrations.
- Round up the numbers to the nearest $ 000. The digits behind the comma do not add anything.
- Group data together, a standard bar chart showing the 2 numbers with their delta is much clearer.
- Pick a meaningful comparison unit. More than 3,000 hamburgers is not.
Speaking at one of the Outstanding Presentations webinars
For the second year in a row, Ellen Finkelstein is organizing her Outstanding Presentations workshop, a series of 7 weekly webinars by guest speakers. I will be one of them. Here is the line up of presenters:
For your calendars: October 5, 14:00 EST
The sessions are free and will be recorded for later viewing. More information about the Outstanding Presentations webinars here. Please note that you still need to register if you want to view the recorded sessions.
- September 7: Carmen Taran, co-founder of Rexi Media and author of Better Beginnings
- September 14: Cliff Atkinson: author of the Beyond Bullet Points
- September 28: Bruce Gabrielle: Author of Speaking PowerPoint: The New Language of Business
- October 5: Me
- October 12: Simon Morton: Founder of Eyeful Presentations
- October 19: Andrew Dlugan: blogger at the Six Minutes blog
- October 23: Ellen Finkelstein will be wrapping up
For your calendars: October 5, 14:00 EST
The sessions are free and will be recorded for later viewing. More information about the Outstanding Presentations webinars here. Please note that you still need to register if you want to view the recorded sessions.
Product presentations and product catalogues are not the same thing
“Let me talk you through our exciting products!” And up comes the agenda page: product 1, product 2, product 3, product 4. Uh oh. Your audience starts checking whether there is guest WiFi to check some emails on the phone...
Product catalogues are an exhaustive description of what you have on offer. They are about you, not about the customer.
How can you keep a product or sales presentation interesting and relevant? Start explaining the overall architecture of your product range (we have big ones, and small ones, we work in this segment and that segment). Then, think about the needs of the customer in front of you and narrow down the options dramatically. Spend a lot of time / slides on solutions that are relevant for your audience, and surpress the urge to be complete and cover everything.
Product catalogues are an exhaustive description of what you have on offer. They are about you, not about the customer.
How can you keep a product or sales presentation interesting and relevant? Start explaining the overall architecture of your product range (we have big ones, and small ones, we work in this segment and that segment). Then, think about the needs of the customer in front of you and narrow down the options dramatically. Spend a lot of time / slides on solutions that are relevant for your audience, and surpress the urge to be complete and cover everything.
Data without context is meaningless (and boring)
The quarter is done, and here comes the day-long sales results presentation. Excel is pasted into PowerPoint, creating huge decks through which senior management has to sit through. Sales organizes by channel: small restaurants sales, growth; large restaurants sales, growth, supermarkets sales, growth. Marketing presents by brands: brand 1 sales, growth, brand 2 sales, growth.
If you are a marketing manager, looking at the Q3 sales and growth figures of a particular brand is really interesting. All the numbers of the previous quarters are more or less in your head. For the production manager though, going through these pages is mental torture, as she does not have the historical context readily available. (Read more about the Curse of Knowledge here)
The solution is the opposite of what I preach for bullet point charts: instead of breaking up slides into multiple pages, condense lots of data in 1 chart, but make it comparable. Put the quarter growth rates of all brands on a page and compare them. List the historical brand growth rates of the past 8 quarters on one page and see what is going on. There is no problem showing a massive amount of data on 1 slide, as long as it is about the same variable that is compared across different dimensions.
If you are a marketing manager, looking at the Q3 sales and growth figures of a particular brand is really interesting. All the numbers of the previous quarters are more or less in your head. For the production manager though, going through these pages is mental torture, as she does not have the historical context readily available. (Read more about the Curse of Knowledge here)
The solution is the opposite of what I preach for bullet point charts: instead of breaking up slides into multiple pages, condense lots of data in 1 chart, but make it comparable. Put the quarter growth rates of all brands on a page and compare them. List the historical brand growth rates of the past 8 quarters on one page and see what is going on. There is no problem showing a massive amount of data on 1 slide, as long as it is about the same variable that is compared across different dimensions.
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