Esthetics in everything you do

Another ad found on Ads of the World: Samsung wide-angle CCTV.

Very good Photoshop work. Still, the resulting image is not esthetically pleasing. My personal rule: never let an ugly chart or image enter my PowerPoint presentation, ever.

Design doubles newspaper circulation - presentation lessons

Newspapers are in trouble. This TED video highlights how clever design can do miracles to the circulation of a newspaper. (For details about the presenter, see the original TED post).

Insights (for me) that reach beyond the world of newspapers:

• There is no reason why you cannot totally turn traditional visual design upside down. Many PowerPoint slides still resemble 1990s hand-written overhead projector transparencies
• Technology enables small firms/individual designers without big budgets to out-design big established brand names. It is all about ideas and creativity now, technical execution is not a differentiator anymore

How to bring some order to a cluttered PowerPoint map

One of my clients is keen to show its new network of global support offices. Maps can look messy and random. Here are some simple things you can do to put things in order. We can not change the location of the planet's cities, we have control over PowerPoint shapes...

#PPT - let's try to create a presentation-focussed Tweet Deck channel

During a conference I discovered the power of a hash tag in Twitter. A constant flow of relevant updates around a topic or an event either in Twitter search or on Tweet Deck.

Let's use something for presentation design-related Tweets: #PPT? Short, memorable, relevant?

Chart concept - signs with a little humor

High-quality pictures of signs are great raw material for a presentation. They stand out by themselves, people are used to take a moment to read them and they could add some humor to your story:

• Typos, or unusual text as an ice breaker for your audience
• A correct message that is put out of context in a funny way in your presentation

The downside, they are very hard to find, but with a bit of creativity you can re-create them either by using a blank sign from a stock photography site, use a generator like AddLetters, or - even better - creating one of your own using PowerPoint shapes.

Here is a diffrent take on the credit crunch found on Noisy Decent Graphics:

Presentation lessons from watching a startup competition

I attended an Internet industry conference today and witnessed presenters in the final of a startup competition: a few minutes to present your company to a huge audience with a ruthless timer ticking away.

• Putting your entire 30 minute story on 1 slide does not make it a 5 minute presentation
• Accept that you cannot tell all: ruthlessly cut nuances, side tracks, feature lists. 
• "Waste" some time upfront in establishing a connection with the audience. Maybe a quick hand voting. In the first few seconds people are "trying to figure you out" and are not paying attention to the content. "Is that a Danish accent?" If you give the punch line during this time, It will not stick
• Assume your audience has absolutely no clue (about your company), but also assume that they are very intelligent at the same time. No buzz words. Clear explanations.
• Use facts, numbers. But use them only once. Five minutes is too short a time to repeat the succes of that major customer you won last week
• 500-1000 people is a huge crowd. Leave memorable contact details. "Out booth is outside", or a very simple email address.
• Answer questions very, very briefly, don't go off on a tangent, or repeat the presentation you just gave.
• Don't run out of time. Definitely don't make your punch line when bells start ringing and the screen behind you starts flashing to remind you that your time is up. Again the punch line will not stick

No need to put that huge "message arrow" on you slide

An excellent post on the "Tekst en Communicatie" blog by communication expert Louise Cornelis. It's in Dutch, so I will translate.

Louise discusses what she refers to as "the big f*cking arrow" or "BFA" (not all Dutch on her blog). A huge arrow in the middle of the slide, pointing at a block of text with the chart's conclusion. Apparently "BFA" has become a well-known acronym among chart designers in The Netherlands.

Her (and my) recommendation: get rid of it and stick to a clear title headline.

Visual power of many small repetitive data charts

A nice set of bar charts showing Dan Meth's excitement about episodes of movie trilogies. 

Many, many, similar small data charts on one slide can create a powerful visual effect. It is possible to create Zen charts that contain lots of detail.

Via Randy Krum

Google image search narrowed down by image color

An interesting find by the Google Operating System blog: using Google image search to find pictures with a certain color. It is not an official search option (yet), you need to adjust the Google URL manually:

Finding red birds:

• Enter "bird" in Google image search
• Add "&imgcolor=red" to the Google URL so it looks like this: http://images.google.com/images?q=bird&imgcolor=red, 
• Replace "red" with "blue", "green", "teal", "purple", "yellow", "orange", "pink", "white", "gray", "black" and "brown" to get other colors

Still, watch out for possible copy right violations or poor image quality when using pictures taken from Google in your PowerPoint presentations.

Thank you Ashish for pointing this out to me.

It's hard to find that perfect visual analogy

I came across this diagram in a print advertorial for Toyota hybrid cars (scanned it, could not find it online). Click on the image for a larger picture.

The diagram supports all the points in the text. Still:

• The image looks a bit retro
• You actually need to study it a bit to understand it
• Race bikers can go fast, however they are by far not as powerful as a modern hybrid car...
• The text below the image does not flow very well

In short, the image is probably good enough for an internal management presentation, but does not meet the bar for external advertising. It is hard to find that perfect image or illustration...

VC pitch resources updated

I added this presentation from Dave McClure to my list of useful links for pitching to VCs. It is an example of an unusual combination: poor graphics / great presentation. Usually poor graphics are made up for by a charismatic "live" presenter. In this case the presentation is great on its own as well.

How to Pitch a VC (aka Startup Viagra: How to Give a VC a Hard-On)

View more presentations from Dave Mcclure.

For those who haven't seen my earlier posts about the topic, a repeat here:

• The TechCrunch pitch guidelines, and Jason Calacanis' recommendations on how to "demo your startup", part two is here.
• VC funding for geeks by Mark Hedlund
• Top 10 VC objections posted on Altgate, here a link to Altgate's popular posts.
• Alliance of Angeles presentation guidelines, and downloadable template, the structure of this template is OK, the graphical execution is not
• Advice by David. S. Rose
• Brad Feld on the Torturous world of PowerPoint
• Guy Kawasaki's the art of pitching, "How to pick up a VC", and "The no-bullshiitake-investor-wishlist".
• Bill Reichert on an entrepreneur's 2007 New Year's resolution: I will fix my pitch
• Genisis Partners' (Israeli VC) pitch presentation template
• The Extreme Presentation Method's interview with VCs: part 1 and part 2
• How not to write a business plan by David Cowan
• Steve Jobs in a video from the 90s going analogue to explain the distinctiveness of NeXT.
• Expert tips on pitching on pitching a winner by Alyssa Royse
• What not to wear: 5 cring-worthy phrases in investor pitches by Rebecca Lovell
• Why startup pitches fail by Eric Ries.
• Paul Graham on fund raising, link collection by Eric Ries
• How to pitch to VCs by Dave McClure

Chart concept: can't see the forest for the trees

I often need to produce a chart that needs to say one's inability to see the forest for the trees. This ad by Orange warning people against SMS-ing while driving makes the point nicely. Very labor-intensive to replicate in PowerPoint.

Via Ads of the World.