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.

New pocket projector launched in the market

I have been following the developments in the market for pocket projectors. If they work, they have the potential to create a whole new setting in which to give presentations (conference auditorium, small meeting room, and now the white wall in the local coffee shop).

The (obvious) problem with the early devices was that they lacked power. Here is a new device that is a bit bigger/heavier, but promises to deliver more performance: the Beambox Evolution R-1. 

Via engadget.

Chart concept: an audience staring at the audience

Putting your audience in the patient seat can be a powerful presentation technique. While upgrading my own introduction presentation, I started playing around with "eyeballs" that create an audience staring back at you.

Click on the images for a larger picture.

New startup - do you still need to bother with a logo?

I encounter this situation often when designing fund raising presentations for new startups pitching to VCs. "Oops, what about our logo?". My answer is usually don't bother, instead invest time to find a suitable color scheme.

• Getting a good logo designed is expensive

• It takes time for logos to become brand icons. First you need a brand story/experience, only then can customers connect it with your symbol. Read Seth Godin's post (great quote "the iPod didn't need a logo").
• Logos are not important for the look and feel of a presentation, colors are. If a client insist, I will put them in 8pt at the right bottom of the page. Think about what drove logo design in the last century: they needed to fit on a building, a letter head, a form, a black and white fax. Because the user could not manipulate colors, fonts, images like we can today, it was the only "interesting" graphic on an otherwise boring piece of paper without an identity. These times are over.

Forget about logos if you are short of time, or short of cash. Pick some nice colors instead. Worry about your logo later.

Putting PowerPoint text in a perfect circle

I am revamping my own introduction presentation and needed to align text according to a circle. Untill now, I used to improvise to fit text in a circle. There is a clean and simple way to do this. Click on the image for a bigger picture.

3D font city - 5 years from now in PowerPoint?

Graphics design has always been ahead of mainstream PowerPoint in terms of graphical abilities (colors, images, drop shadows, etc.). On the front page of Digg Design today an interesting collection of 3D typography put in one place by Naldz Graphics . 

A taste of things to come! Wouldn't it be interesting to navigate around in a 3D city of buildings made of words to support your presentation?

(Image by Serial Cut, advertising for the Zune marketplace)

Big PowerPoint fonts that don't scream

If a message is important there is a temptation to use a "screaming" typography: bold, italic, underline, big fonts in bright red. Resist it. Underlining should always be avoided. Italics almost always. And I am not a big fan of heavy bold characters either. Experiment with a lighter font, such as this Futura Light font that comes with PowerPoint 2007. (Don't forget to save it with your presentation to prevent catastrophes when presenting on another computer).

Need your help: colors in data charts PPT 2003 versus 2007

Colors in data charts. This 2003-2007 compatibility issue drives me crazy. Many of my clients still use Office 2003. Does anyone have a solution?

• PPT 2003 uses Microsoft Graph for data charts, PPT 2007 Excel
• I create a chart in 2007
• I save the 2007 PPTX in 2003 PPT format
• I (or my client) opens the 2003 PPT file and
• right-clicks the chart to open it: all the colors are off...

I have to change every color manually using RGB codes to set them permanently to the correct value in 2003.

There must be a better way to do this! Let me know if you know.

Data visualizations - how bad is this recession compared to previous ones?

The only up side of economic turmoil is probably that there is plenty of data available for interesting visualizations. The New York Times posted this chart: (click for a larger picture)

I like it because the designer gave some thought about what metric to put in. He/she could have shown a times series of GDP growth, absolute unemployment, or unemployment rate to name just a few. That's why I do not like these automated PowerPoint chart wizards, it makes you skip the step of actually thinking about what metric really makes your point. (And more importantly, what are the 15 metrics you can get rid of without changing anything to the message of your slide).

Via Junk Charts, an excellent source of data visualization discussions. For more frequent updates about the financial crisis (including many data visualizations) follow Paul Kedrosky.

Create your own composite images in PowerPoint

It is easy to create your own composite images in PowerPoint:

1. Select a stock image isolated on a white background
2. Make the white background transparent
3. Select image, go in format, picture effects, shadows, interior shadow to make the edges smoother
4. Paste this image on another image with the background of your choice

Godin on presenting: give love / get respect

See his recent blog post, great presenters should have: 1. Respect (from the audience) 2. Love (to the audience) The only thing I want to add is that I think a speaker can get respect during a presentation, he/she does not necessarily have to have it beforehand (although it helps).

How to make a 3D translucent ball in PowerPoint

Here is how you make 3D balls used in these images, or these images. Click on the chart for a larger picture.

You should experiment with the "top height" and "top width" to find a value that best fits the size of the object you are working on.

Why not zoom those images

Stock image sites are trying to convince you to buy higher resolution (and higher price) versions of the same image, I usually don't buy it.

• In case you need to print it on a street sign (not required for me)
• Because you want the very best looking PPT slide (no real difference + big file size)

There is a reason however that might make me change my mind. The same argument holds when buying digital cameras with ever increasing mega pixel capabilities: your ability to zoom.

Try to experiment with zooming into stock images (don't be afraid to create a "bleed"). The result might not look good on your computer monitor, but from a distance it can look refreshing. (Do the slide sorter view test).

In the example above, both approaches work. A tiny image on a big white background, or an extreme zoom. The middle ground (as usual) is boring.