10 Tips For Making Beautiful Presentation

SLIDESHOW

BEAUTIFUL

10 tips for making

SLIDESHOW

PRESENTATIONSEdahn [email protected]

Credit: Jessica Castro, unwrittenmemories.com

Tip #1

KNOW YOURKNOW YOUR

Be clear about the goal of your presentation before your begin composing it.

GOAL

Presentations, like cats, fall into two categories:


Ugly Beautiful

Credit: Pete Hunt, Flickr


Ugly Beautiful

Credit: Pete Hunt, Flickr

Just Kidding.

Presentations fall into two main categories:

Technicalpresentations

teach people about a topic. The

topic can be anything.

Persuasivepresentationsmake people see something (like your brand) a certain way.

Most presentations will combine

elements of both.

Be focused, but not too dull or repetitive.

Don’t bore them!

It’s hard to communicate It’s hard to communicate when people are busy

playing on their phones... trust me.

Tip #2

PLAN IT OUTPLAN IT OUT

Create an outline or storyboard of the major topics you want to address.

Sketch the basics

Outlineyour main

1111Sequenceyour slides

3333

your main points

Add detail to your outline until you figure out what you want to say in

each slide

2222

your slides effectively

Make sure your presentation follows a logical or chronological sequence.

Show restraint

Resist the urge to cram everything you know about your topic into your show.know about your topic into your show.

If you try and

tell them everything, everything, they won’t remember anything.

Tip #3

AVOID STOCKAVOID STOCK

Run away! Run away!

TEMPLATES

Pop quiz, hotshot:Which slide is more memorable?

(in a good way)

Exhibit A Exhibit B

Trick question.

They’re both vomit.They’re both vomit.

And both templates.

The Problems with Stock Templates

• They lead to infinite bullet point syndrome (IBPS)

• They discourage graphics

• Every slide ends up looking the same

• The designs are usually hideous• The designs are usually hideous

• The presentation looks like every slideshow

presentation you’ve ever seen

• Your audience will lose interest and focus after

slide number one zero

• It reminds people of the 90s (that’s bad)

Build your owntheme instead.

Color LayoutFontsTip #4 Tip #5 Tip #6

theme instead.But h-h-how?

Tip #4

CHOOSE ACHOOSE ACOLOR SCHEME

Choose 5 colors that look good together and match the tone of your presentation.

Pick 5 colors and alternate them in your slides.

Choose one accent color that stands out from the rest.

Choose colors that reflect the tone of your presentation.

ColourLovers.com

Mellow and modern


ColourLovers.com

Mellow and modern


ColourLovers.com

Passionate and aggressive

Mellow and modern


ColourLovers.com

Passionate and aggressive

Something aboutscarves

http://www.colourlovers.comUser-generated color palettes and more

Websites to help you pick color schemes (for free)

http://www.colorschemedesigner.com/

http://www.colorhunter.com/

http://kuler.adobe.com/

Computer-generated color palettes

Upload a picture and it pulls out the main colors

Similar to the above

Tip #5

CHOOSE ACHOOSE AFONT SCHEME

Don’t get too crazy with fonts. Pick 3 and stick to them.

Choose one font

One font for body copy.One font for body copy.

for titles.

One font for body copy.One font for body copy.

And one font for accents.

Fonts on this page: Frutiger LT 95 UltraBlack (Title), Frutiger CE 45 Light (Body, Footnote), Airport (Accents)

Like color, your fonts should also match the tone of your presentation.

Good topicFont nameNot so good

topic

Glamour

Chiller

Nasalization

The 50s Hockey

Horror Movies Daffodils, Ballet

Space, Tron, Techno Music

Estate Planning

Tip #6

CHOOSE ACHOOSE ALAYOUT SCHEME

Develop a few layouts and repeat them throughout the presentation for

cohesion and clarity.

Use the same layouts for slides that have the same purpose.

transition

The layout tells your audience where the slide fits into the big picture.

content

You can sometimes get away with just one layout, but in general, you’ll need a

few basic layouts:

� Transitional slides� Transitional slides� Image only slides� Text only slides�Mixed slides

Text Text TextBig TextBig Text

Image

Text Text Text Text

A few samples

Big Text

Impact QuoteTransition

SubtitleTitle

Text Text TextText Text Text

Content

Impact Image

ImageText Text

Text Text

Text Text

Content

SubtitleTitle Challenge

yourself to avoid using anybullet points.

In addition to repeating layouts, you can also repeat more subtle elements.

Remember me? Yeah you do.Yeah you do.

Tip #7

USE IMAGESUSE IMAGES(WISELY)

After a 30960 minute presentation, no one’s going to remember what you said; they’re going to remember meaningful imagery and quotes.

Let the images

tell the story

If you’re using a full page image, find some room

in the picture where the text

can contrast against the

background.

If an image is too “busy” add a semi9transparent background behind the text for contrast.

If an image is too “busy” add a semi9transparent background behind the text for contrast.

Like This!

Use images where the background of the

image blends into the background of the

page. The white space around it makes it look clean and makes the

image pop.

If you can see the

��

If you can see the background, the effect is ruined. (In this case, you might consider making the background black.)

Protip: In Google images, you can filter images by color in the left%hand column. Choose white and you’re more likely to find images with white backgrounds. You can also try searching for “<query> white background.”

��

http://www.sxc.hu/Stock exchange has beautiful images.

Sites with free high quality stock images

http://www.everystockphoto.com/

http://flickr.com/creativecommons

http://www.morguefile.com

Compiles images from other sites.

Requires that you include an attribution.

Almost no restrictions on these files.Don’t forget to give credit when required.

Tip #8

15 WORDS15 WORDSOR LESS

For live presentations

In general, if you’re giving a presentation

live

keep your slides to

15 words or less.

Limit one mainpoint per slide.point per slide.

Limit one mainpoint per slide.

When you start to overload a slide…

point per slide.overload a slide…




Your audience can get distracted…



And may begin to wonder…






What the hell 60 Pomeranians…






What the hell 60 Pomeranians…Are doing in a

slideshow about



slideshow about slideshows anyway

And then your main point is lost.main point is lost.

Tip #9

PLAY WITHPLAY WITHTYPOGRAPHY

It’s an easy way to spice up slides with text

Content is what the text says; typography is how it appears. By manipulating attributes like

Typography

how it appears. By manipulating attributes like

color, font, size, weight, and positionyou can enhance the impact and visual interest

of your slides and create hierarchy.

Impact

A quote splashed across the screen breaks up the breaks up the monotony and

looks interesting.

Interest

By movingyou can

create

text around

interesting effectscreate

By moving text aroundyou can create

Interest

interestingeffects

Interest

By moving

you can createtext around

interesting effects

you can create

Hierarchy

color, and placement of the text affects

Changing the type,

of the text affects

how it’s interpreted and the order in which it’s read.

Tip #10

DON’TDON’TOVERDO IT

Remember white space

Design like the Google

Not like Yahoo

http://thedegreys.blogspot.com/

A slide can’t function right if there’s too much stuff on it.

The white space that surrounds the object adds emphasis and gives the

page a clean, fresh feeling.

Credit: Ramzi Hashisho

The white space that surrounds the object adds emphasis and gives the

page a clean, fresh feeling.

X X X X XX X X XX

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X Credit: Ramzi Hashisho

Summary

1. Know your goal | make each slide count

2. Plan it out | in some detail

3. Avoid templates | they have the uglies4. Choose a color scheme | 4 colors, 1 accent4. Choose a color scheme | 4 colors, 1 accent5. Choose a font scheme | match tone

6. Choose a layout scheme | comprehension

7. Use images (wisely) | they’re more memorable

8. 15 words per slide | this slide had 16 words

9. Play with typography | impact, interest, hierarchy

10.Don’t overdo it | white space

And remember…And remember…

BREAK THE RULESdon’t be afraid to

Edahn Small is a content manager and writer in Los Angeles, California.

About the author

Email: [email protected]: http://www.AskEdahn.comTwitter: @askedahn

The End.The End.

Documents

10 Tips For Making Beautiful Presentation