As with many things in life, the old sayings K.I.S.S. and “less is more” are core philosophies when it comes to good presentation design. We often know what we want to say but we just don’t know how to say it visually.

The ultimate goal is to allow your PowerPoint slides to function as visual aid supporting your key message – rather than LEAD the presentation itself. To stir up some inspiration getand the creative juices flowing here are a few sites that inspire us.

Photography: Finding a powerful image to represent your key message is a simple yet effective way to engage with your audience. Here is a selection of outstanding conceptual photographs from around the world to rouse the senses.

Colours: If you love colour then check out Labs.ideeinc. Using visual similarity technology – you simply choose a set of colours and the site locates a range of images made up of the colours you chose. The images have been extracted from 10 million of the most “interesting” Creative Commons images on Flickr.

Conceptual: Dribbble is a community of designers, developers and other creative types who share their design work for all to enjoy.

So K.I.S.S, use less words, more powerful visuals and inspire your audience.

Share on Facebook

1 Comment | PowerPoint Presentation Design | Permalink
Posted by Presentation Studio

I came across some research recently that got me thinking. Over half the respondents who attended a presentation preferred receiving the presentation as a PDF as a follow up resource. Why is this? Are we that busy? Are our brains so overloaded with information that we can’t remember what we were told the day before? Or is it because the presentation wasn’t that memorable?

We are hit with thousands of different messages every day and only remember a few. This is why it is so important to make your presentations memorable, interesting and compelling. One way to do this is to take a lesson from our childhood.

How many great stories do you remember and how simple were they – “Hungry Caterpillar”, “Green Eggs and Ham”? They had few words, interesting pictures and an uncomplicated structure. If you want people to remember your message, try creating visually engaging stories that people can relate to and follow.

For more presentation tips, check out our PowerPoint Tutorials here.

Happy presenting!

Share on Facebook

No Comments » | PowerPoint Presentation Design, Presentation Studio | Permalink
Posted by Presentation Studio

We were thrilled to see the editors of SlideShare – the world’s largest community for sharing presentations – selected our new Credentials PowerPoint Presentation to be showcased on their ‘How To’ section.
Check it out at http://www.slideshare.net/category/howto-diy
Our credentials which were built in PowerPoint 2010 demonstrate the fabulous services we have on offer to help you with your PowerPoint Presentations.
Thanks Slideshare!

Share on Facebook

3 Comments | PowerPoint 2010, PowerPoint Presentation Design, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Presentation Studio

The team at Presentation Studio thought it was time…

Share on Facebook

No Comments » | PowerPoint 2007, PowerPoint Presentation Design, PowerPoint Tutorial, Presentation Studio, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by Presentation Studio

The countdown is on for the much anticipated Ignite Sydney 4 event, being held here in Sydney at Oxford Art Factory on Tuesday 2nd March. This is part of the bigger ‘Global Ignite Week’ event where 40+ cities around the globe each host their own Ignite event at the same time.

We are big supporters of Ignite, as a showcase and celebration of a series of short presentations delivered by a range of speakers on ……… whatever!  The format: each presenter has 5 minutes to present 20 slides which are set on a 15 second automatic transitions on a topic of their choice. These simple yet effective parameters force speakers to consider their core message and wrap it up into a punchy, succinct and often entertaining pack – the way a lot of presentations should be!

We are now seeing large corporates adopt similar styles for their speakers at conferences and internal team days as way to encourage creativity, refine content and inject a bit of entertainment into what can be tediously long days.

Here’s some quick tips to help you create a short and snappy presentation:

• Know  your audience – this will help you shape your presentation
• Organise your key messages on paper before you even open PowerPoint
• Choose powerful and relevant images that help the audience understand your message
• Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse!  – if you know your content, the rest comes naturally

See you at Ignite!

Share on Facebook

1 Comment | Event, PowerPoint Presentation Design, Tips and Tricks | Permalink
Posted by Presentation Studio

I recently heard this great analogy describing how your font should function as a ‘crystal goblet’ in your marketing/presentation material. In the sense that the font type should act like a transparent vessel that holds, shapes and organizes your information without being a feature in itself. In saying this, it is a well known fact that your font choice will subconsciously influence the tone and feel of the message you are tyring to convey.

In the last 50 years we have seen an explosion of san serif fonts in global communications, first popularized by the typeface Helvetica in the late 1950’s. Helvetica brought a new era of pert, friendly, rational and honest fonts. This explains why the so many of the ‘big boys’ in today’s corporate world have adopted this font into their brand identity.

When I did a little further investigation into this typography revolution, I came across a fascinating retrospective film-doco called ‘Helvetica’ that reviews its rise to fame last century.  Released in 2007, the film has continued to draw attention to a far wider audience than the ‘typographer’ that you think it would attract. 

Check out: www.helveticafilm.com – it will certainly make you think next time you select a font for your upcoming presentation.

Share on Facebook

No Comments » | PowerPoint Presentation Design | Permalink
Posted by Presentation Studio

PowerPoint is celebrating 25 years of presentations – since 1984 when the first brief was developed for an overhead projection tool.

It is estimated that PowerPoint holds 95% of the presentation software market with over 500 million users worldwide.

Love it or hate it – we all have to sit through it… the average PowerPoint session runs for 250 minutes – so why make it painful!

Check out this article on the BBC News website – some top tips from Presentation Expert – Max Atkinson. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8207849.stm

Share on Facebook

No Comments » | PowerPoint Presentation Design | Permalink
Posted by Presentation Studio

The new release is looking very cool. Check out the awesome features such as turning your presentation into a video and even burning a DVD!

Share on Facebook

No Comments » | PowerPoint Presentation Design | Permalink
Posted by Presentation Studio