Making a Good Powerpoint

Powerpoint has produced more bad design in its day that perhaps any other digital tool in history with the possible exception of Microsoft paint.
In this post we’re going to address the epidemic of bad presentation design with ten super practical tips for designer better looking and more professional presentations. Along the way we’ll see a number of awesome slide designs from Note & Point along with some custom examples built by yours truly. Let’s get started!

Not a Designer?

Most of the content on this site is targeted specifically towards professional designers and developers, or at the very least those interested in getting started in this field. This post however, is for everyone that has ever created a presentation. Whether you’re a student, the leader of a self-help group, or a corporate executive pulling in six figures, the second you open up Powerpoint or Keynote, you become a designer whether you like it or not.
You’ve chosen a visual tool to communicate and should therefore take the time to learn a thing or two about visual communications. One of the major reasons for this, especially for people in the professional business world, is that your colleagues will subconsciously make judgements about you based on the visual appeal of your presentation.
Follow the ten tips below and see if you don’t start getting comments about your awesome presentation design skills. Just watch out, if your co-workers notice you getting good at it they’re likely to start asking for to help with theirs!

#1 Don’t Use a Built-In Theme

To illustrate this idea I opened up Powerpoint, grabbed an actual default theme at random and threw some type on it. This workflow is nearly identical to that of countless presentation designers and the result is a typical presentation slide that I’ve seen countless times throughout college and my career.

Here’s a design secret, this slide sucks; as do many of the default themes you’ll find in Powerpoint. Granted, they’ve definitely improved the offering in recent years and Keynote (Apple’s presentation software) has some awesome templates, but you shouldn’t view these as the go-to method but rather a last resort if you need to create a presentation in record time.
The point here is that something custom makes a much stronger statement. Your colleagues know and use the templates in Powerpoint and they’ll recognize immediately that you didn’t put any work into the aesthetics of the slides.
I know for non-designers leaving behind templates may seem a bit radical, but you can do it! Just be sure to read the other tips below before striking out on your own. Otherwise you might end up with something much worse that even the Microsoft designers could come up with (and that’s saying something).

#2 Use Quality Photography

Photography is one of the single best ways to make your presentation look awesome. It’s also one of the single best ways to make it lame. The “business people on white background” look is nice, but it’s overdone and tends to look a bit stock art-ish or flat out cliche.
Further, just because a picture is on a white background doesn’t mean it’s a good photo. Stop using ugly or awkward photography just to have something to put on the slide. Remember that no photo is better than a bad photo.

 

 

Finding Free Photos

Where are these amazing photos you say? For starters, check out Stock XCHNG, a free stock photography website with tons of content (good and bad). Also, did you know you can run a Flickr Search using only creative commons licensed content? These photos are free to use and many only require attribution, which can come in the form of a simple slide thrown in at the end of your presentation with a link to the photo sources.

 

As an example, the photo above is from Lauren Tucker, and is a Flickr Creative Commons item.

#3 Solid Colors Rock

You don’t always need a fancy photo or crazy custom background to make a presentation look professional. Using a strong palette of solid colors can make for an awesome presentation.

 

Kuler is the quintessential online color tool. Choose from thousands of awesome pre-built color schemes or generate your own with advanced but user-friendly tools.

 

Piknik

Piknik is one of the most basic color tools on the planet and definitely one of my favorites. Simply move your mouse around to change the color, scroll to change the luminosity and click to copy the values to your clipboard.
I use this daily when building websites to get a feel for what a color will look like when it covers the whole screen, which makes it perfect for presentation slides as well.

 

0to255 is another one of my favorites and is an amazing tool for finding variations of a color. This makes it perfect for hovers and borders in web design but it can also be great for finding an accent color for typography or other elements in a presentation.

 

#4 Typography Speaks Volumes

Non-designers frequently stress out about finding the proper typeface for a presentation, and for good reason. The right font can me make or break your presentation. Typography is a major art form in the design world and it can really set the stage for what you want to say.

Remember that typefaces can communicate a mood, a point in time, or any number of other factors. Instead of browsing your font list and looking for “something cool,” instead think about the message you want to convey.
Consider the fonts below as an example of how typography can communicate just by virtue of its design. Old style serif fonts tend to fee formal and professional while sans-serif fonts feel modern and clean.

The biggest mistake that people make with fonts in presentations is assuming that the first three font styles listed above are boring. This causes them to jump to something like the font on the bottom because it feels more unique and interesting.
If you’re not a professional designer, remember that the first three styles above aren’t boring, they’re safe. They’re great looking typefaces that have been professionally designed to make you look good and that’s exactly what they do.
Never be afraid of standard-looking fonts. Using them can help ensure that your design remains inside the realm of clean and professional and away from cluttered and ugly. Notice how the slide below uses relatively “boring” fonts but varies the size and weight to add visual interest and create something that is ultimately quite non-boring.

 

The Trick to Using Fun Fonts

Now, to take that frown off your face I will say that you don’t have to avoid cool fonts 100% of the time. There is a time and a place to throw in something fun, just know that you should use these types of fonts wisely and springily.

As the image above illustrates, one great trick for using crazy fonts is to only implement them in a headline while leaving the rest of the text plain. When you have too much of a complicated font or start mixing complex styles, what you get is an impossible to read mess. Above we’ve left most of our messaging in a typeface that you can actually read while still bringing plenty of awesomeness to the page with the headline.

#5 Watch Your Readability

While we’re on the subject of typography, you should always be aware of how readable the type is in your presentations. Sometimes the amazing photography tip from #2 will leave you in a situation like the one below.

Here we have a really captivating image, but it’s wreaking havoc on the readability of our text. Even if we make the text bold and try different color variations, it still comes up short. This can be immensely frustrating to new designers.
The solution however is quite simple: use tip #3 (solid colors rock). By creating a simple color bar behind the text we increase the readability by leaps and bounds and still maintain a stylish looking slide.

 

http://designshack.net/articles/graphics/10-tips-for-designing-presentations-that-dont-suck-pt-1/

 

Picaso Collage

To make this collage I went onto Picaso on google and I found it fun.

 

 

 

 

I went onto Ribbet online photo editor to edit tis photo. Here is before and after. I adjusted the temperature, saturation and touched up the face.

 

Google Sketchup

The program I used to make this project is called Google Sketchup. We are using Google Sketchup Version 8.  Click on the link to download this program. It is a great program that you could use for fun or work or to do a project and it is free! I liked the program quit a lot more then any of the others. It is difficult at first but gets easier. I could see myself using this program in the future to design my house.

Usecubes

http://usecubes.com/user/gp106338861702581618856

Usecubes is an app meant to create 3D images. To get to it, you have to go to Google Chrome and then download the app. This app is free to everyone. Once you are finished you can begin to create a design. Usecubes is similar to legos, except you are on the computer. This app may appear to be a game to some people but it could also be used to help people in many different ways at work, home, or school. It may be challenging if you haven't tried it before because of the way you have to drag the blocks and stuff around and it is much more fun to play with legos. You can do plenty of stuff like making square shapes, zooming in and out, rotating the image, and coloring it. 

How Not To Plagiarize

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q0NlWcTq1Y&feature=player_detailpage

Plagiarism is the "wrongful appropriation" and "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work. The idea remains problematic with unclear definitions and unclear rules. The modern concept of plagiarism as immoral and originality as an ideal emerged in Europe only in the 18th century, particularly with the Romantic movement. Plagiarism is considered academic dishonesty and a breach of journalistic ethics. It is subject to sanctions like expulsion. Plagiarism is not a crime but in academia and industry it is a serious ethical offense, and cases of plagiarism can constitute copyright infringement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism
Plagairism hurts the person who does it. Plagiarism is, in effect, stealing. You're stealing another person's thoughts, ideas, words, way of thinking about a subject and passing them off as your own. In addition, what are you learning by plagiarizing something? Nothing. So, once again the person doing it is hurting themselves. And, most schools (colleges and universities - know less than nothing about high school rules) will show you the door if you're caught plagiarising another person's work. What's more, even a community college will think twice about taking in someone after they've gotten the boot for plagiarism - and a community college will take just about anyone!! In short, the person who has plagiarized something has basically ruined his or her plans for a successful future since that will follow you around, no matter where you might be tempted to go.
http://askville.amazon.com/HURT-PLAGIARISM/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=77284249

You can site pitures, videos, posts, ect. by adding the bibliography to your work.

CC and BCC Emails

“Cc” stands for “Carbon Copy” or sometimes “Courtesy Copy”. This is where the address of the second recipients or other people who are interested is put in. These are the people to who the e-mail isn't addressed to but they may still be interested in the what's in the mail. For example: if an employee e-mails another employee about a department matter, and feels that the department head should also know about the matter, so he CCs the e-mail to the head. “BCC” stands for “Blind Carbon Copy” or sometimes “Blind Courtesy Copy”. This is where the address of third recipients is put in. All the other recipients: first, second and third won’t be able to see the e-mail addresses in the BCC field. Hence, the fact that the e-mail is also sent to these people is concealed. The BCC field recipients are secretly being told about the communication, without others knowing. It is common to use the Bcc: field when addressing a very long list of recipients, or a list of recipients that should not necessarily know each other. For example: if an employee e-mails another employee about something inappropriate, the second employee can reply to the e-mail but keep the manager in BCC, so that the manager may be aware of the first employee indiscretion. For example, a department head is implementing a new policy in his department. He will e-mail the manager the details of the policy, while he can CC the employees in the department, so that they may also be aware of the policy. The department head may also BCC the heads of other departments, or the cooperative level executives, so that they may also be aware of the policy change. However, he may not want to share the e-mail addresses of the other heads with all the employees.

Brooke's Animoto

Brooke's