[PowerPoint] Simple Theme

PowerPoint needs more unique themes so watch this post as I attempt to develop something that goes against the flow.

Cover Slide

The cover slide gives the first impression and has to cover details such as the organisation you are representing as well as the names of the presenters. More often than not, these details are boring and do not catch the attention of the viewer. Hence, a fresh, clean design for the cover slide is essential to capture the attention of the reader. Here, variation in tones and font sizes create a dynamic feel to the slide and viewers will be interested in specific chunks of content placed at various angles.

List View
Who says the title has to be at the top of the slide? With this positioning, the reader is first drawn to the title of the slide before actually reading the points. The key word is clearly highlighted while the rest of the title can be done in a less distracting font as the viewer will read on from the key word. Also, listing becomes a clear priority here as the numbers are huge. However, attention is not completely diverted as it is in an extremely light font. The slide feels clean as there are huge empty spaces. However, the dense content means that there is no empty feel as experienced in half filled default PowerPoint themes.

Content slide

The picture above is actually a slide used the the middle of a fading transition, hence the reduced opacity of text. The main point that is to be brought across here is that points have to be well spaced out. That means one point per slide. Not only does the transition give readers time to absorb all the information that is on the slide, it also gives emphasis to the point that you are making, instead of giving the impression that it is one out of the many points that you talking about. Font size also plays a part here. A large font size will naturally give you an edge since readers do not have to strain to get your point, or look through a mess of small paragraphs. If you really have to drone, the slides are not the right place. Do that in your script, or maybe a hand out for your audience if possible. 

Multiple header slides

Some slides naturally require header after header after header. Microsoft's solution is to provide sub-point after sub-point after sub-point, each one uglier than the last. Here, I have another solution for you. How about layering the headers in different styles and orientations such that it does not feel like a header, but acts like one nonetheless? With the main header already settled by the scrolling bar on the left of the screen, we can then include a sub header as seen in this picture with a solid colour filled picture with clearly contrasting text on it. Not only does this remove the monotonous text based feel of the slides, it also serves as a change in terms of stylistic approach. Different categories as presented in this slide can be written in a larger, more visible font with the red text drawing the focus.

Transition slides

Content on slides can sometimes hamper the smooth transition between slides. Hence, customised transitions are the solution to these otherwise jerky slide changes. By blanking out content on the slides, the viewers can focus on the change in topic without having to deal with massive amounts of content being thrown at them. Hence, inserting a blank slide after talking about a point will greatly enhance the visual spectacle while increasing the information absorption rate of the audience. Specialised transitions such as wipe up will work well with this theme as the headers come in a list from top to bottom. 

[PowerPoint] Effective designs with photoshop

PowerPoint presentations are the standard visual aids for presentations in this technological age. The user-friendly, intuitive layout allows even the most inexperienced user to create slides with animations and transitions. However, it is an entirely different story when it comes to designing professional looking slides encapsulating all the information you want to relay. This simple run through demonstrates the power of a Photoshop-PowerPoint mash-up.

1. The cover slide

Like an introduction, the cover slide gives the first impression of your team, as well as the presentation to your viewers. Hence, it will not suffice to simply fill up the cover slide template Microsoft provides us with. In the example provided above, the emphasis is clearly on the name of the team. Also included are the team member's names, the name of my organisation as well as other information to placed at varying angles to give the presentation a dynamic feel. The logo also gives the viewer a graphical representation for a more lasting impression so that he can form a mental connection between the group and the organisation. Even though so much information is presented, the slide looks clean as only 3 colors are used. lighter shades are also employed so that the slides seen less cluttered, allowing the viewer to focus his attention on the key idea of the slide. The subtle reflection at the bottom of the slide reinforces the key idea.

2) Single object slide

A slide such as this has only 1 key topic, as well as the details that the presenter would like to inform the readers about. The list view in the default PowerPoint application does convey the point but large amounts of information would intimidate the viewer and make the slides seem cluttered at the same time. Yet again, we can employ the technique of dynamism by varying the angle of the text. Emphasis  and focus can be directed by changing the color scheme as well as the font size of the text. In the example above, the main object is seen in the largest font. Since the area that we are describing would be his traits, it is highlighted in red in a smaller font, making it the second object that the viewer focuses his attention on. These traits are also separated into physical and character traits. However, instead of explicitly stating such boundaries, we use variance to give the viewer the impression of separation. The character traits of the object in the example above are in a darker font and are tilted at a uniform angle. The physical traits are done in a slightly lighter font and categories such as "height" and "weight" are written in an even lighter font. This allows the reader to focus on the details while giving him ample information as to what he is reading about. This is done through the use of larger font sizes.

3) Multiple object slide

More often than not, one would have several different points branching into sub-points. However, presenting all your points on a single slide would be bombarding the viewer with too much information as he is only able to absorb a limited amount of information. The solution would be to unify these information by using a constant theme while allowing the viewer to make a mental connection between points by referencing or showing the viewer the links visually. The example above does just that. Each point is clearly marked through the use of a red square bracket. Within it, an acronym is placed to reinforce the memory of the viewer about the content of the box. The smaller text in the box provides details as the the viewer would want to know what these acronyms stand for. Elaboration is added to the bottom of the box. This stylistic enhancement to the default formatting allows the viewer to better remember the points and is clean throughout, removing the cluttered feel of content heavy presentations. The header of the topic is at the bottom left corner and is seen on all three slides, allowing the viewer to group all three ideas under the same umbrella term of "special abilities". Another technique used to unify would be to show the previous and next point in a slightly lower transparency so that the viewer can still make reference to the previous point while focusing his attention on the current one. This left to right scrolling also fits in nicely with some PowerPoint transitions such as wipe, creating the flow of the presentation.

For the slides, Photoshop or jpeg files, please feel free to contact me at kennethchow96@gmail.com