Data Visualization for Presentation


Nolan Haims

ARCHIVE: This session was presented at CreativePro Week 2020.

Data Visualization for Presentation

Friday, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Central

Poor data design leads to overly complicated charts that take too long to understand and steal valuable time from your audiences. Worse, a careless approach to visualizing data can lead to misinterpretation of the messages you are trying to communicate.

This session will focus on fundamental design and data visualization principles to help significantly improve the effectiveness of your charts and communicate the story of your data as efficiently as possible.

We will cover:

  • Reducing color and adding emphasis
  • Identifying and removing “chart junk”
  • Why legends are so bad and how to get along without them
  • Solutions for complex data sets

Presentation Animation Techniques


Jole Simmons

ARCHIVE: This session was presented at CreativePro Week 2020.

Presentation Animation Techniques

Friday, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Central

When you’re designing presentations, you need to think outside the box and function more like a filmmaker. In this focused session, veteran presentation designer Jole Simmons will teach you how! Plus, you’ll learn why you don’t need to be afraid to animate… in fact, you’ll actually start looking for places to use these tools.

We’ll explore:

  • Ways to add subtle touches to your decks to really make them look polished
  • How to use animation to create rhythm and continuity in your presentations
  • and perhaps most importantly: How to have fun with presentation design again!

Just Say No: Alternatives to Boring Slides


Julie Terberg

ARCHIVE: This session was presented at CreativePro Week 2020.

Just Say No: Alternatives to Boring Slides

Friday, 10:15 am – 11:00 am Central

Bullet points. Walls of text with tiny pictures. Predictable slide arrangements. Same size, same color, same layouts, over and over and over. You’ve lost their attention by slide three. How can you break the monotony of boring and bland presentations? How can you create visual excitement and design interesting slides that captivate audiences? This session will show you a variety of ways to lose the snooze with slides that are designed that capture visual attention.

Topics will include:

  • Using a grid to create a variety of compositions
  • Scaling an image, graphic, or metric for emphasis
  • Adding interest with a different text style or typeface
  • Taking advantage of contrast and color
  • Other ways to add visual variety to your slide designs

Crafting Visual Stories for Presentations


Richard Goring

ARCHIVE: This session was presented at CreativePro Week 2020.

Crafting Visual Stories for Presentations

Friday, 9:00 am – 10:00 am Central

There’s much research that shows people remember more from presentations when visuals are used. Yet most of the time we all experience “bullet point hell.”

This session looks at ways to improve your slides visually and get away from Death by PowerPoint (or any other presentation tool). Learn how to make your content more visual, using the right diagram to illustrate and bring your points to life. That means your audience starts paying attention and understands what you want to tell them, even when it’s pretty complicated. And ultimately, it means that your communication is more effective.

XD for Presentations


Bart Van de Wiele

ARCHIVE: This session was presented at CreativePro Week 2020.

XD for Presentations

Thursday, 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm Central

Adobe XD is changing the way many think about designing and prototyping for the web and mobile applications, but it’s also found an unexpected use case. With its blazing fast performance and intuitive features like Auto-Animate, more and more users are starting to craft their presentations completely using XD. In this session, Bart will share their tips and tricks for how to get the most out of Adobe XD for presentations, how to build incredible animations to tell your story (without having to use a complicated timeline interface), how to collaborate with others to build your presentation, and how to share and present your final masterpiece.

Fluid Transitions


Richard Goring

ARCHIVE: This session was presented at CreativePro Week 2020.

Fluid Transitions

Thursday, 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm Central

PowerPoint offers a number of great ways to seamlessly transition from one slide to the next —  most recently, the extraordinary Morph feature. Learn how to use transitions between slides and between elements within your slides, to get your audience drooling!

Topics include:

  • how to think ‘outside the slide’ — literally!
  • consideration of timing, speed, distance
  • creating beautiful and impressive sequences
  • practical demonstrations of bringing elements to life
  • examples to inspire your creativity

The session will be highly practical with discussion on how to achieve a specific style, and a live demo of the technique being created in PowerPoint.

Adobe Apps for Presentations


Mark Heaps

ARCHIVE: This session was presented at CreativePro Week 2020.

Adobe Apps for Presentations

Thursday, 2:15 pm – 3:15 pm Central

You already have Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign… so why not use them to help make your presentations?

Topics include:

  • Building content in Photoshop, InDesign, or Illustrator, and then exporting for PowerPoint, Keynote, or Google Slides
  • Plug-ins and add-ons that help bridge the gap
  • How CC helps

Make Effective Infographics Fast


Mike Parkinson

ARCHIVE: This session was presented at CreativePro Week 2020.

Make Effective Infographics Fast

Thursday, 2:15 pm – 3:15 pm Central

Learn to quickly turn information, words, and data into clear, compelling infographics. You’ll get real-world tips and tricks to speed development, and also receive Mike’s popular “Graphic Cheat Sheet” (and other tools) that helps pick the right graphic for the job. This high energy, interactive session shares a proven concepting process to develop powerful infographics. You’ll also get key rendering principles and tactics for use in PowerPoint, Illustrator, and other tools.

Technical Type for Presentations


Nolan Haims

ARCHIVE: This session was presented at CreativePro Week 2020.

Technical Type for Presentations

Thursday, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Central

If you still think that you can’t use professional-grade typography in PowerPoint, it’s time to take another look. In this session, we’ll explore the program’s features and capabilities for making type shine and for moving well beyond the worlds of Arial and Calibri.

Topics include:

  • The pros and cons of embedding
  • Cloud fonts
  • Font themes
  • Formatting tips and techniques
  • Converting fonts to shapes
  • Fonts and templates

From Inspiration to Presentation


Jole Simmons

ARCHIVE: This session was presented at CreativePro Week 2020.

From Inspiration to Presentation

Thursday, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Central

Have you ever been on a website and saw some amazing animation or something that really caught your eye? Or maybe even watched a movie with some super cool opening credits? Don’t just admire them and move on… use them for inspiration!