A Designer’s Guide to Building Presentations

Wednesday, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Presentation design is one of those genres of creative/production work that doesn’t get much attention, but in the last few years has grown in demand. With the proliferation of websites/events like TEDx, 99U, and PechaKucha, corporations and agencies are demanding more from the presentations given in the world. In fact, for some companies, it’s a major part of the brand experience that they are trying to foster both within their own culture and their client-facing experiences.

There are lots of books, videos, and more about being a great presenter, and you can find speaker coaches to teach pacing, cadence, inflection, and body language. But there isn’t a lot of information about there for designers and production artists on the craft of building and making the presentation files.

This mode of work combines skills for web, editorial, and design; all while understanding the nuances of projection media. It’s a type of cinematic storytelling, a visual experience that can only succeed when it pairs well with the presenter. This means understanding the audience, the scale of the environment, and how the Adobe tools work with common presentation software. Come to this session if you ever have to design presentations for yourself, your company, or are curious about what this new genre of work is really like.

I’ll be discussing:

  • Types of presentations: documents versus slides
  • Best practices involving type for presentations
  • How do we make it visual and techniques for creating visual solutions
  • Understanding multi-slide media and projection for audiences
  • Typography for presentations
  • What do we present in? Options and pros/cons
  • Designing a presentation system