PowerPoint Templates that Work

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Learn to make intuitive, easy-to-use, professional PowerPoint templates quickly. Great templates mean better presentations, but unfortunately, most do not work and are often misused. Avoid common traps and mistakes. Get the tips, tricks, and secrets the pros use to design and deliver PowerPoint templates that everyone can use the right way.

You’ll learn how to:

  • Make professional, user-friendly PowerPoint templates
  • Use master slides, layouts, and themes for consistency
  • Incorporate easy-to-edit diagrams and pictures
  • Help prevent casual template users from damaging your designs
  • Keep file sizes small

The Power of Print

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Sure, digital is great, but in many situations, print is far more effective! Join us as we explore when and why print excels, as well as how best to take advantage of new (and old!) print techniques for phenomenal results and maximum visual impact.

Topics include:

  • Why print results in measurably better returns than onscreen experiences
  • Bringing your designs to life with coatings and varnishes that replicate the look and feel of any texture
  • Building instant brand recognition
  • Increasing perceived value through haptic response
  • How digital presses can create amazing analog experiences

Approachable Animation in After Effects

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The ability to add motion to your designs is almost a must these days, and After Effects is the industry-standard app that can truly bring your creative vision to life. Emmy-winning motion designer Kyle Hamrick will guide you through the fundamentals of this often-intimidating program, and demonstrate approachable techniques you can use right away to bring your own work to life in a variety of creative ways.

In this session, you’ll learn:

  • When, why and how to incorporate motion into your skillset
  • Fundamentals of the After Effects UI and multimedia workflow
  • How to import and animate layered designs from Photoshop and Illustrator
  • Beginner-friendly techniques that can make a big impact

Actually, There’s a Script for That

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One of the best ways to improve your productivity and efficiency is to use scripts — and scripts are really easy to use! You just need to know where to find them.

In this session, you’ll see a ton of must-have free and low-cost scripts for InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop; as well as sources for finding others. You’ll also learn how to make your own scripts with a little help from AI or hire a professional scripter to tackle really hairy jobs.

Topics include:

  • Where to find must-have scripts
  • The fastest and easiest way to install a script and run it
  • Top free scripts you need

PowerPoint for InDesign Users: Getting Up to Speed

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PowerPoint is the app that creative pros love to hate. And yet, we all have to use it sooner or later! The truth is that once you learn how PowerPoint works, you’ll find it’s incredibly powerful and can perform some tasks even better than Adobe’s tools.

If you’ve ever feared or hated PowerPoint… if you’ve ever made a presentation in InDesign or Photoshop because you didn’t want to face PowerPoint… take this opportunity to get to know it a little better. Step up your game and embrace the tool of choice for professional presentation designers. The more you know about PowerPoint, the more fun it is!

You’ll learn how to:

  • Make use of professional fonts and control typography
  • Set up a design grid and color palette in minutes
  • Make the most of vector graphics
  • Take advantage of Creative Cloud and your favorite stock libraries without ever leaving PowerPoint

Project Neo and 3D Viewer

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Designers have struggled with 3D tools for decades, but Adobe has some new (and currently free!) tools that make building and using 3D art not just much easier… but even fun! Stop trying to “make it pop” with old style drop shadows and start bringing your art to life with real 3D objects that you can place into any Photoshop or Illustrator document (and then use for print, social media, interactive, and more).

Topics include:

  • Getting started with the mind-blowing Project Neo
  • How Substance 3D Viewer seamlessly integrates into Photoshop
  • Fast ideation and concept visualization
  • Bringing your 3D objects into Illustrator

You Got This: Video for Designers

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Video creation is more accessible than ever, but once you dive in, you may realize it’s more involved than you thought! Join Emmy-winning video creator Kyle Hamrick to learn the essentials of planning, capturing and editing a video project, and learn how you can incorporate video into your work across a variety of formats and contexts. This session will feature Adobe tools, but with concepts you can apply to apps of your choice.

In this session, you’ll learn:

  • Fundamental technical and creative terms and concepts
  • How to effectively plan and organize your video projects
  • Approachable workflows for quick videos in Adobe Express
  • More advanced (and even automated!) techniques in Premiere Pro

Bulletproof Templates in InDesign

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A well-built InDesign template can help you and your co-workers create consistently formatted documents that adhere to your brand standards while being easy and efficient to assemble. Setting up templates correctly so they’re easy to understand and use is an art. This session will explore techniques you can start using right away to build bulletproof templates.

You’ll learn:

  • The best place to store the miscellaneous “bits and pieces” that are often needed in templates, such as sidebar lockups, headers, footers, etc.
  • How to make parent (master) pages clear and easy understand
  • Naming strategies that encourage users to actually use paragraph, character, and object styles
  • The best way to provide “how to use” documentation for your templates

Superpowered Visuals: Escaping Blah-Mageddon

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Visuals aren’t about making things pretty—they’re about communicating ideas quickly, clearly, and effectively. And they’re your secret weapon for telling stories that people connect with. The right visuals help your audience see themselves in your message through an emotional connection or a clear call to action. It’s time to stop letting your visuals sit there and look nice—let’s turn them into superheroes that fight for clarity and drive action.

You’ll learn how to:

  • Use visuals to cut through the clutter
  • Avoid vague content
  • Deliver and reinforce the right message with impact

Three Minutes Max: InDesign

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This crowd favorite is back and better than ever! Don’t miss this fun-filled, action-packed, highly educational, and mind-blowing session where each of our instructors will have just three minutes to share their favorite InDesign tip—then you get to vote for your favorite!

In past years, some of the best tips have been held for this session, so you don’t want to miss it!