I really enjoy graphic design projects, however I only discovered this a few years ago. It’s become one of my favorite creative outlets, for example I created the posters above. I have no formal training, anything I know comes from what I have read in books, by trial and error and by studying the work of professional graphic designers. The tool I use is PowerPoint, which I am sure isn’t the norm for the “pros”. Actually it works well for a amateur like me since it is designed to put words and images together on a page/slide and is relatively easy to use. I guess PowerPoint was the natural tool for me… Read More
Continue ReadingAre you using “shiny happy people” in your slides?
A couple months ago I was asked to help some colleagues design and deliver a major presentation for a project at a children’s hospital. We didn’t have much time to plan our strategy. To get started I did a short email survey asking everyone what they thought the main message/theme of the presentation should be, and I chatted with my colleagues who knew the audience best. In the end we chose a simple but meaningful theme “It’s about the kids”. We wanted the presentation visuals to amplify our message. This turned out to be a challenge. All we could find in our marketing database were images of “shiny happy children”,… Read More
Continue ReadingWant to make a video? Why not use PowerPoint?
PowerPoint has a variety of applications. In addition to designing slides for presentations I have used it to make promotional posters and to design logos and buttons for the animal welfare groups that I am involved with (see Life by PowerPoint). I have also started creating videos. You can insert music to link to your slides (for the examples below I used music from iStockPhoto.com). For me, the biggest challanges in making videos with Powerpoint are telling my story in just a couple of minutes (I recommend you keep you videos to 2-3 minutes), and having the music timed just right. Re timing: using the Transitions tab you can select the transition… Read More
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