The LA28 Design System is Impressive!
I just bought tickets for us to see a sport climbing competition that is over 2 years away. In July 2028 to be more precise! That’s right: for the 2028 LA Olympics. And with the 2028 Olympics being nearby in LA, I was excited to be able to use the “locals” advance purchase option for us to see a few events in person.
Quick backstory…rock climbing is something Troy and I have a long history with, including during our pre-presentation design years, when we owned and ran one of the original premiere-level rock climbing gyms in America.
(Troy still rock climbs today, but more casually perhaps)
Now, while I was preparing to buy said Olympic competition tickets (and let me tell you, it is a process…well planned out and communicated…but a process nonetheless), the LA Olympics people suggested I watch a video about the ticket buying process. This is when I stumbled upon another video detailing the LA28 design system…and it’s really cool!
From a very versatile letter “A” (think MTV logo of old) to the event color scheme (think flower superbloom and LA specific flowers) to the patterns of the 2028 LA Olympics design system…I can’t decide which I like best (okay, the patterns win).
(Our local 2023 superbloom on a drive to LA)
Everyone who works in design will appreciate the 2028 LA Olympics design system in this less than 3-minute video!
I love that the video highlighted design systems from past Olympics and from what I see, LA28 is going to represent LA extremely well – I can’t wait to see the colors and patterns play out. Funny enough, I’m not a fan of the LA28 font system. However, I see the strategy and am curious if I’ll change my mind as I see the whole system play out over the next couple of years.
Enjoy!
-Lori @ TLC Creative
New Podcast Episode Available! “Are PowerPoint Templates In Our Future?”
New episode of The Presentation Podcast now available! In this episode, Troy, Sandy, and Nolan discuss the value and challenges of PowerPoint templates. They agree that well-built templates save time, make brand consistency easier, and improve efficiency. But everyone also agrees PowerPoint templates are frequently misused, broken, or ignored. While AI tools can generate content and slides, that is not the same as creating slides with the backend formatting and presets of template. And observations from testing multiple AI systems, all currently lack the ability to build or maintain proper template structures. Join The Presentation Podcast hosts for a great conversation centered around PowerPoint templates.
Listen on your favorite podcast app, or at The Presentation Podcast site here.
Format Presenter Notes Handouts
Before diving into Presenter View’s display of Presenter Notes, let’s first look at PowerPoint’s Notes Master.
This is where the slide and Presenter Notes are merged for print. But, really, it’s another “hidden” function within PowerPoint that few know about, and even fewer consider customizing.
Each Master Slide in a PowerPoint file has a Notes layout, which is used for printing slide notes pages. The Microsoft default layout has a fairly large image, or thumbnail, of the slide, and a text box below it for the Presenter Notes using the same font as the master slide text and sized at 12 point. Along with the Header, Footer, date, and page number placeholders in the 4 corners of the page.
[image of default notes layout showing the placeholders]
To access the Notes Master, go to the VIEW tab > MASTER VIEWS section > and click the NOTES MASTER icon.
Note: To close the Notes Master and return to the slides, go to the HANDOUT MASTER tab > CLOSE section > click the CLOSE icon.
For TLC Creative, we have our own version of Notes Master layout that we like, and it is included on all PowerPoint templates we create.
- Smaller and positioned higher slide image
- Larger text box
- Preset bullets, font sizes, line & paragraph spacing
- Date moved to the lower left
- Footer centered at the bottom of the page
- Header and page number placeholders stay in their respective corners
A special note is that if a presentation has multiple master slides, each master slide has its own Notes Master. This is important for slide deck printouts where formatting of each Notes Master needs to be reviewed to ensure the Notes View printout is consistent.
So… how does this relate to using Presenter View when presenting? We will address that in the next post!
Troy @ TLC Creative
Typo on the slide
The TLC Creative Services design team receives presentation slides continuously as part of design projects, presentation makeover projects, and to run for live corporate event projects. This is a nice graphic that was core to a recent event (eg. I received the presentation at an event and had nothing to do with the presentation design).
THE ASK, THE PROBLEM
– First was an ask to animate the graphic, which was not possible as it was inserted into the presentation as a flat raster image (e.g. a JPG image). Inserting as a vector .svg would have been great!
– Second, and only because I was asked to work with the graphic did I take a closer look, and then discovered (and called out) the problem… do you see it?
Note: by the time I was working with this graphic, it had already been used in presentations, other attendee collateral, and a website… I am certain it was reviewed and vetted by multiple people, all of whom were asked to approve the graphic.
There is an important, real-world lesson here. Even with multiple layers of reviewing and proofing, typos happen!
Time’s up! Did you spot the typo? “DRVIEN”
I am guessing the typo would’ve been caught had it been the only graphic on the slide. However, in this case, the word “DRIVEN” is just one element in a busy graphic – and I was looking at it on a busy slide with several other text boxes. And all that ‘other’ text pulled attention away from this circle graphic.
THE EMERGENCY FIX
Having this graphic as an .SVG on the slide would have solved many problems. It could have been ungrouped and animated, which was the original request. It also could have been ungrouped and then modified to fix the typo.
Since the source art was not going to be available in time for that day’s meeting, I did some Photoshop work and produced a “fixed” version of the graphic – at least the graphic used in the presentation I was running was fixed!
-Troy @ TLC Creative
New Podcast Episode Available! “Inside the Creative Process: Designing a Partnership Pitch Deck”
New episode of The Presentation Podcast now available!
In episode 245 of The Presentation Podcast, Troy and Lori Chollar of TLC Creative Services give us access to their team’s design process by pulling back the curtain of a completed partnership pitch deck project.
This project got them thinking about how we all approach presentation design. Everything starts before a single slide is designed with understanding and defining the purpose (and type) of presentation it is, which then influences the visual design and on-slide messaging. Our candid conversation is a great listen full of strategies and ideas for crafting visually rich, purpose-driven presentations!
Listen on your favorite podcast app, or at The Presentation Podcast site here.
ToolsToo Remove Masters Part 2: PowerPoint QAT
Sometimes, reducing a formatting process from 6+ clicks to 3 clicks is just not enough. In this case, my previous blog post showcased the ToolsToo Remove Unused Masters feature, which reduces the 6+ click process of opening the PowerPoint presentation master, finding an unused slide master, deleting it, and closing the master slide view.
But I do this process often enough that I have moved it to my QAT, and it’s now a 2-click process!
All you have to do is click the QAT button, then click “Yes”, and you’re done!
Troy @ TLC Creative