Resource/Misc

Oops – says the “designer”

DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a TLC project, just something left on the door of my residence.

Oops, guess the designer did not think the restaurant name would be missed when the door hanger die the printer spec’d was used.

This is printed really well: good stock, ink coverage, aqueous coating, trim and die. But the design obviously did not account for the die that put a hole where the company name was. Looking closer, other design questions come up: what is the capitalization standard? What is the punctuation standard? Were 7 font styles too many?

I hear it very often, about how someone’s nephew is great with the computer and designed the company brochure – the guy in the end cubicle on the 4th floor has Photoshop on his computer and can create the event banner – the IT department is setting up the webpage (the registration backend page) and has been asked to also create the PowerPoint template.

These people are great and often creative. The downside is when the general person does not know, or understand, the technical needs of the design, the company branding, or just good design principles the results are not ideal. A company’s image suffers, users with improperly setup files suffer, or money is just wasted….

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T10:06:47-07:00November 22nd, 2013|Personal, Resource/Misc|

San Diego Show

Things are exciting at TLC Creative Services as we have more and more multiple shows happening simultaneously. This week, I am in Monaco, Amber has been in New York and Jennifer in San Diego.

Jennifer has been handling the pre-show design and showsite presentation execution in San Diego for a great end client and production company.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T10:09:46-07:00November 6th, 2013|Personal, Resource/Misc|

PowerPoint for Website Mockup

This year, TLC Creative Services finally updated its website (which is still in process). I am very happy with the new site and additional information it provides. When developing applications, and websites, PowerPoint can be a great tool in the initial stages.

For example, here is the TLC website mocked up in PowerPoint.

Each item is a separate, and editable, PowerPoint shape. The navigation labels can be revised, their order adjusted and the drop down menus revised.

Just another example of using the flexibility of PowerPoint to accomplish more than just “slides.”

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T10:10:49-07:00October 30th, 2013|Portfolio, PowerPoint, Resource/Misc|

(Update to) PowerPoint Video Test Toolkit

Earlier this week, a post released a copy of our internal PowerPoint Video test slides. It was drawn to my attention that there were 2 errors in the slides (1. the .avi was not set to play automatic like all others, 2. the .mpg1 was a really badly rendered video). Thank you for the those that sent emails!

The original post’s download link has been updated with a revised version of the PowerPoint Video Test Toolkit and here is same link:
Download here.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T10:12:22-07:00October 11th, 2013|Resource/Misc, Software/Add-Ins, Templates/Assets|

PowerPoint Video Test Toolkit

For TLC Creative Services, I developed a slide deck that the 5 most common video formats. To test a computer’s setup, we just open this PowerPoint presentation, go to the video format we want to confirm the computer is configured to play and see what happens. If the video plays, we know the computer and PowerPoint are setup for that format and then can troubleshoot the client file with the knowledge that it is not the computer or PowerPoint.

Feel free to download our PowerPoint Video Test Toolkit and use as needed.
Download here (24 MB).

Also, check out the Sept 11 post of the video reference chart to know if a computer’s configuration is going to play a video format.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T10:13:10-07:00October 7th, 2013|Resource/Misc, Software/Add-Ins|

Desk with a View

Earlier this week, I was in Washington DC as the showsite Graphics Op/presentation designer. Great event (even with the government shutdown that cancelled a number of the scheduled presenters). There was a lot going on for presentations, videos, live camera and more. My “desk” requirement was room for 6 computers – here is my setup with 5 of those computers (one is an external monitor):

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T10:14:30-07:00October 5th, 2013|Personal, Resource/Misc|

Video of Animated Map From PowerPoint

Here is an amazing video showing a 1000 years of border history in Europe.

[original video no longer available from source]

Yes, you could fairly easily develop this video in PowerPoint. It would be what we internally call a “Flip Book” animation. One static slide per border change. Then set all slides to auto transition (with the CUT transition) and .01 to .05 seconds for the AFTER setting. When played, it will give the same effect as the above video – although sourcing the data and customizing the country shapes to each border would be a very large project! The video creation would be a simple as FILE>>EXPORT>>CREATE A VIDEO.

Here is a quick video I developed in PowerPoint using the Flip Book animation styling with a vector map of the United States (which was missing in the above video) and exported as a video.
[youtube src=”https://youtube.com/embed/Fpqd3v9gl7A?rel=0″]
57 slides, no animation, auto transitions, exported as video.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T10:15:18-07:00September 27th, 2013|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc|

“Don’t Be That (PowerPoint) Guy”

Today is the conclusion of this 2013 Presentation Summit. The event has been great, spending time with many friends has been great, spending time on the beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida has been great, and leading my final session entitled “Don’t Be That Guy – to the AV Crew” has been great!

The topic was an overview of what presenters should know about AV and large meeting technical setups to have a successful meeting – and success starts with working with an event AV crew.

Note: Next year the Presentation Summit is on the West Coast in San Diego, CA – hope to see you there!

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T10:15:53-07:00September 25th, 2013|Personal, Resource/Misc|

“PowerPoint is my Creative Suite”

Today was a wonderful day in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida at the 2013 Presentation Summit. My session, entitled “PowerPoint is My Creative Suite,” had full attendance and we covered a lot of great projects we have done in the past 6 months at TLC. Specifically projects, tips & tricks, and fun stories of using PowerPoint as a editor or authoring tool for everything but presentations.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T10:16:16-07:00September 24th, 2013|Personal, Resource/Misc|
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