Join Troy, Nolan and Sandy as they talk about icons; how they use icons in presentation design, how they see others using icons, where to source icons, and when icons should be used – and not used. Join a very geeky designer conversation about what makes design, design! Episode 127 of The Presentation Podcast.

In designing a slide if you find yourself in need of a formless random blob during your creative endeavors, blobs.app has you covered. Shout out to Nolan Haims for cluing us in on this cool tool during a tech tips discussion at The Presentation Podcast!

You can generate blobs of different complexities and randomness, as outlines, color filled, gradients, patterns, even images, and save them as SVG files, or copy the SVG or Flutter code after you’ve created a blob. Modify the variables on the right and click the “Change Blog” button on the left for endless options.

To get this blob into PowerPoint, simply add it as an image, selecting the .svg file you downloaded. Like any .SVG the shape fill, outline, transparency, and styling effects like drop shadow or 3D Rotation can be applied. Further, the blob is a vector shape. Select, ungroup and then right-click and choose Edit Points to modify the shape in any way.

Whether you need some amorphous shapes for buttons, or photos, or something to frame some text, this tool will quickly get you the random shapes you need, and thanks to saving as an SVG file, PowerPoint will let you further modify or format these shapes to meet any of your design needs!

Create your own blobs here.

Josh @ TLC

Microsoft is rolling out 5 new fonts and we couldn’t be more excited! All 5 are Microsoft Cloud Fonts, meaning they are available on every endpoint with Microsoft Office. These are available now and we do not have to worry that a client will not have them and fonts will default to some other randomly assigned font. Windows, Mac, IOS, Android, PowerPoint for the web – these fonts will work for everyone.

Besides showcasing 5 great new options to incorporate into our designs and templates, Microsoft is making waves with news of replacing its long-standing default font, Calibri. Since 2007, Calibri has been the default font for all Microsoft programs including PowerPoint. At its inception, Calibri was designed to perform on lower resolution displays to optimize legibility, using technology that the company no longer uses.

Sample images of each font is below. Each uses the default kerning (space between letters). The top line is with Bold applied, and the lower line with the name of the font is in the standard weight.

Up first on the list is TENORITE, by Erin McLaughlin and Wei Huang. A personal favorite, this font is round and wide, with narrow kerning, making it great for all caps headlines and titles.

Then there is BIERSTADT, by Steve Matteson. A modern take on the mechanical, grid-based style stemming from swiss typography. Tenorite incorporates some organic elements that really makes it stand apart from its institutional roots.

Next up is SKEENA, by John Hudson and Paul Hanslow. With a emphasize on contrast, the font’s distinct variations between thick and thin add a stand-out contender to the list, great for presentations with a lot of copy.

That brings us to SEAFORD, by Tobias Frere-Jones, Nina Stössinger, and Fred Shallcrass. While this the most old-school font of the bunch, there is nothing old about the approach they took designing this font face. Inspired by armchairs, this font is sturdy and worth sitting with for some time.

And last but not least GRANDVIEW, by Aaron Bell. This highly mechanical, German-derived option, is the most rigid of the additions. Grandview retains readability exceptionally compared to it’s ancestors and will be a great option especially when it comes to data visualization.

These fonts are available now and according to the Microsoft press releases, by the end of 2022 one of them will become the default option across all Microsoft programs.

Sara @ TLC

One of our go-to resources is a surprising one – The Alphabitizer (https://alphabetizer.flap.tv) is helpful in many ways. We use it to alphabetize presenter names during a show, organize presentation titles, and more. It also has helpful features like automatically capitalizing names in the list and randomizing items in a list in the case instead of alphabetizing.

First just insert the random list of names, titles, or whatever it is:

Then use the options to the left to perform whatever function is needed. For this example, the goal is the staff names organized by last name.

And voila, a super-quick alphabetized list! The options can be changed one at a time, so the list could be run multiple times until the final list is whatever is needed. For example, it could be run once to alphabetize, once to capitalize, and again to number.

Feedspot is a Content Reader, with the goal is helping us keep up with multiple websites and information sources all in one place. Feedspot also lists and ranks, among other things, podcasts.

In the category of “Presentation Podcasts”, our very own, The Presentation Podcast, ranks #1!

The current top 5 podcasts in the category are…

1. The Presentation Podcast
2. The Presentation Boss Podcast
3. The World of Presentations
4. Fearless Presentation
5. Unforgettable Presentations

Jace @ TLC