design

How Do You Proof a Presentation…?

Developing a great presentation involves a lot of communication between designer and presenter. There are lots of options for supplying a proof to a client and receiving feedback and direction on content – some proofing rounds and processes are good, some hinder.

proof approved

On The Presentation Podcast, a recent episode was all about design studios sending proofs of presentations from clients, listen to it here.

Here is a quick overview of the 4 most common options for providing a proof:

  • PDFs are easy to create directly from PowerPoint, are easy to email, are mobile device friendly and have a great built-in commenting function. But they are static, so transitions, animation and video are not seen.
  • Video is also easy to export directly from PowerPoint and show all animations, transitions, custom fonts, etc. The downside is that the files can be large and there is not an easy way to provide feedback/comments.
  • Sending an editable PowerPoint file is the easiest option. The biggest concern is version control (who is working and minor items like custom fonts, client changes not being caught [for design, file size, etc.]) and ensuring what was designed is what is being seen.
  • Co-authoring and collaboration, which can be the built-in Office 2016 feature or an external program, have improved to the point of being a valid solution. But I find the most common issue is scheduling – designer and client having same time available to “meet” can be difficult.

The next few posts are going to demo some of the online proofing tools TLC Creative has been using.

-Troy @ TLC

 

By |2016-08-10T08:23:07-07:00April 18th, 2016|Resource/Misc|

Where is PowerPoint’s Ruler?

This is a very common question that we’ve encountered on many occasions.  By default, the Ruler is not visible when PowerPoint is launched.

Ruler image_02v2

To see the Rulers, go to the View tab, Show section and turn on Ruler.

img2

That’s it! Now the rulers will be visible automatically when PowerPoint is used.

 

-Troy @ TLC

 

 

By |2016-08-10T08:28:41-07:00April 1st, 2016|Tutorial|

NEW Podcast on Presentation Design!!

Yes! It’s true! You can now hear me and other Presentation Design professionals on a new Podcast entitled The Presentation Podcast! New episodes will be available 2 times a month and we’ll cover different topics each week!

new podcast logo_forPPTBlog

I am constantly listening to Podcasts, so I am extremely excited about the opportunity to put together a new Podcast specific to the presentation industry. The hosts are Nolan Haims, Sandra Johnson and Myself. We will have discussions all about presentation design, best practices, running a design studio, tips & tricks and lots more so be sure to tune in!

Add The Presentation Podcast to your iTunes Podcasts and join us for the fun!

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T08:29:12-07:00March 30th, 2016|Resource/Misc|

Stretched Video using Powerpoint

What we’re doing here is creating a top and and a bottom banner by inserting a stretched video with animation. There is a video demonstration below.

The video used for this blog was sourced from Videoblocks.com. The aspect ratio of HD MOV 1920 x 1080.

Link to sourced video Abstract Purple and Magenta Sparks

Stretched Video in Powerpoint

1

To insert a video > insert tab > video > for this blog I am using the “VIDEO ON MY PC” option. This will insert the video at original aspect ratio 1920 x 1080.

insert_video

 

2

Scale the video to fill the width and height of page.

scaled_video

3

Scale the video from the bottom/center tab of the video to shorten the height. This creates a scaled video banner.

video_scaled_top

 

4

Duplicate and send the other video to the bottom of the page. Select both videos > Animation Tab > Click Play > Click the Animation Pane > Start with Previous. This allows both videos to be played at the same time on the initial startup.

Auto_play_video

animation_pane

5

With both videos selected Click on > Video Tools Tab, then Playback Tab > Start Automatically > Loop until Stopped.

This allows both videos to play automatically and loop in Slide Show Mode until stopped.

stretched_video

loop_video

 

Pros and Cons

Pro for stretching a video: By using a stretched video, the user can display the video in numerous shape and scale options, creating a unique styling display.

Cons for stretching a video: Stretching a video may work for most abstract displays, however it will not retain the original scale ratio of the object being displayed and will result in ruining the original image.

 

Christie @ TLC

Video Demonstration

[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/unnamed-file-4.mp4[/KGVID]

 

 

 

 

By |2019-10-28T10:05:23-07:00March 16th, 2016|PowerPoint|

New Auto Layout Designer

Another new feature of PowerPoint 2016, only available to subscription users, is DESIGNER, which is an automatic layout tool. Here is an example of how it works.

  1. Start with a blank slide – on a Microsoft supplied template (I am using the standard white background new presentation)
    Designer 1
  2. I entered some text in the title placeholder and used the Insert Image option for the content placeholder
    Designer 2
  3. Go to the DESIGN tab and click the new DESIGN IDEAS button
    Designer 3
  4. The right action pane opens the DESIGN IDEAS interface, click LET’S GO
    Designer 4
  5. The Design Ideas pane displays a number of layout options
    Designer 5
  6. Scroll through the options, select any to see and use, these layouts (and several others) were automatically created with a simple click
    Designer 6

Fantastic feature for both the designer and non-designer! But at this stage there are a few downsides to the new DESIGNER tool.

  • The biggest downside is if you do not have PowerPoint 2016, and a subscription version (eg. Office 365), Designer is not available in PowerPoint.
  • The biggest limitation is that it will only work with Microsoft supplied templates. Open the DESIGN tool on a custom template and get the message below.
  • If you do not use layout placeholders (eg. add your own text boxes and insert images not through a placeholder insert image icon), and you get the message below.

Designer 7

Overall, a great idea and smooth implementation. But because TLC virtually never uses a Microsoft template (or theme), this feature has very limited use for us – but I am hopeful Designer will continue to expand its capabilities.

 

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T08:41:53-07:00February 5th, 2016|PowerPoint, Software/Add-Ins|

Motion GFX for a Custom Podium

As a design project for an awards show, TLC Creative was asked to develop a video loop to play on a custom podium that has a 16×9 monitor in portrait – very cool! We story-boarded the visual concept and motion effects (using PowerPoint as the storyboard canvas), then after client approval we moved into Photoshop, Illustrator and video editing (Premiere and After Effects), using elements from two provided event collateral pieces and a lot of creativity. The final piece was designed to coordinate with the event theme, have subtle motion that would not be distracting, work with the staging and seamlessly loop for the duration of the event. The full loop was several minutes, here is a 30 second clip of the animation.

[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/unnamed-file-2.mp4[/KGVID]

– Troy @ TLC

By |2019-10-31T22:19:11-07:00January 18th, 2016|Portfolio|

Toyota Presentation- Before and After

Here’s another great client and example of a provided slide vs. the presentation makeover slides that were used in the final presentation. In this instance, after reading the script, we opted to divide the single slide into two more visually dynamic slides and take a long section of talking and break it into two visuals.

toyota-before-after

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T08:45:43-07:00January 15th, 2016|Portfolio, PowerPoint|

WWE Collector Poster Series

This is a print design project that spanned much of last year where we developed a collector series of large (24″x36″) posters featuring classic WWE superstars. Definitely makes things fun at TLC Creative when you walk around and have one designer working on a presentation about life saving medical treatments and the next designer developing a larger than life Hulk Hogan! Hope you were able to get to the 4 special WWE live events and collect all 4!!

WWE-collage

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T08:46:09-07:00January 13th, 2016|Portfolio|

The Magic Poof Tradeshow Booth

TLC Creative Services does a lot of graphic design projects outside the presentation world. Here is one fun, “traditional” graphic design project from last year. The creator of the Magic Poof (a great children’s book series) asked TLC to use our creativity to design a fun, imaginative and memorable tradeshow booth for the Las Vegas Licensing show. We brainstormed a few concepts and then worked with the book illustrator to get some custom character art to bring Ange-Marie’s bedroom to real-life scale as a photo op for attendees.

Magic Poof Tradeshow Booth

Print design for three 8′ tall large format banners, large format floor cling, event business cards and promo flyers.

– Troy @ TLC

 

 

By |2016-08-10T08:47:21-07:00January 8th, 2016|Portfolio|

PowerPoint for Print Poster Design

“PowerPoint Documents” is our internal term for using PowerPoint as the design tool for print/PDF documents. These do not use slide transitions, animations, or other “presentation” features. This example is a part of previous post project (sync’ing narration to animated slides), where in addition to the presentation design we developed a 24″x36″ poster that visually coordinated with the presentation design.

SofnetPosterImage_1 SofnetPosterImage_2

Note: Typically we would design this in Adobe InDesign for assure print quality, full bleed design, etc.

The request was to develop in a PowerPoint so edits could be completed by the client for each talk. We setup with a custom page size, optimized the graphics for the larger slide size, added the requested content. The end deliverable was the 2 posters, 2 slides in a PowerPoint document. The client was able to revise content, create PDFs to send out or print (and we included print quality specifications regarding PDF from PowerPoint resolution).

– Troy @ TLC

 

By |2016-08-10T09:05:34-07:00July 8th, 2015|Portfolio, PowerPoint|
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