i really dislike using powerpoint, but i have to in order to present a project. any good examples of layout and format that don't look horrible? thanks!

keep it simple: white background, black background, etc.

don't use the fancy "effects"

design a template slide and use it throughout for consistency

better yet, get a mac and use keynote.

i second that on keynotes.

Make a pdf in indesign and present that.

What works for me:

One drawing/image pr slide and make sure that the content background has the same color as the slide background - no borders
And I think that variation on background colors is good
Helvetica only
Keep it simple
nice reference: http://www.thedepartmentforinformationdesignatcopenhagen.com

If you do use a lot of variation in background colors (both hue and intensity), do be sure to use a fade in, fade out effect.

It'll reduce eye strain!

why don't u use flash and code it with ac3 or dreamweaver css styles?
they are just tools and u can make it as sophisticated as any. the advantage of powerpoint over many other fancy software is in its ease of use and transferability with the rest of the world.

ds96, u are the one who is from some fancy school and bitching about corporate firm correct? here is a last piece of advise, get off ur elitist high horses, stop bitching about thing u have to do that doesn't meet ur standards. you eat and shit too like everybody else, so shut up and do the work.

welcome to the real world.

second InDesign to PDF, so much more flexible and you can just place directly from Illustrator and Photoshop.


PPT is good for simple, though, as is Word to PDF if you need dumb simple and don't care about details like alignment.

3rd that ^^
trying to get others in my office to realise running a presentation as pdf cuts out the messy PPT aspect.

Pdf's and last minute changes gives me the chiils, often you have to combine (usually 1 hr before the actual presentation) with the engineers slides as well and i have yet to work with any engineer who rocks the indesign/pdf combo.
I sure that pdf is the future, but adobe seriously need adjust acrobat as a presentation software. How hard could it be to take the stuff that works in both powerpoint and keynote?
With a +50 slides/pages presentation, pdf seriously sucks balls for sorting slides and adding new from other presentations.

Peru, if you have Acrobat Professional it is REALLY easy to rearrange pages, add new from other presentations, etc. Takes seconds. You can drag and drop, drag around to re-arrange, re-arrange by page number if you want, etc. In fact it is much easier than doing the same in PPT (speaking from lots of presentation experience with both).

Yeah, Peru, I think you need to look over some tutorials. You can do that with InDesign too.

niro, your harshness is not appreciated. i went to the gsd. i shouldn't be stuck doing marketing powerpoints and binding rfq booklets. sooooo underutilized.

DS96...

I know the AIA and the architectural industry doesn't do a whole lot or permit a lot of advertising... but nearly every other company in business spends about 30 percent on their budgets doing marketing, advertising and PR. Companies who enjoy good public visibility don't advertise so much as they have to maintain that reputation-- which a more more expensive and bananas approach to business.

I can't imagine any of the big firms today-- those who will give outsiders a peek at their books-- would stay in solvency with those kinds of expenses.

You can't do architecture without accountability and visibility because you need clients to make architecture.

Look at it this way... I don't know your specifics but let's say you're making 35 an hour and you've spent one billable week.

This presentation is for say 8 people. This marketing tactic is costing your company initially 175 dollars a head. Now, if this is a presentation that's done over and over again... the cost will drop because the hard work has been done.

However, if that project does get off the ground and it turns out to be a multimillion dollar project... your week and 1400 dollars just made the company $150,000. So, if you think this is beneath you, just become a CAD monkey.

Right now, I'm currently helping a company throw a party for 300 guests. The budget is 250 dollars a head just for food and drinks... probably closer to 420-440 a head with all the other head.

This little shindig will probably net the company over all 2... may 2.5 million dollars in future orders.

Your situation... your marketing cost is like 0.93%. The marketing cost for this event is like 10% of projected sales.

i presume you are joking DS96?

my suggestion is you should quit if you think you are that good.

but bloody hell, i studied in studio with pritzker winner at school where nobel prizes are not uncommon and future prime ministers roam the halls. and i still do ppt presentations. in fact i do them all the time.


you may not believe it but presentation is useful and important experience. We spend a LOT of time presenting work to clients and preparing documents for magazines. it is part of the job description for smaller firms (i am principal of one such). And if you are to be anything but an ignorant boss it is useful for you to know the basics, at least, for the day when you are asking folks to do the same.


anyway, in design is great workaraound and i used to use it for most presentations via pdf. now i am giving lectures at uni every week i have learned to take ppt for what it is and have no issues. no fade ins/outs, no animations, because they are silly fluff in my opinion. when i do animate i use flash, though there are some issues with embedding it into ppt, or at least my version of it. but for what it is ppt is fine. if there are limitations they are mine.

acrobat pro does all that manta says. it is easy to add and subtract pages. just as easy as ppt.

ds96,

of course gsd, i can tell from from what u wrote and it is a sterotypical trait of the product from there.

harsh? well sorry about that, but if u went to gsd, u should know to take criticism seriously especially the harsh ones. it is only from the harsh criticism that u actually might learn something. it is for your benefit because architecture school is fantasy land and the sooner u realize that, better u'll perform.

i also went to a fancy ivy school, dealt with all sorts of graduate from highly respected schools and i hate to tell u this but, ur a dime a dozen in the work place, so big whooop! surprisingly enough, i was more impressed with the talent and work ethic of people from lesser know architecture programs. perhaps they had less of an ego trip and simply did the work and did them well w/o sticking their diplomas in my face every few days.

a mentor once told me (he was too from gsd): "u should not be defined for what ur good at, but the willingness of exploring your weaknesses or dislikes. because, only by exploring the lesser know, or the unknown, can one develope one's unique characteristics." this is pure bullshit when i first heard it, i still do, but perhaps of a much lesser degree. What i got out of it so far is a basic sense of wonderment in all aspect of life and/or work. if i only did what i was used to or dismissed anything of whats considered lesser of me w/o exploring possibilities i might was well flush that diploma down the toilet and go live in a cave.

i hope this is still harsh for mr. sensitivity.

ds: yeah ok, binding rfq's must be boring, but your complaint over marketing powerpoints just shows that even though you went to the gsd, you didn't absorb the whole "make theory out of everything". in this economy, i wouldn't mind DESIGNING powerpoints for a firm. looking at things superficially sucks, doesnt it?

back to the topic though:
i'd get a portable version of acrobat (google it) that you can put in a usb stick and use inDesign to get the presentation done; PDFs are so much easier to archive, and manage than ppts (i just stick my PDF's into an EverNote notebook and keep them archived there), and often times the control over layout, font and even just the quality of the work being displayed impresses people (thinking about how i OCD'd out of powerpoint and did a bunch of linguistics stuff for a class in PDFs and when i presented the first comment after the presentation was over was "wow, nice slides").

also the control you get over tables in indesign is so so so amazing.

of course one could always do the layout / initial sequencing in indesign, print to pdf, then export to jpegs, import those as slides into powerpoint, then convert the ppt file into flash, then export that into a smf file and embed that into your firm's html.




ds, you went to hahvahd and youre asking banal layout questions in this forum? are you fucking kidding me? go read a book.

ill even hook you up with the last bit:

<object width="550" height="400">
<param name="movie" value="somefilename.swf">
<embed src="somefilename.swf" width="550" height="400">
</embed>
</object>


enjoy.

jplourde,
i prefer:

var Xpos:Number=0;
var Ypos:Number=-1000;
var swf:MovieClip;
var loader:Loader=new Loader();

var defaultSWF:URLRequest=new URLRequest("iAmClueless.swf");

loader.load(defaultSWF);
loader.x=Xpos;
loader.y=Ypos;
addChild(loader);

function btnClick(event:MouseEvent):void{

removeChild(loader);
var newSWF:URLRequest=new URLRequest(event.target.name + ".swf");
loader.load(newSWF);
loader.x=Xpos;
loader.y=Ypos;
addChild(loader);
}

iWentToFancySchool.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, btnClick);
iHatePowerpoint.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, btnClick);
youAreTooHarsh.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, btnClick);

I prefer

10: GET DRUNK
20: DANCE PARTY
30: DECLARE 40 A DONKEY VAGINA
40: YOU
50: PUNCH 40 IN DICK
60: GO TO 10

ds96

If you are so underutilized, why dont you leave?

Considering you went to gsd, it sounds like that means you should be able to walk in to any firm and do the exact type of day to day work you want to

I didnt think gsd grads actually had to do "grunt" work, i thought you got to pick and choose the projects you got to do, then once the actual work started, you moved along to something else