Designers might want to add layout templates for Google Presentations to the brand standards they deliver to their clients.

I find myself helping clients move to Google Apps for their Email and basic Office needs – the only part missing until now was a valid Powerpoint alternative.

I will have to try the new functions and see if it has offline capabilities … that would be killer – especially for client presentations with a tablet.

Does anyone else have alternatives to Google Presentations?

#Google #Apps #Presentation #Powerpoint

Embedded Link

Official Google Blog: A fresh start for Google presentations
A fresh start for Google presentations. 10/18/2011 08:00:00 AM. A year and a half ago, we released completely new document, spreadsheet and drawing editors. Google Docs has been picking up speed ever …

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Computer Human Interaction and Design?

Designers don’t think about it all the time, but the products/services/websites/brochures etc. are made for interaction with humans. The mobile “revolution” (more about that later) extended the websites and Apps to connect to the real world through touch screens and other sensors and have become Computer Human Interfaces. Therefore the CHI is a good venue for designers.

I just peeked in at the “taste of CHI” for a couple of hours. For $10 I have visited the exhibition and seen a few presentations. I enjoyed most the talk of Bill Buxton and the presentation of his Buxton Collection, an archive of digital input devices. What we can learn from such a collection is that technology is evolutionary. Designers try to create an image of “creation” which comes from nothing. They try to hide where their inspiration came from and the legacy they build on.

This leads in his opinion, and I agree, to two bad consequences. Students in design schools learn from this kind of designers that creativity comes a genius spark and therefore they don’t learn how to improve existing things with better design for example. And secondly the speed of the innovation is slowed down. If everything seems to be magically new and have never been here before we think that we are progressing, even when we progress only a little bit or not at all.

The archive shows that things like the iPhone and iPad and other magical devices are not only nothing new (while improved) but that this kind of devices where already on the market 18 years ago. From the first Smartphone with touch screen, the Simon from IBM, to the iPhone basically the improvements are thinner, lighter, color and maybe a longer battery life. Not a big revolution in 18 years.

To get to the moon on the other site took just 9 years. Why? Because the USA had a legacy they build on – Werner von Braun and his technicians.

What can Designers learn from this?

Designers should not try to reinvent the wheel every time. Don’t copy and don’t be boring, but try to bring a design that inspired you into a new context and push it to another level. I know that it might seem abstract, but in reality it is not.

Moodboards are great way not only to get ideas and as collections for a certain style and design – but also as a starting point for your designs. And when you take the moodboards with you in the presentation your client can actually see where you started and how your design evolved from this starting points.

Impressions from the conference

The exhibition side was more like a design school graduate party. A lot of students showing their projects. Some are really funny but nothing new here. I have seen a lot of the approaches taken by this designer-engineer hybrids already in commercial products on the market or close to market – or in the keynote about Android at the Google IO this morning. I think the real value lies in the panels, but I couldn’t attend any – will see next time.

Here are now some images and movies I grabbed with my phone.

There are beautiful portfolio sites out there in the web and I wanted to redo my portfolio site because like most of the websites of designers my site was:

1. Quite out of date
2. Not very compelling any more

The reasons because my site was like this are easy to find. If you are a busy designer you mostly don’t have time to update your site. In the last years I  started a blog and used twitter to engage with my audience, so the time for the portfolio is even smaller. Maintaining a portfolio site is not as easy and there are many big sites where you can upload your portfolio. The question was, what should I do.

Hosting the own portfolio site

The good

• Once the visitor is on your site all eye-balls are on your projects.
• You can make a design you choose
• You are not limited on how many project, what media, how many pictures and text etc.
• Basically you are in control

The bad

• Hosting a site is not always cheap, not only the cost of the hosting, but also the cost in time to maintain it (yes you have to maintain it like your pc)
• You have to be fit to get better results (design wise speaking) than the established portfolio sites
• You have to advertise your site to get any visitors
• If you are not a web-programmer you must look for a developer in order to setup the site

Using a portfolio site

The good

• You don’t have to manage a website
• The design is optimized for portfolio presentation
• There are already many users on the site
• You can use them as a social network and find job opportunities

The bad

• You are one among many – The distinction between a Pro and a Student is difficult
• There is advertising which is competing with you for attention
• Integration with Twitter and other Social Media is only sometimes possible
• You are limited by the site on how to present your work

Conclusion

You can see that there are advantages and disadvantages as usual when you have to take a decision. It would be easy to say to do both and get out the most of it – but in the end your time should not just be consumed to do your portfolio.

I opted for a self-hosted portfolio site because I already maintain a few sites (like this one) – but will also have some key projects uploaded to the portfolio sites. To minimize the effort of maintaining multiple presences I write the content for my portfolio in a way to reuse it when I need to.

More on how I setup my portfolio site and how I structure it in a future blog post.

(image © Cameron Whitman on Istockphoto)

I have found today this video about a typical interview of a focus group in the stone age. First watch the video by clicking on the image above, then read my comments.

Ok, it’s a campaign of DraftFCB – an advertising holding. It’s ment against clients, who seem to be too stupid to understand the great idea. But this is the classic view of a creative department towards clients. The client doesn’t get it – but its the right solution for him.

Now you as a creative, an art director or agency have to ask yourself three questions:

• Did I miss the point, misunderstand the briefing or my research on the market was wrong?
• Do I have the right solution, but in the execution I’ve gone too far? Do only “creatives” get it this way?
• Did I get it right, but my presentation was so weak, that the idea did not come across?

If you respond to any of this questions with yes, go ahead and start over.

If you fail on the first question you propably didn’t do a rebriefing.

If you fail on the second you probably applied too high standards on the “receiver” end – assuming that you understand the meaning does not imply that your client or his clients will get it. If you present to a focus group ask yourself if the focus group is the correct one.

If you didn’t present well you killed your idea by yourself.

And to switch sides another time If you are really sure about your idea and you client will not buy it, then try to sell it to its competitor. They will probably don’t buy it either, unless you tell him, that its competitor didn’t want it and if he takes it he will differentiate himself.

We have seen in the last lesson, that a copywriter is important and necessary to get good copy text and headlines. Working together with a copywriter on the other hand is sometimes harder. Here a few tips on how to get in sync with the copywriter.

Is the copywriter on your level?

Copywriter like graphic designers and art directors are not all the same. Some are good, some are mediocre, and some are bad at their profession. You, as the art director, must know the difference between a good and suitable written text and a bad one. You “direct” the project as a whole, so it’s your responsibility. You don’t have to be a writer to note the difference between good and bad texts, but you want to read some good books or newspapers to get the feeling for a well written piece. Don’t tell me, that you are a creative mind that has no use for the novels and ordinary newspaper – if you think like that you have already lost. As an art director you must have a broader view. So when you choose a copywriter or you start to work with one, read some texts he has already written. This way you see if you can talk and communicate on the same level or if you have to take the lead.

If not – you take the lead

If you find out that the quality of the texts are not as good as hoped or the copywriter is not used to the advertising/creative writing you have take the lead. You have to give him examples or guidelines he can follow. I collect great advertisings or brochures which I think have not only a great layout but also have great text. You can use them like you would use a mood board. The copywriter will be thankful and the results will benefit. Give him also the creative brief, it’s also a guideline he has to stick to and tell him how long the texts should be. Remember you are in charge.

If yes – lead depends on the project

If the copywriter is on your level or maybe better you may go along together or let him leave. This means that you can develop the ideas together, decide if you want more or less text and what type of layout you want to create. If he takes the lead, he may find also the visuals for you. I know a few copywriters that give me these hints for magazine layouts. I’m in charge of the look of the whole magazine, but I don’t decide on the content of every image. I’m with the copywriter in the first briefing, to know what comes along, staying in the background and making some questions, but the copywriter is on its own in the briefing for the content. He might come to me for a brainstorming about the “visual and text metaphor” for the article, but he also might not. If he is a good copywriter this metaphor will lead me easily to the visuals and how to integrate it into the magazine.

Keep communicating

As you can see communication with the copywriter is essential as your both work has to get together. In the case of a not so good copywriter the main communicator will be you leading, if the copywriter is a well trained professional the communication well be more about the idea and creative things. But also in this case show him you pre-layouts and sketches and he should show you his structure and ideas before he elaborates the whole piece. If you think you don’t have time for this, think again. You will benefit if you don’t have to lose time in getting the layout to work because the text is too long or short and I don’t even mention the lost time when you have to redo the job because it’s lack in quality of the text.

Presenting the project together

Presentation of your work is an important thing, you know that already. If you understand that the job is done in team with your copywriter than you want to present it in team. You present the layout and the copywriter the idea behind the text. You sure want to rehearse the presentation in order that you both point to the same direction and don’t get into contradictions. You will see that having the copywriter with you is a nice thing. If something comes up with the text you don’t have to take just everything what your client says about it. A copywriter can argue with the client or even better understand directly what went wrong or where the text is not pointing to the right spots.

In conclusion I just want to say that graphic design is teamwork and therefore a good collaboration with your copywriter is the key to success. It also applies to other parts of your “team” like the photographer and the printer and I will point to these team-partners in another lesson, son stay tuned.

Presenting the ideas you develop to a big audience in most cases is a pain. Most of the time the layouts you make (unless they are screen-designs) don’t feel right, you cannot go through the pages of a folder for example. Therefore is even more important that you engage your audience. Same thing for powerpoint presentation you get to pimp. The most of time are just plain awfull. The following book gives you in an easy and understandable language the basics on how to structure presentations, not just powerpoint. It’s caled “PresentationZen” by Garr Reynolds and a foreword from Guy Kawasaki. Don’t get fooled by the title – it’s nothing esoteric. It helps you bring your audience to go out of the presentation wanting for more. It also helps you to guide the authors of the powerpoints, if you are just the one who overhauls them, to get you better material to work beforehand.

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery

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I use this approach with quite some success, by getting into the process of structuring a presentation right when the authors has his material togheter. This is even before they make their manuscript. Try it – it’s just a few bucks investet in the right place.