Week 7: Clear

Week seven explained the process of creating presentations. The terms this week were simple to follow and I learned about some great new devices that can be used to build presentations. I am fairly new to the Mac world but after watching the video tutorial on Keynote I will never use regular powerpoint again. The simple template selection and the build option to create slide effects were simply astonishing. The tutorial created a simple learning environment that even beginners to the program could relate to. 
I also found the lecture on design and layout and the video from Duarte.com to be extremely useful in starting my project. 


As a photojournalism major one of the parts of the lecture that stood out most to me was talking about graphics and photographs. The list of image mistakes to avoid were a little shocking to me because I have seen a lot of presentations with clip art graphics and random placement. During High School using clip art was one of my favorite things to do, but that doesn't cut it in the business environment. 


I feel that learning the different ways to create presentations and to present them are extremely important for the future of any student. Being able to capture an audiences attention and really convey the meaning of a product or idea is what most modern day businesses are looking for. The keys to a great presentation is to be creative, have fun with it and put yourself in the audiences shoes.


A recap of the list of image mistakes are below.

• Images that are too small
• Placement that is random
• Image use that looks accidental
• Pixelated images
• Watermarked images
• Distorted
• Clip art
• Cliche images
• Too much going on in the image

While searching the web for more information I found the following links that give tips and help with building great presentations. One of the most important things I learned from these websites are to relate and connect to the audience in the presentation. The last thing people want to watch is a boring slideshow that is read word for word by a robot. 

In the end its all about finding that happy medium when creating a presentation, something not to cluttered but not to boring. 

http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2005/jan/31present.htm

http://www.suite101.com/content/how-to-make-a-great-presentation-a280199