Summary
Projects have progressed a great deal in the past week. There are many new and exciting images and drawings. Slide-based presentations can be a tricky medium to produce. More than any other format, slide shows are often how work is presented to decision-makers and stake holders in the industry. As such, it is important to make sure your content is clearly represented.
Many of the draft presentations seem to struggle with how to "style" the presentation and organize the content to tell the story of the design. Here are some tips:
- Keep it Simple: Your design is the most important piece of the presentation. Don't make the slides overly complicated or put too much on one slide. Stay orderly and consistent.
- Align your drawings on the page.
- Avoid superfluous effects… use Powerpoint styles or effects with discretion or not at all..
- Choose a fonts carefully. "Safe" fonts might include Arial or Helvetica families. Don't make them too big on the slide. Slides are projected at a large scale. Oversized fonts can sometimes come off as 'cartoony'.
- Tell a Story…
- Start with a big idea to let the viewer know what they are getting into. This can be a provocative intro slide or a final rendering as the first slide.
- Show the process of how you arrived at the idea with diagrams.
- Sprinkle the eye candy throughout the presentation to keep people engaged. Return to renderings or interesting views.
- End with a bang finish with the animation or another rendering the leaves a good impression.
Resource
Intro Slide
Introduction slides can be a very effective tool for introducing the idea behind your project and to get the viewer excited by what they are about to see. The following slides used abstract views of their project to set up their work. They might be rendered views or more abstract line drawings.
Rendering
Renderings should show a combination of shade/shadow, color/material, and perspective. For this assignment, they should also indicate a sense of "scale". At least one rendering should show people to indicate how large these designs are.
A few things to watch out for when rendering:
- Brightness/Contrast: I noticed renderings were sometimes too "dark" or "flat". After you render, you should always do post production in Photoshop to ensure the images are clear and have proper levels.
- Resolution: Please make sure you are rendering at the proper resolution. As this is a slide presentation, the images are project at a large scale so make sure you are rendering at a high quality.
Diagram
Diagrams should clearly explain the geometric concept for how you arrived at the final design. The diagrams below are very clear in how they describe the design process.
Drawing
Good line drawings are VERY important describing the design. The drawings below show very good line work and clearly reflect the designs. However, the drawings should also contain notes/dimensions to indicate size and relation to other views.
Watch out for the following…
- Line Weight: Make sure your drawings have proper line weights
- Scale: Clearly indicate the scale of the drawing. Also consider indicating overall dimensions, etc.
- Quality: Drawings should be single line (no shade or shadow) and appear crisp when projected… no pixelation!