Dave Hunt

All you fellow presenters out there, this is interesting:

http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2012/why-i-hate-prezi/

I agree on a lot of his points, and there's some good discussion in the comments section, too.  Here are things I've been keeping in mind lately during presentation prep:

1. You have too many slides. No, still too many (This mentality helped me recently cut 60 slides down to 30. And yes, that was still too many, but it's much better than where I started.)

2. No more than 20 words on a slide, ever. Slides should enhance what you say, not be your actual script.

3. Screw transitions and unnecessary animations.

4. Prep with the idea the computer and projector are going to be broken and you'll have to talk without the slides. It's a problem if you spend more time looking at your slides than at your audience.

5. A couples hours of that kind of prep will help you figure out what you're actually trying to convey. Once you've got that sorted, rework the slides. Or better yet, do this before you even start creating slides.

There are a number of issues with this design - the color scheme is harsh, the spacing inside that yellow text box is odd, and the text at the bottom is difficult to read on a busy background, despite the inclusion of an outline on the text and copious drop shadows everywhere. I address all these concerns in the redesign, but for this post I'm going to focus on those drop shadows.

I've been doing print design long enough to remember the days when there was some work involved to add a drop shadow to an element. One of the nice things about modern design software is how easy it is to apply effects like drop shadows on the fly. But to paraphrase Jurassic Park, novice designers may be so infatuated with what they can do that they don't think about or learn what they should do.

Let's start from the top of the design and look at the three drop shadows applied.

1. The drop shadow on the large yellow and white text at the top is way to big, but it's also completely unnecessary. There's already sufficient contrast between the bright letters and the dark blue background, so the drop shadow doesn't improve readability. In fact, it might even be making that text more difficult to read. If a text effect has a neutral or negative impact on readability, the design is stronger without the effect.
2. On the yellow sticker area, we see a better application of the drop shadow effect. The drop shadow is subtle, adds depth to the design and helps it stand out better against a busy background.
3. The text below it, however, does have problems. The drop shadow is so large that it's getting away from the text it should be helping make more readable. On the small text below, the shadow is just a dark messy blur under the text.

Let's take a look at the redesign:

There's now only a drop shadow on the top left logo so it stands out better from the busy background below it, and a drop shadow on the text box and image to give a little depth. Spacing and font weights have been adjusted, the busy background image has been replaced with a solid background and an image of people enjoying a previous trip, which is stronger than generic clip art. I also modified the color scheme. I let the globe image set the color palette - the blue, warm yellow, and light green are all pulled from that image, so the colors are bright and bold, but harmonious and softened from the original.

I've had a few opportunities to design a series like the poster set above, which was for Scholars in Business events at Lawrence University. No matter how you approach it, a series can have an intimidation factor because you're looking at multiple pieces that need to tie together, but the individual pieces need to stand on their own.

The client used words like, "modern, fresh, and bold" to describe the color palette and design they were after. Other than that, I was given freedom to come up with my own concepts. There were, however, two concerns. For each poster I was given a large amount of text and a small amount of turnaround time.

The poster on the left was the first I designed for this series. The word "summit" in the event title instantly brought to mind a mountain peak. I had fun putting this one together because it was an opportunity to do a little visual riffing on the old TWA destination posters I love. The second poster's tie-in to entertainment made a big star an easy choice, though it was challenging to get the text to play nice in that space. The third poster had a fun, large graphic element, though I do wish the client had been willing to cut some text.

A couple closing tips:

1. Make sure client and designer understand vague words like "bold" to mean the same thing. On first proof, the sky behind the mountain was blue, and the client said, "It looks great, but we want bolder!" Swapping in a bold green was all it took for the client to fall in love with the design, and also helped establish a strong palette for the series.
2. Don't paint yourself into a corner. Posters in this series were designed one at a time over the course of several months, with usually less than a week of turnaround time for each poster. I've worked on other series where every job came in on the front end and elaborate designs were feasible, but in this case, tight turnaround time mandated bold, simple elements. That's my design aesthetic, but it may not be yours. Either way, try to consider the series as a whole when designing that first piece, even if the following pieces are weeks or months away.

GOALS – Principle fundraising piece for the Boynton Society at Lawrence University

EXECUTION

1. Conceptualization 
   The Boynton Society asked us to create a brochure for their fundraising campaign. I was assigned this project by the Art Director. 
2. Schedule 
   Timeframe for this project was around one month. 
3. Design and Tools
   This is an original design created by me. Photoshop was used for the images and InDesign was used for the layout. 
4. Creativity 
   The brochure was designed to be light on copy and big on hero shots of Bjorklunden, an area in northern Wisconsin owned by the university. I was very happy with how I was able to make sure the text elements had a lot of room to breathe and how the text complimented and explained the photos while not distracting from them.
5. Specs/Printing/Budget 
   Printed 4-color on a glossy text 60#. The requesting department had associated costs for this piece come out of their budget.
6. Distribution 
   Copies were delivered to the client. Print services also mailed the brochure out on their behalf.  

EVALUATION – Client was very happy with the design, and the brochure became part of a successful fundraising campaign.

GOALS – Create new letterhead and business card identity pieces for athletics department

EXECUTION 

1. Conceptualization 
   The athletics department asked us to help them create letterhead and business cards. I was assigned the project by the Art Director. 
2. Schedule
   The timeframe for this project was around a month due to the impact it would have on athletics department materials.
3. Design and Tools
   This is an original design created by me. Part of this project included creating a clean vector image of the Viking, which is something the athletics department didn't previously have. The art was created in Illustrator, the letterhead and card were created in InDesign.
4. Creativity 
   I think the design relfects my aesthetic, and I was very happy to create vector art that would be much easier for the athletics department to resize as needed on other projects.
5. Specs/Printing/Budget/Distribution
   Letterhead stock was bright white #40 and on the press. The business cards were printed on white card stock, 10-up, on a color copier, then trimmed in print services. Cost was covered by the athletic department, with final pieces delivered to their office. 

EVALUATION – The athletics department began to use the communications department more frequently for their design jobs while I was at Lawrence. I was very happy for the opportunity to help them create these identity pieces. These elements were used again through other pieces for that department. 

GOALS – Promote the theatre department's production of Romeo and Juliet

EXECUTION

1. Conceptualization
   The Theatre Department asked us to create a poster design to help promote their production of Romeo and Juliet. The project was assigned to me by the Art Director. I became the default designer to work on theatre department job requests. 
2. Schedule 
   We had a few weeks to work on the poster.
3. Design 
   This in an original design by me. The two people began as stock art photos.
4. Tools 
   Photoshop and Illustrator were used to create the people, sort out colors, add polka dots to Juliet's shirt, etc. The poster was created in Indesign. 
5. Creativity 
   Some of my favorite jobs during my time at Lawrence were those working with the theatre department and collaborating with the theatre director. (You can see a number of these designs in my porftolio.) He would give thoughts about the direction the staging was taking, mood, colors, costuming, and any influences, and then I would come up with a concept based on our discussion. For this particular poster, he described the production along these lines: "Romeo and Juliet, set in the 80s, on the Jersey Shore. Neon signs. Romeo is James Dean meets young Springsteen. Juliet is an 80s girl pop princess." I sent this design to him and asked if it was on the right track. He responded, "You so totally get it! I love your work. This is great." 
6. Specs/Printing/Distribution
   80# matte with bleeds, printed in-house with campus printing services, distributed on campus and throughout the community. A larger format (approx 3 ft x 4 ft) version was also created for each production to hang in the theatre department near the ticket office. Posters were paid for by the theatre department.

EVALUATION – My first goal with these posters was always to do my best to create a design true to the vision of the production's director, with the ultimate goal being to of course drive ticket sales for the performance. This design achieved those goals.

Some have distilled branding down to simply meaning a good name, but if it were that simple, there wouldn't be dozens of books written about the subject. Creative Strategy in Advertising defines a brand's identity as "its strategically planned and purposeful presentation of itself to gain a positive image in the minds of the public." This means that while branding does involve the obvious visual identifiers that immediately come to mind - things like logos, wordmarks, color palettes, etc. - branding is also about perception and reputation.

But why does this matter?

I spent the majority of 2009 working on a research project involving social media and politics. During that time, I discovered the work of professor and social scientist Margaret Scammell, who has written extensively about branding and marketing as it pertains to the realm of political science. The following points summarize her conclusions on why branding matters:

1. Branding is imbued with intrinsic financial value.

2. Branding has the power to transcend audience fragmentation and succeed where traditional mass advertising is ineffective due to the glut of advertising in modern society.

3. Branding is a two-way conversation where customer engagement helps shape the brand.

4. Branding is an asset to the brand holder due to the protection the brand offers against more demanding consumers and, through successful emotional engagement, the brand drives repeat business and return sales.

You can probably imagine how these concepts apply to political science (and regardless of your politics, it's worth examining the 2008 Obama campaign's use of branding, another topic I've put some time into researching). These attributes also point to why branding is such a popular concept in marketing circles. Achieving financial success, rising above the information glut, engaging consumers, building a strong reputation, and creating repeat business - these are obviously great goals.

And yes, your journey on the branding path might start by thinking about names, logos and colors (and hopefully copy - don't underestimate the power of good wordsmiths!), but true branding success doesn't come without thinking carefully about bigger issues. For example, how will you interact with your audience, and how will you manage those interactions? Just having a Twitter account and a Facebook page aren't, in and of themselves, enough to guarantee success. But that's a topic for another day.

GOALS – Raise awareness for a "Roommate Agreement" initiative created by Campus Life to help students get along with each other in the dorms.

EXECUTION

1. Conceptualization
   Campus Life requested the poster series. They provided text. Project was assigned to me by Art Director.
2. Schedule
   We had a couple weeks of turnaround time on the posters.
3. Design 
   The robot originated as a clipart image. I created a vector version in Illustrator, then modified him for the different posters and the three small versions on the bottom of the posters. 
4. Tools 
   Photoshop and Illustrator were used for the art. Posters were created in InDesign. 
5. Creativity 
   I've been fortunate to work on many projects that involve using my creativity, but few that include the opportunity for a little humor like this project did. I had a lot of fun playing with robots for a couple days. For the messy robot, I lifted the squiggles and dirt marks from a Charles Schultz illustration of the character Pig Pen. 
6. Specs/Printing/Budget/Distribution
   Almost all posters at Lawrence like this were printed on 80# matte, tabloid, no bleeds. Posters were printed in-house with print services on a color copier, then distributed by our student interns. Print services was in my department, so press checks were often as simple as going down to the basement floor. I had access to print on the same color copier, so I was able to check color and printing errors before sending it to print services to run the full quantity. Departments on campus that requested the posters were billed a small charge for printing expenses.

EVALUATION – The posters were a big hit with students, and suceeded in raising awareness of the Campus Life initiative for dorm roommates.

GOALS – Promote a World Music Series concert to Lawrence University and the community

EXECUTION

1. Conceptualization 
   Project was assigned to me by the Art Director. I was given an image of the artist as a starting point.
2. Schedule 
   I had a couple weeks to create the design, route it through the communications department, receive client feedback/approval, and send them to our print services staff to print. 
3. Design 
   The design is an original one created by me.
4. Design and Tools 
   I used Illustrator to create the World Music Series logo, which was then used for other concerts in the series. The original image had a similar background gradient radiating out from the artist, but the image only extended an inch or two beyond her head. I created a Photoshop image the size of the poster, created a mask around the artist, then reapplied the gradient so it filled the full space of the poster. 
5. Creativity 
   I'm really happy with how the image and gradient turned out, and love that I was able to leave so much open space around her.
6. Specs/Printing/Budget Distribution
   Posters like this at Lawrence were printed in-house in our print services area, which was part of the communications department at the university. Posters like this were typically printed on 80# matte on a color copier. Quantity varied, but was typically around 100. Student interns distributed posters around campus and the local community, in addition to supplying copies to the department that requested the poster. 

EVALUATION – The poster raised awareness of the event, and the client was very pleased with the design.

GOALS – The Alumni Association works with SAA students each year to create a HokieZone T-shirt. The T-shirts are sold through the Bookstore.

EXECUTION 

1. Conceptualization
   I met with students to go over their ideas for design concepts, and the students provide the text for the Top Ten. 
2. Schedule
   We worked backwards from when the T-shirts needed to be available for sale. I had a few weeks to create the design, have everyone sign off, and supply design files to the T-shirt vendor.
3. Design and Tools
   This was an original design created by me. The cannon and Lane Stadium towers both originated as images. I created these "drawn" versions in Illustrator. 

EVALUATION – Everyone was very pleased with the final design and sales were strong.