I Have Seen The Light.

Why in the world has it taken this long to bring out a great book on presentation design?! Is it because we all avoid slide work like the plague? Is it because real designers don’t “do” slides? Or is it just a misunderstood medium?

Enter into the picture Nancy Duarte and her beautiful new book, Slide:ology: The art and science of creating great presentations. (Nancy’s firm created Al Gore’s Oscar-winning presentations for An Inconventient Truth)

Here’s what Presentation Zen author Garr Reynolds had to say in a recent review, “…(it’s) my favorite presentation book of all time”—that’s a significant endorsement considering his book’s huge popularity.

From his review:

Slide:ology is practical, it’s highly visual, and it’s beautiful. I love this book. Slide:ology should come bundled with every copy of PowerPoint or Keynote ever sold from now on. I received a draft copy about three months ago that blew me away — the final product is even better than I expected. I just got my copy over the weekend. At 274 pages, the book is meaty without being bloated. This book is not the last word on presentation, but it’s the best book on the art (and science) of creating and delivering presentations with the help of multimedia written to date. Period.

And I need to mention they have a great site, blog and mini-library of downloadable PowerPoint slides from the book case studies?

Source: Thank you Rachel Nussbaum & Presentation Zen

Image: Power to the people: Miguel Cardona

Here’s a great way to fill a few minutes of downtime and brush up on your typeface anatomy knowledge. Here’s a quote from the site:

Parts Of A Character is a typography project that originated as an educational print, aimed at typography students, created by artist and designer Susanne Cerha of Silo Design, Inc. The print in turn inspired José Rodriguez of JRVisuals to create the public interactive project Type Is Art.

On the website visitors are invited to create their own visuals, using the 20 basic typographic shapes that make up the characters of the Latin alphabet. Those character fragments (from Adobe Caslon) become abstract elements, removed from their communicative capacity. They can be freely scaled, rotated and arranged to form new and surprising compositions.

And your creations can be saved in a gallery and shared with all the friends.

It’s a lot of fun.

Here’s a funny video about the corporate creative process that’s been making the rounds. I’ll admit I didn’t laugh at first. The same way I didn’t laugh the first time I saw Ricky Gervais playing David Brent in the BBC version of The Office. It’s not because both weren’t funny, they just hit a little too close to home!

Sadly, I’ve been in this creative briefing and I was a willing participant. But I’ve seen the error of my ways and have since learned to ask for clear, focused, client-driven direction. I don’t always get it, but at least I try now. So, enjoy. And to quote Mr. Brent…

A problem shared is a problem halved, so is your problem really yours or just half of someone else’s? -David Brent

Source: Core77, Ugly Doggy, Update or Die, and many more sites.

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Get The Glass site design and image from Designchapel

No. 1. Two related, smart, fun, stunningly beautiful websites.
This isn’t that tired “Got Milk” campaign they’ve been running here in the states. These sites are amazing.

The first site: Get The Glass and when your done there, go here:
The second site: Got Milk?

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No. 2. A better way to see your work: Proof your email designs in multiple email clients.
Litmus offers a slick online service for testing both website and email designs.

Image from Craig Swanson

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No. 3. Email is a brain suck: LifeHacker: What productivity studies really show.
Multitasking kills your ability to focus and get things done.

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No. 4. Great story about Google Ann Arbor. Hello from Ann Arbor.
According to Forbes.com, Ann Arbor is America’s 4th Smartest City. I feel dumb for not knowing that.

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No. 5. Quick. Think fast. How to think faster, better on your feet.
Skills to help you avoid awkward silences, move forward and make others look good.

Leave a comment or you can email me.