I enjoy your blog, which I actually found through Garr Reynolds's blog. I have gone through a number of Keynote templates through the years, including designing my own. After all was said and done, I have pretty much completely moved over to the "Bevel" theme over at:

http://www.keynotethemepark.com/content/pages/set8.html

There are many beautiful themes over at this site (some more distracting than others), but I find that the masters in this theme are the perfect mix, with single images as backgrounds, to combine simplicity and aesthetics.

As a photographer, I have a love/hate relationship with the rule of thirds, it's not a rule, it's more of a guideline. It should always be presented as "sometimes an image is more interesting when the main subject is placed on one of the grid lines"

In your example, also notice that the photographer is using another compositional "rule" or concept, that is a ratio of 2/3rds sky to 1/3 earth (water in this shot). This gives the sky a nice open feel, with the earth not weighing down the composition too much. Imagine what the image would look like if the tree were positioned in the upper left corner. It would still follow the rule of thirds, but it wouldn't be as strong.

One of the best explanations of when to use and not use the "rule of thirds" comes from an excellent book,"Universal Principles of Design" by
Lidwell, Holden, and Butler where they suggest not to use the rule of thirds when there is a "...strong Primary element that is reinforced by the surrounding space"

Since I believe that presentation slides are read and scanned more like magazine ads with a mixture of text and images, and less like straight photographs I would be more likely to apply the rules of graphic design, and less likely to use the rules of photographic composition.

After all as I photographer I make an assumption that any viewer will be able to see my entire photograph, so I can compose freely. When I construct presentations, I have to assume that the lower portion of my slide may be obstructed in some way. Either the screen is too low for the audience, or someone's head or hat may block part of the slide. In this case I may lose impact if I put valuable information in the lower part of my slide.

I highly recommend the book "Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes?" For a scientific look on how to create with words and images in ways that get your message across.

In general I don't think the "rule of thirds" is a good concept to use when designing slides, unless you are talking about placing a photo on the upper right intersection of the grid. It would depend on what the goal of any slide is. There may be many examples where it is a good idea. I am guessing we shall see.

Maybe I’m missing something, but aren’t most of the picture-and-bullets masters in Keynote using rule of thirds composition? If so, you might be able to use those as a jumping off point.

I’d support thannclark’s view to an extent- as another photographer/designer, I think the ‘Rule of Thirds’ can feel too much of a constraint at times.

However, I can also see that a powerpoint pres will need a very bold grid, and one that’s easy to work with. So I wouldn’t get too bothered by criticisms of the rule of thirds in your case. Especially since most screens are 3:2 aspect- ideal for the rule of thirds.

Finally, your previous slides weren’t that bad- I liked the use of a single ‘iconic’ image- much more memorable than lots of clutter and detail.

Go well

In an effort to create more effective presentations, I have abandoned the Powerpoint/Keynote environment altogether and started using OmniGraffle for creating slides. Most of my presentations are geared toward presenting rather complex scientific principles to rather non-technical audiences, so a move away from bullet points and text-laden presentations was critical. I find that using Omnigraffle, while it lacks some of the niceties like timers and presenter notes, pushes me to create slides from scratch, based on the particular information that I am trying to communicate, rather than forcing my ideas into pre-defined templates. I make heavy use of the drawing and flow chart tools within OG, which are far better than those in Keynote.

I too was impressed by Garr’s golden ratio principle, and implemented a 3x3 layer within OG that I simply turn off when it is time to present. I use it regularly, and find that it improves the consistency of the presentation.

I have been reading Garr’s blog for a year or so. Between his comments and Steve Job’s “keynote” presentations I have learned much. I would like to suggest the following site for templates that command simplicity. With the simplicity they still require you to thoughtfully compose. Excellent for pictures.

Go to: http://keynotepro.com/index.html

Sorry… Keynote only… Stopped using powerpoint a long time ago.

Hi,

I know it’s neat to show image overlays like you have done for the grid in your post, but it made it a little distracting to read.

I read somewhere that compared to other animals, the human eye is not capable of panning and scanning smoothly - if we try to look over a panorama for example, our focus jumps between points of interest, and we are drawn to things that catch our attention or movement.

So, I ad blocked the cool little gif because I was having trouble reading the paragraph above and below it, since my attention was constantly drawn to the flickering image.

I know it’s not your image and it illustrates what was being discussed, but I just wanted to mention that, and I would have preferred using two side by side images or something to illustrate the point instead =)

Especially since this is a post about presentation

I teach college students and one of my goals with my slides is to provide my students with my content ahead of time. Many will bring a laptop to class with the notes and a few will print them out (I discourage paper in my classes, fwiw — I provide the slide content to students as an RTF as well). But my hope is that my audience can be engaged with me as we have a dialog — obviously, I monopolize these particular sessions because I have content to teach, but I would rather have my students paying attention and asking questions rather than expending energy taking notes (calling it a dialog encourages discussion whereas “lecture” certainly doesn’t). Obviously, they may have to take some additional notes, but I want my content on the slides to replace traditional notes that students take. I see this as part of a universal design in learning/teaching. I always hated trying to write down everything I saw on an overhead projector slide and then realizing that what I copied didn’t give me the gist of that part of the lecture. Many students are poor note-takers, so I remove this obstacle by giving everyone the notes.

So, the point I am trying to make is that many of the examples of slides I am seeing in this blog post and some of the comments is heavily based on design, yet I wonder how these slides are effective to the audience once the presentation is over. Or, is the presentation seen as a stand alone-type event that has no follow up? Maybe I should give my notes in RTF that are more comprehensive and then have well designed slides using the design principles and little content and just use the slides for the actual class discussion??? Hmmm.

From Powerpoint, and it’s clear to me after looking through this that I still have much to learn in terms of developing my Presentation-Fu.

I want to second the previous comment, however, about not getting lost in adding too much stuff. In looking through your previous slides Merlin, I very much appreciated the minimalist approach. I could very much picture from seeing and listening to you in other forums the way that the slide would essentially serve to provide a context for the verbal presentation.

What you are describing might serve to make those pictures prettier, but it’s the simplicity of the old slides that make me question my personal (“listier”) approach.

As a photographer who dabbles in layout also, I could say a lot, I suppose, about the applicability of the rule of thirds to design. But others already have, and made good points.

My $0.02 falls into the camp of not constraining presentations. When I design sets of slides for seminars I give, I don’t stick to a template. Maybe it depends on what the content of your slides is - in genetics (academia - my “true” profession), the content varies a lot, and so do my slides. I racked my brain over whether any of my slides follow any sort of predictable pattern that would lend itself to being templated, and the answer was a resounding “no”. I design each slide to be visually pleasing (with layout and amount and location of white space dependent on the content of the slide). In this sense, each slide is unique - each is a piece of art. Sure, some things stay the same - font, size, color, background; my belief is that there is no a priori reason to demand that the layout of objects on the slide be consistent.

Do I think this thread is misguided? Not at all - I think it is a great question to tackle, and I look forward to mulling over more of your opinions. Perhaps I’ll sign off by adding a fresh spin to the question: if you believe that white space is vital in good design (and I hope you do), how do you template white space into a slide?

I really appreciate this blog about Garr’s new book (I’ve ordered it from Amazon) and all the amazing advice in the posts.

I’ve been rethinking my own presentation style lately. I’m in academia, so I need to present content-rich lectures, sometimes fairly long (keynote/plenary speeches to large audiences). My content rarely uses graphs or tables, but it does use lots of images and QuickTime movies. I find that most templates are not well designed for presenting movies.

One of the most difficult problems I face (and I recognize this is a personal issue) is designing a presentation that will both serve me and my audience. That is, I think I’ve been designing presentations that serve me more than my audience — they give me a ‘teleprompter’ script to follow, but this doesn’t serve the audience well. So one of my goals is to figure out how to resolve this. I need to design slides that are audience-oriented (simple, lots of white space, complement what I’m saying rather than repeat what I’m saying). But I still need my “teleprompter.” I don’t like reading directly from notes, but my presentations are complex enough that I can’t seem to memorize my spoken content. Any suggestions?

I agree with folks who point to Jobs’ keynote presentations (surely someone is designing this stuff for him), or for that matter, I think we could learn from Al Gore’s presentation style too (again, I’m sure he has pros designing his slides for him).

I once saw a colleague, an academic who presented on what could easily be an incredibly boring (and presentation-hostile) subject. He used HyperCard (remember that?) as his presentation tool. I can’t begin to describe how he did it, but his HyperCard stack was the PERFECT complement to his speech. Sometimes it used a simple image, sometimes text, and sometimes an animation that managed to demonstrate what he was talking about while also captivating the audience with its own creativity. But most of all, it was simple design.

This is my 2 cents. I can understand swilcox’s predicaments when it comes to designing slides for complex technical presentations.

I teach aromatic chemistry to undergrads, and I find that one of the Presentation Zen techniques, i.e. one idea per slide, works quite well. Yes, it’ll take a lot of your time to think through the whole thing and to arrive at the essence of a complex technical data. The great thing is that it is highly satisfying to see your thoughts crystallising in front of you (as slides). Most of the time I would express these simple thoughts in the forms of images. So one image per slide labelled with 1-2 short sentences. They serve as prompters for me, instead of rows and rows of bulleted technical data. My students are more attentive than ever since they’ve got to listen to me more than simply copy words off the screen.

I do bring in my notebook (where I did most of my scribbles during the design of presentations) - just in case. However, the last thing I’d to do for my lectures is memorising my speech.

Sorry, but while going through college, I did not enjoy watching presentations like what I’m assuming yours may looks like. Yes, they were okay for notes review, but if I’m provided the complete content of your presentation, then why am I in the class?

I’d guess your next thought is: “well, it’s not all in the presentation, of course”. Which begs the question then, why so much, if I have to pay attention and take notes anyway?

I think the thought you arrived at near the end of your post is in the right direction. If your presentations are entertaining and interesting to watch, and you provide written notes after the class is over, you not only have your student’s attention during the class, but they’re also taking some high level notes. These are then augmented by the notes you provide.

Students have a reason to come to class while you’re doing all you are reasonably expected to (and then some). As another bonus, the students who learn better by listening and taking notes themselves will get that additional synthesis, which they may not be getting now because they’ve got notes in front of them.

Please, for your students sake, play with this concept. I wish 95% of my professors had.

(For those wondering about a “teleprompter”…have you not found the keynote “presentation” mode? If so, do none of your slides have notes associated? Those get displayed below your current slide in presentation mode!)