Page 64 - AV Presentations - Student Textbook

Your job is to choose images that follow that journey.

Here are 5 uncommon ways to put more juice in your visuals and add more punch to your message.

We’ll start with planning.

1. Plan before you paste

It’s easy enough to add images to your PowerPoint presentation, copy, paste and move on.

But wait!

Before you head off to search for a picture of a cute baby or office workers “team building”, ask yourself
what emotional message are you communicating?

Your hard content is made up of your words, text, bullet points, facts, and statistics. But emotional
content is all about stories, visuals, and tone – even the speed you deliver your content.

Before you search for visuals, ask yourself what you want your audience to feel. Is your message about
hope and optimism, teaching and information, or is your goal to provide clarity and direction? Getting
clear about one or two emotional goals should provide a filter for every visual selection decision.

“Each change on the screen should relate to one simple new thought” wrote Garr Reynolds in his
popular book Presentation Zen Design, “that should be expanded and explained by the presenter.” (hat
tip to Dave Delaney)

Now that you’ve thought through the emotional reaction you want, let’s look at making your visuals
memorable.

2. Make it memorable

Nothing puts a wet towel on your presentation faster than cheesy pictures that scream ‘stock photo!’
Sure, your picture shows office workers happily smiling to the camera, but if it looks staged or fake your
audience can’t relate to it. In fact, bad stock photography can be more of a distraction than an aid.

The good news is, with a little effort you can find brilliant, free images to support your message and
draw your audience in.

Use librestock.com which sources free images from some 47 plus sites and provides. Also unsplash.com
and pexels.com provide thousands of free stock photos of excellent quality (we will look at many more
sites in a later section of this study which offer free stock images).

You can also use your own photographs.

“Opt for clear before clever. Your audience should never be distracted from what you’re saying because
they’re trying to figure out what your slide means.” Rob Cottingham

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