Presenting is paramount in getting across your analysis and all the key insights you spent finding! So, why stick to a boring old PowerPoint presentation we have seen so many times over? Humans are naturally visual and need engaging cues to maximize our attention, so take advantage of capturing your audience in your presentations visually. Here are all my tips to ace a PowerPoint in this blog series, use it as inspiration, it definitely isn't needed but can help to give you an extra *pazazz* in your work.
This blog will kick off with colour theory!
Colour Theory
Colour theory is used to describe the logic of creating harmonious colour combinations, here are some general tips to help you use colour better!
- Don't overdo it!
Stick to one main colour, and two colours for highlighting. If you are adding more, what is the purpose of those colours? (e.g. to represent negative or positive). If it ever looks like a smarties explosion, you lose the meaning of colour choices and a sense of branding to your work.
Tip: use a palette generator like https://coolors.co/ which allows you to create a palette of up to 5 colours, this can help you see if they work well together as well as a handy bank to grab your hex codes to use in fonts or shapes.
2. Increase the tint or tone
The tint is a mixture of a colour (hue) with white, this lightens the hue. In contrast, the tone is a mixture of the hue with grey to darken it. Why should you consider this? Well, bright hues draw our attention which should be used selectively for important aspects. Otherwise, general base colours should remain tinted or shaded which is easier for our eyes.
Tip: try finding the pastel versions of your desired colours, does it look less jarring to the eyes? Another point of inspiration, try earth tones!
3. Find hues that complement each other
A general rule of thumb if you are struggling to find the right combo of colours is to select ones that are opposite each other on the colour wheel or adjacent to each other. If this is too far into the creative realm for you, don't worry with a quick search on Google you can find some pre-maid combinations that are popular!
All in all, insert your creativity in how you want to get your analysis across, it can help add clarity as well as interest! Remember there are other sensory techniques to engage the audience such as how you speak, but I'll have to save that for another blog.
I made this blog series partly due to the reactions I get from my presentations, so I hope I can teach others as well and it is easy to implement!
Numa and Out for now, tune in next week for Morph Transitions.