Presenting FreshMinds

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Presenting FreshMinds
Posted on November 22, 2013 by Simon Dunn

Reading Time: 2 minutes

As you may have noticed, FreshMinds adopted a new visual identity designed by The Cabinet as of the 10th of October; to mark the merging of its social business with its research business.

Mustard was set the time-limited task of creating a PowerPoint design, using this new branding. The project was challenging; faced only with a few PDF concepts showing how the presentations might look, and the clock ticking, I dived in.

I find that the fundamental issue with PowerPoint is that people try to use it to fulfil two functions. Firstly, people want an up-close or printable document, emailed to an individual or presented to a very small group. Secondly, people use it it’s intended; as a means to present to a large audience at conferences, for example. When one considers other types of communication, for example a billboard advertisement, it is only consumed in one way – from a distance. And therefore it is designed with this use in mind. It’s not so simple for PowerPoint.

It is extremely difficult to find a balance between large and bold fonts for those at the back of the auditorium to read, and a small, group friendly layout. For this reason, in close consultation with Nikki at Fresh Minds, we agreed to create two templates; an auditorium template for large presentations and a report template for intimate settings and emailing.

 

This slide is designed to be seen from a distance.
This slide is designed to be used for large presentations.

 

This slide is designed to be printed.
This slide is designed to be printed.

 

Once we had created the templates I also went along to their HQ to do some training with the team, demonstrating how to use them to create consistent and on brand presentations. If you’d like any advice on design, don’t hesitate to get in touch on simon@mustardmarketing.com