Categories
Abstract Design Inspiration Presentations

The Image Quilt

ImageQuilt 2015-11-02 at 6.42.48 PMAt a recent one-day course taught by Edward Tufte, he introduced me to the notion of an “image quilt” – a mosaic of images that you can create using an extension available for Google’s Chrome browser.

Here’s an example of just such an image quilt – based on a Google image search using the phrase “ny times infographic

When creating an image quilt, you can make a number of adjustments including size, spacing, ordering, etc. as well as removing certain images from the quilt before saving it as a PNG image file.

Tufte also suggested that when searching for things on Google he often chooses to view image search results – not the regular web search results. He notes that the regular web search results have typically been extensively “gamed” using techniques like search engine optimization to influence placement of the results on the page. He suggests that isn’t the case with the image results. I’ve been trying it more frequently – it is a useful alternative for certain kinds of searches.

Categories
Books Presentations

Getting Naked

Garr Reynolds has quite a thing going with his excellent books about presentation style and design (see: Presentation Zen (2007) and Presentation Zen Design (2009). His first two books are very complementary with Nancy Duarte’s slide:ology and Resonate (see my earlier review) – indeed, this set of four books should be in any presenter’s library! Almost two years ago, I spent a wonderful day with both Garr and Nancy at Presentation Reboot!

Garr’s just published his new book: The Naked Presenter: Delivering Powerful Presentations With or Without Slides. This is the first one of his books that I bought in the Kindle edition – now that I’ve got great Kindle readers not just on the Kindle itself but on my Mac, iPad and iPhone as well! It’s wonderful to have books with me on all of those devices! Garr uses a lot of beautiful photography in his books – and they look beautiful on the non-Kindle devices!

I particularly enjoyed Garr’s thoughts on contribution:

Some people think that a presentation or an invitation to speak

is a burden or, at best, an obligation that can’t be avoided. This is the wrong attitude. Instead, think of presentation as a welcome opportunity to make a difference. Every presentation or speech is a chance to make a contribution. We all live for the opportunity to contribute – it’s what makes us human. A contribution is never about us – it’s always about them. We show respect for the audience by being well prepared. We show we care by sharing a bit of ourselves and a small part of our own humanity.”

Note: Affiliate links.

Categories
Business Design Presentations

Having Fun at Presentation Reboot @ Duarte Design

One of my partners from Glenbrook, Russ Jones, and I attended the great Presentation Reboot session held at Duarte Design in Mountain View on Tuesday.

Taught by Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte, the session was a deep dive into creating effective presentations – and a whole lot of fun too – as you can see in the picture below that Garr took!

Presentation Reboot at Duarte Design

Another attendee, Chris Spagnuolo, posted a review of the session on his blog.