Measuring Our Way To Future Success

Apart from the great design of the slides, I’m really enjoying what the author has to say – especially about the four connected concepts for 2010-2015 (slide 16 onwards).

Making Social Work For Big Brands

I saw this over at Slideshare and thought it was a very helpful primer for big brands trying to navigate social media. It’s especially helpful because social media is often seen as “too messy” by large corporations, which may be why it has been picked up much faster by smaller, more nimble Small and Medium Enterprises (as well as individuals).

Enjoy!

Resume 2.0

In this pervasively digital age, is the traditional “paper” resume obsolete?

I started thinking about this question when I stumbled upon some articles introducing the “visual resume”. What is a “visual resume”, you may ask? Essentially, with the advent of user-friendly design software, free images, a creative approach and good ol’ Powerpoint, you can set up a visual representation of your resume – which may be more impactful in helping you stand out from among a plethora of other potential job candidates.

My initial reaction to this idea was one of wonder: “Wow! What a great idea! I’m done with boring paper resumes – this is the future!” But as I thought about it further, I also realised: contrary to common misconceptions that it’s “out with the old and in with the new” especially when it comes to digital media, digital media merely expands the channels for communications rather than replaces them (hrm… something to expand on in another post).

Still, the idea of visual resumes are quite compelling and this is the presentation that set me off on them:

Powerful Points for Powerpoint

Throughout the course of your life, you’ll probably end up view several thousand presentations. Whether it’s at work or even in a social setting (like church), you will encounter many, many attempts at visual communications. Some of it will be pretty good, much of it (unfortunately) continues to be pretty bad. So bad, in fact, that it actually detracts from what would otherwise be a great presentation.

This year, let’s kick off with a better attempt at giving better presentations with visual aids.

To start off, here’s a great summary of some of the best practices that I use in my presentations. From here, I’ll also encourage you to check out Slideshare.net (more about Slideshare soon).

Death By Too Much Text!

Similar to Death By Powerpoint, this billboard above is a great example of what NOT to do when it comes to designing information that is intended for quick impact. The key message, which I thought was very well phrased, was lost amidst the jumble of text at the top and the bottom:

You have no more right to pollute with tobacco smoke the atmosphere which clean people have to breathe, than you have to spit in the water which they have to drink.

Here’s a great Slideshare presentation on how best to avoid Death by Powerpoint:

I would also highly recommend the work of Presentation Zen as a great place to learn better design for communications.

The Brand Gap

Once of the best books I’ve ever read on branding – The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier – is now available via SlideShare!