[Peter]

As part of my degree i've got to talk about a specific subject, i was told to talk about Apple Computers.
I figured this was such a broad subject I'd narrow it down to some of the innovations of Apple (more interesting than the history of Apple, I'd hope), such as some of the technology in the hardware (Firewire, Airport, Bluetooth etc..) and actual products like the iPod and Newton.
The slides obviously dont have much text, but if anyone could give me some pointers on improvements i'd be very grateful - Its only about 9 slides.

My main concern is the font size being too big. I'll be using a digital projector and i have no idea how these fonts will look when enlarged - Hopefully not stupidly big (Its the apple keynote default font size, so you'd presume it'd be okay...)

http://www.hejog.net/apple.mov (10Mb Keynote Export)

[tooki]

No, the font size is fine.

What's not so fine is getting the name of the company wrong on the first slide.

Apple's name is "Apple Computer", not plural.

I'd leave off "iLink" -- that's strictly Sony's name for it. If you're going to add any names beyond FireWire, add IEEE-1394, the name of the standard. Oh, and FireWire was standardized in 1995 and available in Macs as an option in 1997, and standard in some models beginning in 1998.

Try and mask your images so as to not have white rectangles around them.

An ad with text makes a terrible background for a slide with its own text.

The text on the iTMS slide is damned near illegible. Many projectors have weird contrast characteristics, and may make it even worse. Show a picture, then show a slide with the bullets, or vice versa. Debate whether you can do without one or the other.



In general, I'd consider restructuring around the concept of the message. What is each slide saying? Each slide should have a message. For example: "Ahead of its time: the Newton", or "Saying goodbye to the past: the iMac". Then you can explain the message using data. Remember that in these examples, the product in question is simply an example of Apple following a philosophy. Find examples of philosophies you've already identified rather than picking products and then trying to figure out what philosophies that product embodies.

Don't be tempted to cramp each slide. It's far, far better to have 50 slides, each with just a few words on it, that flow with what you say, than to have 10 slides with 5 bullets each.

I hate to say it, but emulate a Steve Jobs keynote. His presentations are impeccable.

Oh, and one other tip: don't talk around your slides. Have the slides show around you. What I mean is, design your talk as if you had no slides. Then afterwards make slides to support your speech. Trust me, the result will be better.

tooki

[::maroma::]

Great points tooki.

I will add one thing, strictly from my anal graphic designer mind. On the first slide, I would use the pure white Apple logo instead of the graphite "glass" one. Apple uses the pure white more often now, and I think it would fit better with your design there. It would also help with that masking issue you have on that shadow. I would move the all white Apple logo directly underneath the "Apple Computer" title, and have it straight (not tilted).

Just something to think about.

[andreas_g4]

http://axiom.gmxhome.de/Apple_Corporate_Logos.zip

A collection of logos, I'll leave it up some time. Use the outlined one.

[tooki]

Or just type Option-Shift-K (on a US keyboard): 

tooki

[Peter]

Originally Posted by tooki

No, the font size is fine.

What's not so fine is getting the name of the company wrong on the first slide.

Apple's name is "Apple Computer", not plural.

I'd leave off "iLink" -- that's strictly Sony's name for it. If you're going to add any names beyond FireWire, add IEEE-1394, the name of the standard. Oh, and FireWire was standardized in 1995 and available in Macs as an option in 1997, and standard in some models beginning in 1998.

Yeah.. fixed, how embarassing

Originally Posted by tooki

Try and mask your images so as to not have white rectangles around them.

Done, never knew how to do that - learn somthing new every day.

Originally Posted by tooki

An ad with text makes a terrible background for a slide with its own text.

The text on the iTMS slide is damned near illegible. Many projectors have weird contrast characteristics, and may make it even worse. Show a picture, then show a slide with the bullets, or vice versa. Debate whether you can do without one or the other.

Removed the entire slide for now, going to expand on iPod instead.

Originally Posted by tooki

In general, I'd consider restructuring around the concept of the message. What is each slide saying? Each slide should have a message. For example: "Ahead of its time: the Newton", or "Saying goodbye to the past: the iMac". Then you can explain the message using data. Remember that in these examples, the product in question is simply an example of Apple following a philosophy. Find examples of philosophies you've already identified rather than picking products and then trying to figure out what philosophies that product embodies.

Don't be tempted to cramp each slide. It's far, far better to have 50 slides, each with just a few words on it, that flow with what you say, than to have 10 slides with 5 bullets each.

I'm working through now adding interesting/amusing titles to each slide which are relevant to the slide.

Originally Posted by tooki

I hate to say it, but emulate a Steve Jobs keynote. His presentations are impeccable.

Oh, and one other tip: don't talk around your slides. Have the slides show around you. What I mean is, design your talk as if you had no slides. Then afterwards make slides to support your speech. Trust me, the result will be better.

tooki

Just ran through what i'll say, and then mixed the slides about slightly to ensure they make sense and the entire presentation goes through smoothly. (ie, one slide leads to another to another etc...)

[Peter]

Originally Posted by ::maroma::

Great points tooki.

I will add one thing, strictly from my anal graphic designer mind. On the first slide, I would use the pure white Apple logo instead of the graphite "glass" one. Apple uses the pure white more often now, and I think it would fit better with your design there. It would also help with that masking issue you have on that shadow. I would move the all white Apple logo directly underneath the "Apple Computer" title, and have it straight (not tilted).

Just something to think about.

done!
My photoshopping skills have improved greatly!

[Peter]

Originally Posted by andreas_g4

http://axiom.gmxhome.de/Apple_Corporate_Logos.zip

A collection of logos, I'll leave it up some time. Use the outlined one.

heyy, always wanted some 'raw' images of the apple logos - these'll be really handy - thanks alot!

[Hawkeye_a]

1. Eye contact
2. Business casual (both in attire and speach)
3. Simple slides, big font, less text, more pictures.
4. Keynote (the application)
5. Overview, Introduction, Middle, Conclusion, Recap, Questions.

Personally, i prefer dark backgrpunds and white text.

Choose your content carefully, you dont want to overwhelm ur audience or bore em to death.

Tailor your content to your audience. if theyre non-tech, i suggest iLife, iPod and airport express. If theyre techies, i suggest OSX, dev tools and Airport.

Cheers

[tooki]

Yep. Remember that you are giving a talk, not a slideshow. YOU are the star, not the slides! Don't let them take over!

tooki

[- - e r i k - -]

Oh man. My whole semester has been all about Apple:

Advertising, Practice and Principles:

• iPod Brand Analysis
• iPod Creative Brief (future iPod product and advertising campaign)
• iPod Brand Analysis and Creative Brief Presentation (with specced TV-commercial made with AfterEffects)

Brand Image and Cultural Space:

• Brand Presentation: Apple
• Associative Network model and brand comparison: iPod vs Creative vs Sony PSP
• Presentation on the same

[JoshuaZ]

Read this blog about presentations. Made by the former head of Mac User Group Relations at Apple, and a guy thats a master presenter. It will help you a lot.

http://presentationzen.blogs.com/

I'm not kidding.

[f1000]

Originally Posted by tooki

I hate to say it, but emulate a Steve Jobs keynote. His presentations are impeccable.

You want him to wear jeans and a black turtleneck?

[JoshuaZ]

Originally Posted by f1000

You want him to wear jeans and a black turtleneck?

No, keeping it simple. Stay focused on your audience. The information should come from you, not your slides. The slides are there to compliment your speaking. Look at some presentations by Steve Jobs and then by Bill Gates. They have two completely different styles, and it shows.

[Peter]

just back from presentation, went really well.
In the end i didnt use many images, only criticism i got was not discussing more of the Apple software.

[production_coordinator]

Originally Posted by JoshuaZ

No, keeping it simple. Stay focused on your audience. The information should come from you, not your slides. The slides are there to compliment your speaking. Look at some presentations by Steve Jobs and then by Bill Gates. They have two completely different styles, and it shows.

I couldn't agree more. I've seen presentations where the person obviously over thought the presentation and it was a nightmare. I also freak out when people read from the slides. Slides should be visual notes, NOT the entire presentation.

I honestly do tell people to look at a Steve Jobs presentation. He knows how to build suspense without going overboard.

[tooki]

Originally Posted by Peter

just back from presentation, went really well.
In the end i didnt use many images, only criticism i got was not discussing more of the Apple software.

Care to post the final presentation you used? (Post the .key or export to .ppt -- quicktime balloons the file size tremendously.)

tooki

[jcadam]

Originally Posted by production_coordinator

I couldn't agree more. I've seen presentations where the person obviously over thought the presentation and it was a nightmare. I also freak out when people read from the slides. Slides should be visual notes, NOT the entire presentation.

I honestly do tell people to look at a Steve Jobs presentation. He knows how to build suspense without going overboard.

I throw hard objects at people who just read their slides to me... or I fall asleep.

[Peter]

Originally Posted by tooki

Care to post the final presentation you used? (Post the .key or export to .ppt -- quicktime balloons the file size tremendously.)

tooki

sure, i'll post it later tonight

- Peter

[olePigeon]

Don't forget your bottled water, black turtleneck, and an occasional "BOOM!"

[olePigeon]

Oh, and avoid running around like a sweaty gorilla yelling that you love the company. And throwing chairs. Throwing chairs is bad, no matter how much you disagree.

[- - e r i k - -]

Here's my presentation on Apple, a 23.70MB keynote export. (The original file is over 70MB)

[tooki]

I'm getting a 404 error on that.

tooki

[- - e r i k - -]

Yeah, I fixed it. Damn case sensitive unix-servers

[tooki]

Aye.

Just today I was helping a girl in my HTML class with her page, which wouldn't load correctly once on the school unix server because she didn't take care with case. Darned Windows and its love for uppercase extensions...

tooki

[tooki]

Gah. Something in that movie is borked, because the audio from the movies then plays during other slides. And then it reaches the end and loops the last transition over and over.

And, um, too much reflected-on-the-nonexistent-desk effect. With too many items, you couldn't tell where the original ended and the reflection began.

tooki

[- - e r i k - -]

Hmmm, the movie worked fine in QT player. The reflections work a lot better on a large screen. Especially the movies

A guy commented that he never wanted to present again and my lecturer called it "magic".

[tooki]

I played it in QT player.

tooki

[tooki]

So Peter, are we gonna get to see the presentation we all helped you on?

tooki

[Peter]

uploading now, 2 minutes.

[Peter]

http://hejog.net/apple.mov

[Peter]

See above post for URL
I decided to add the Pixar section purely to amuse the people, its pretty boring to have someone ranting on about aronyms and other geeky stuff, the pixar section woke everyone up and made an interesting debate at the end Heck, i got extra marks for using multi-media

[tooki]

Would it have been so hard to save the keynote file instead of a QuickTime file? It'd be so much easier and better looking to let Keynote control it than to use the jerky, non-interactive movie.

tooki

[tooki]

It's a good thing they weren't geeky types or they might have noticed the "IEE-1394" guffaw!

tooki

[Peter]

Originally Posted by tooki

Would it have been so hard to save the keynote file instead of a QuickTime file? It'd be so much easier and better looking to let Keynote control it than to use the jerky, non-interactive movie.

tooki

I did but my FTP server assploded and split the whole thing up, d'oh.

[Peter]

Originally Posted by tooki

Would it have been so hard to save the keynote file instead of a QuickTime file? It'd be so much easier and better looking to let Keynote control it than to use the jerky, non-interactive movie.

tooki

I did but my FTP server assploded and split the whole thing up, d'oh.

[- - e r i k - -]

*cough* ZIP *cough*