I am loving how clear, simple, and expressive these visuals are. You can check out more from artist Ji Lee in his recently released book Word as Image.

Source: My Modern Met

This recent chart from Fox News is an example of how an inaccurately designed chart can be horribly misleading. Take a look at the relative position of the 8.6% for the month of November on the far right.

Charts should make trends in large sets of data more clear. Using them to mislead is wrong.

Source: FlowingData: Fox News still makes awesome charts

And also check out: FlowingData: Best pie chart ever

Sesame Street always has a way of getting it right. Simple is powerful.

It doesn’t. In fact, a logo on every slide hurts the effectiveness of your presentation. Here’s why.

1. It’s distracting. – Great slides support your message, they don’t distract from it. Putting a big logo in the corner of every slide is wasting screen real estate with visual noise that doesn’t enhance your message.

2. Your audience knows who you are. – I’ve had clients tell me they “need” to include their logo on every slide so the audience doesn’t forget who they are. If you’re speaking to a room full of people and they suddenly don’t know who you are, you have a bigger problem on your hands…

3. It hurts your brand. – An ineffective, boring presentation that’s elaborately branded is worse for your brand than an engaging, memorable presentation with no branding at all. People remember presenters who can move them with a great story. Don’t let bad slides get in the way of that.

If you really want your logo in your presentation, keep it limited to the first and last slides. That way your audience can see what company you’re from at the start and then are reminded of it again at the very end after you’ve wowed them with a memorable presentation.

Broadway set designers have a difficult job. They need to design theater sets that cleverly balance two functions: 1) physically providing the details (entrances and props) the actors need to tell their story, while 2) also powerfully conveying the emotional atmosphere for each scene of the show.

Sound familiar? Metaphor alert: Your presentation slides have to balance the same functions.

A great way to break free from the doldrums of traditional PowerPoint is to think of your slides not as slides, but as theater sets to be your backdrop as you deliver your speech. They’re there to make you look good and support you with the details you need to tell your story.

Fortunately you don’t need a Master of Fine Arts degree to design great slides.