Why I Love The 2015 Starbucks' Red Holiday Cups

Did you hear that the 2015 Starbucks’ Red Holiday Cups have received a lot of criticism? Yes, some people even said the new cups represent a “War on Christmas” as they don’t explicitly say “Merry Christmas” on the side, nor do they have any immediate visual links to the festivity. According to the critics, Starbucks is not embracing the true spirit of Christmas. 

Here’s my opinion: I love the new cups. 

The only war these cups might be fighting is a fair war against crappy design. Unlike in previous years where Starbucks designed more traditional holiday cups, this year they opted for a minimalistic approach. A simple red cup, no “Merry Christmas” on the side, no stupid fonts, no snowflake, no decoration. Yet, the new cups look seasonal, because the colour is highly associated with Christmas. 

2008 Starbucks's Red Holiday Cup - Simon Schoeters via Flickr 

Starbucks vice president of design said: "This year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.” To me, “purity” is the word that better explains the idea behind the new design. 

This year’s holiday cups are a great example of “less is more.” Starbucks’ designers have managed to achieve the result everybody expected (a seasonal look) with less (a simple red cup). 

In a Fast Company article In Defense Of Starbucks' Red Holiday Cups, John Brownlee nicely explained why he loves the new cups:        

“I love the new Starbucks Red Holiday Cups. I love them because they don't have a cartoon character of an anthropomorphic reindeer with a clear intellectual disability on the side. I love them because they don't say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" on them in some tacky novelty font where every ascender or descender is covered in fake snow, and every tittle has been replaced by a bulb ornament. I love them because they make a statement. Christmas doesn't have to be synonymous with godawful design. It can, instead, have a little class, and serve as a quiet analog to the chaos of the season.”

I can only agree with him. 

Instead of worrying about the cups, the critics should be focusing their complaints on what’s inside the cups. I’d support them in that topic.  

IMAGE: Fast Company

3 Essential Steps To Avoid Designing Useless Slides

Warning: this slide may seriously hurt your eyes. 

This is a real slide made by a real company in a real business meeting

When I first looked at it I thought “there is something completely wrong in the way most companies make presentations”. 

The problem 

The problem is we use PowerPoint too much. We make slides for everything, even for communicating where the toilet is. 

Think about it, what’s the first thing coming to you mind when you are asked to make a presentation? I bet it’s PowerPoint (or any other presentation tool for that matter). That’s exactly the problem: people associate presentations with a tool and not with a story. [Tweet this] That’s why you have slides for communicating that “toilets are located just outside in the corridor”. 

The reason why most presentations are poor is because we spend time making slides rather than crafting a story. In fact, making slides should be the last bit of the presentation process. Remember, slides are incredibly powerful when they amplify your message—but when they don’t, they are incredibly useless. In fact, they work against your message. 
Audiences would be better off if most slides were eliminated. Trust me, you would do your audience a favour by getting rid of most of the slides you use. Have you ever thought about presenting with no slides at all? 

As Garr Reynolds put it, “Presenting 100% naked may not be appropriate for every case, but stripping down as much as we can often will make a huge, refreshing difference. The result will be a presentation that is different and somehow more real, “real” like a frank conversation among friends.” 

The solution 

       

I suggest you follow this 3-step process when deciding whether you need slides or not.

(1) Use a message map
A message map is a simple tool that helps you structure your story. Here’s how it works. Write down the single message you want your audience to take away. Then, find three main points that support your key message. Your presentation will be based on those three points. Here’s a short video of Communication Coach Carmine Gallo showing how to use the message map and explaining why he believes it works all the time. 

(2) Plan analog 
Close your laptop, get away from it and craft your story with pen and paper. You should translate your message map into slides on a piece of paper first. And you should do that only if you think slides can amplify your message. You’ll be much more creative by planning your presentation in an analog way. 

(3) Open PowerPoint (if you can't resist)

Only once you’ve planned your presentation “analogically” should you open PowerPoint—and only if you think slides can help you get your message across. But you don’t have to. When in doubt, don't.   

3 Essential Steps To Avoid Designing Useless #Slides https://t.co/0yzvqCr6oO #EchoPresentations pic.twitter.com/DmGdcHpmHo

— Andrea Pacini (@echopresent) October 25, 2015

IMAGE: Sebastiaan ter Burg

10 Practical Tips To Design Your Next Presentation Like A Pro

I want to give you the knowledge you need to design your next presentation like a pro. 

I’ve recently made a presentation for a student who had to discuss his Master thesis to an audience on his graduation day. I’m going to use that presentation as an example for you to learn 10 basic design concepts that will take your presentations to the next level.

(The slides are in Italian, but I only want you to focus on the design. For the purpose of this article, the language and the content don't matter).

(1) Start strong

The first slide is the most important one. It sets the tone for what comes next. You need to use it to arouse curiosity. You want your audience to get intrigued. A high-quality image that supports your topic is always a good choice. This before-after slide shows you how most students would design the first slide of their Master thesis presentation and how they really should design it. Which one do you prefer? 

(2) Use the rule of three

The rule of three is one of the most important concepts in communication theory. It means that people can only hold about three pieces of information in short-term memory. Therefore, split your presentation into three separate sections. I know this cannot always be done—but when possible find a way to use this rule. You’ll give your narrative structure and make sure your audience will remember your [three] main points. Apple uses this trick all the time.

(3) Never use bullet points 

One of the main reasons why Death by PowerPoint is in everybody’s vocabulary today is bullet points. There is always an alternative to the boring bullets. An idea is to use icons instead. 

(4) Display data effectively 

The key to displaying data for maximum impact is to leave out all the elements that don’t add value to an audience’s understanding of your message. I’ve recently interviewed Rick Altman, host of the Presentation Summit. Speaking about data display, he said “most of the time you are sharing proportional data, [that is] how this thing relates to that thing. You could do that with two rectangles, one of them being longer than another one.”

How often do you really need a background? Do you need the lines across it? The answer, my friend, is no you don’t. In many cases you don’t even need the axes.

Extra tip: don’t use the title of your chart as the title of your slide. Instead, use a short message that tells the story behind the data. In the slide below, instead of “GDP and public debt” I wrote “Debt raises while GDP stays flat”. You’ll make it easier for your audience to immediately grasp the meaning of your chart. Remember, what’s important is not the data, but the story behind the data. 

“What’s important is not the data, 

but the story behind the data.” [Tweet this]

(More on data display here) 

(5) Use hierarchy 

If one element is more important than another, show it! One way to do that is by using hierarchy. Here’s how I used it in this slide:

• Title: Raleway Bold, 36 points
• Chart legend: Raleway Regular, 30 points 
• Source and numbers: Raleway Light, 20 points     

From a visual point of view, the tile is more important than the legend, which in turn is more important than the data source. 

(6) Go big or go home

If there is one thing you really want your audience to remember, make it big. If it’s important for your listeners to know the inflation rate is 1.2%, then that’s what you should do. Again, Apple does it all the time. 

(7) Combine images and text

In visual communication, there are few things more powerful than a high-quality image combined with text. By no coincidence billboards are often designed that way. They need to grasp people’s attention in a matter of seconds—and so should your slides. 

Extra tip: Use the rule of thirds. Imagine to break down your slide into thirds—both vertically and horizontally—so that you have four intersecting points. Then place the key elements of your visual either along one of the dividing lines or on the intersecting points.

Extra tip 2: Apply the same filter to your images. Here’s a small trick: create a rectangular shape of the colour you want to use for setting the tone of your presentation and place it underneath each of your images. Then substantially reduce the opacity so that the shape fades away. In my presentation I’ve used a blue shape and brought the opacity down to 20%. If you look carefully, each image has a blue tone. 

Extra tip 3: Make sure images and text flow into each other. Notice where this woman is looking at? She is exactly looking at the text. I haven’t placed the text there by coincidence. As soon as you show such a slide, people will naturally look at the woman first and then follow her eyes towards the text. That’s exactly what you want them to do.

(8) Use colour wisely

I’ve already written about colour theory here and how to apply the theory here. To sum up, don’t use random colours. For example, the reason why I’ve used blue, red and white is because those are the national colours of Japan. Also, I didn’t use any red, but rather the same red as in the Japanese flag. (I then adjusted the shade to make it stand out better).

(9) Achieve unity 

You may be thinking that some of these tips are too meticulous to even get recognised. However, it all adds up. If you apply them, you’ll come up with a unified presentation where all the elements work together to support your design as a whole. You’ll make sure your elements don’t compete with each other, but rather support each other towards a common goal of communicating your message. You’ll make sure your elements belong together. 

(More on achieving unity here). 

(10) Give credits 

Never use somebody else’s images or design elements without giving appropriate credit. As one said, ”Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God’s.”

If you want to take your presentations to the next level, please reach me out at andr.pacini@gmail.com.  

IMAGE: Nathanael Coyne via Flickr

One Useless Slide You'll Never Design Again

Warning: the slide you are about to see was made by a real company during a real business presentation — and it will hurt your eyes!

When I first looked at it I thought “there is something completely wrong in the way most companies make presentations”. 

The problem 

The problem is we use PowerPoint too much. We make slides for anything, even for communicating where the toilet is. When looking at a slide like the one above, it’s clear that we became the tools of our tools. 

Think about it, what’s the first thing coming to you mind when you are asked to make a presentation? I bet it’s PowerPoint (or any other presentation tool for that matter). That’s exactly the problem: people associate presentations with a tool and not with a story. That’s why you have slides showing that “toilets are located just outside in the corridor”. 

“People associate presentations with a tool and not with a story.” [Tweet this]

The reason why most presentations suck is because we spend time creating slides rather than crafting a story. In fact, creating slides should be the last bit of the presentation process. Remember, slides are incredibly powerful when they amplify your message — but when they don’t, they are incredibly useless. In fact, they work against your message. 
Audiences would be better off if most slides were eliminated. Have you ever thought about presenting with no slides at all? Who said we need slides?

The solution 

       

I suggest you follow this 3-step process in order to decide whether to use slides or not. 

1. Use a message map
A message map is a simple tool that helps you structure your story. Here’s how it works. Write down the single message you want your audience to take away. Then, find three main supporting points. Your presentation will be based on those. Here’s a short video of communication coach Carmine Gallo showing how a business can use a message map to tell its story. According to Gallo, “it is one of the most powerful tools in communication. It works each and every time”. 



2. Plan analog 
Close your laptop, get away from it and craft your story with pen and paper. I’ve learnt this from Garr Reynolds and I can tell you it’s the most valuable presentation-related piece of advice I’ve ever received. You’ll be much more creative by planning your presentation in an analog way. 
You can translate your message map into slides, but (1) on a piece of paper first, and (2) only if they help amplify your message. If not, do not use them.

3. Open PowerPoint (if you can't resist)
Only once you’ve planned your presentation “analogically” should you open PowerPoint. If you’ve decided that slides might help you get your message across, then design visuals that complement your story. But you don’t have to. In fact, when in doubt, don’t!           

The slide I showed you above is good for (almost) nothing. But it is good for showing that if we only focus on PowerPoint, we run the risk of becoming the tools of our tools. Next time you are asked to make a presentation, forget PowerPoint, get away from your laptop and think of your presentation as a story, not as a series of slides. [Tweet this]  

IMAGE: Business Television 

Quick Guide To The Picture Superiority Effect

Do you know that you are more likely to remember concepts when they are presented to you as pictures rather than as words? This is the Picture Superiority Effect, which has been proven true by several experiments. 

Here's a YouTube video that does a great job at explaining this concept in 30 seconds.

Repeat with me: people remember pictures better than words. [Tweet this]

“People remember pictures 

better than words.”

Dr. John Medina—molecular biologist and research consultant— wrote Brain Rules, where he shared what scientists know about how our brains work. One of the things they know for sure is that “based on research into the Picture Superiority Effect, when we read text alone, we are likely to remember only 10 percent of the information 3 days later. If that information is presented to us as text combined with a relevant image, we are likely to remember 65 percent of the information 3 days later.”

There are many fields where the Picture Superiority Effect is used. Here are a few examples:

• Marketing communications: highly visual billboards, posters and brochures get more attention
• Advertising: ads with pictures get more business
• Social media: posts with images get more likes and re-shares

As Randy Krum pointed out in his blog Cool Infographics, this ad campaign from Verizon is a perfect example of the Picture Superiority Effect in action. 

This map shows Verizon’s network coverage area compared to that of their competitors. Three days after seeing it, what do you think are you more likely to remember, the words or the maps? 

What I struggle to understand is why individuals and companies do use the Picture Superiority Effect in their marketing communications, advertising, and social media activities and but not in their presentations. Is a customer presentation less important than a Facebook post?

Instead of designing 40-word slides nobody will remember, use picture superiority to make your presentations more memorable. [Tweet this] A short message supported by a quality image is way more powerful than a full paragraph on a slide. 

According to Dr. John Medina, “the brain does not pay attention to boring things”. Because a 40-word slide is indeed a boring thing, then the brain does not pay attention to 40-word slides. 

“The brain does not pay attention 

to boring things.” — Dr. John Medina 

Two more points:

• For the Picture Superiority Effect to work, the images must be relevant to the content. You can’t assume that any image would work. Make it relevant!
• Picture superiority applies to any visual display, not just images. Therefore, people are also more likely to remember concepts when they are presented to them as charts and graphs rather than as words. 

 Not convinced yet? Then take this:

“Use the picture superiority effect to improve the recognition and recall of key information. Use pictures and words together, and ensure that they reinforce the same information for optimal effect.”

— Universal Principles of Design (page 152)

Make it visual!

IMAGE: CameliaTWU via Flickr

Interview With Rick Altman, Host Of The Presentation Summit

Rick Altman has a 25-year experience in training and consulting on the whole of the presentation process, from preparation to design and delivery. He is host of The Presentation Summit, an annual conference for presentation professionals held annually. And he is also author of the book Why most PowerPoint presentations suck, and how you can make them better. 

Recently I had the pleasure to interview him and here's a recap of what we discussed about. 

Why do most PowerPoint presentations suck?

Many people would tell you it’s self-evident. I see three main reasons:

1. The tool: PowerPoint is probably the easiest program in the Offie suite to start using. Both my daughters started creating slides where they were 10 years old. And while Microsoft would tell you this is one of its virtues, I would tell you that’s a very bad thing. People declare themselves proficient long before they should. 
2. Design: People are asked to design presentations all the time, but very few have a background in graphic design. Most people don’t even know what the word design means. The result is that slides often act as a barrier between speaker and audience. 
3. Speaking: We are asking people to do this thing that they are scared to death to do: speak in public. 

Combine these three points and that’s why Death by PowerPoint is in everybody’s vocabulary today. 

Can you tell us about The Presentation Summit?

This is our 13th season. For four days we will cover all the facets of the presentation experience, from message crafting to presentation design, software techniques, and delivery. The thing I am most proud of is the way we created a community around this conference. We brought together people who didn’t know where to turn for help with the greatest challenges of giving presentations. Thanks to our Summit, not only have they learnt how to overcome these challenges but they have also made lasting relationships. 

This year you have two big names in the communication world. One is Garr Reynolds. 

Yes, we don’t deserve such good fortune. This will be his 5th time speaking at the conference. He will be speaking from his home in Japan. In the last couple of years we had him speaking at our Guru Session, which starts at 9pm and goes until midnight (middle of Garr’s day in Japan). It’s for those who can’t get enough of this experience. Last year his appearance was wonderful because he understood it was late for us, in fact we had a lot of beer and wine on that evening. He came with no agenda at all and started taking questions. He was hanging out with us. In fact at one point he actually got a beer too. 

What do you like about Garr Reynold’s approach to presentations?

If you look at his work, everything just fits in a magical way. You know that you are in the presence of a brilliant designer when you can’t really explain it. It’s like recognizing fine art, can you describe what it is? Maybe not, but you know it when you see it. I feel that way when I see Garr’s work. His ideas are profoundly simple and he shares them with such an elegance that everybody can relate to.

The other big name is Guy Kawasaki. What is he going to talk about?

He is going to tell us the “10 Things All Presenters Should Do”. From there the sky’s the limit. 

I’m sure one of the 10 things will be his famous 10-20-30 rule. What do you think about it?

It’s so simple as to be almost profound. But it also is quite disruptive. I have clients who are shocked when I tell them the font size should be at least 30 points. As a former venture capitalist, Guy Kawasaki had to sit through so many presentations and that has given him a perspective on this world that's unique. The 10-20-30 rule comes straight out of that. 

What are the 3 things all presenters should do? One tip for preparation, one for design, one for delivery.

• Preparation: You must know your material. People have to understand their narrative and have to practise with their visuals. 

• Design: Separate, separate, separate. There are three tenets to a good presentation: what you say, what you show, and what you give. That is, what you say out loud, what you show on the screen, and what you give to your audience afterwards. Those should be three separate things and each of them should be as good as you can possibly make them. What happens all too often is that the deck you prepared is the only thing you have. You say it, you show it, and you print it. If you can separate out these critical pieces of the presentation experience, you are going to become much better. 

• Delivery. Find your most genuine self. What is it about you that others want to hear about? You can’t fake genuineness and there is no substitute for it. Of course you learn some tactics and strategies to become a better communicator, but you can’t try to become somebody else. 

“There are three tenets to a good presentation: 

what you say, what you show, and what you give.”

In the Summit you'll have a “PowerPoint vs Keynote” session. Do you think the presentation tool makes a difference?

No. Of course there are differences between PowerPoint and Keynote. Each of them enjoys advantages over the other. But the software you use is just a mediocre commodity and should not be the biggest determinant of your success. You can perform good work or bad work with either one. 

(Here is my take on this topic)

You'll also have a Pecha Kucha session. Do you think people can get better at presenting by practising Pecha Kucha?

(Pecha Kucha is a presentation format where the presenter shows 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and she talks along to the images)

Without a doubt, and I have first-hand experience in this. There is a lot of skills involved. First of all, you can’t fake it — you really have to know your stuff. Also, you have to have practised your material enough so that you can anticipate slide transition. And all have to be timed out. Of course you don’t have to be a robot, yet it’s tremendously challenging. 

Data visualization. What are your tips for displaying data effectively? 

Simplify as much as you can. Here's where the software works against you. Who decided that every chart must have a background by default, or the lines going across them, or axes with tick marks? What does any of that contribute to somebody’s understanding of your message? All this weaken our ability to tell a good story. Let’s not forget: we are the presentation, not our slides. So it’s up to us to tell the story behind these numbers. The chart should help us, not take over for us. 

(Here are my data visualization tips)

How do you convince people and companies that the way they have always been making presentations is not effective and that there is a better way?

It’s hard, both in corporate America and all over the world. One thing I do is I show people some before-after slides, so that they can see a slide that’s much more evocative then the junk they have created. Another thing I do is I make them practise with a properly crafted slide which is different from the slide they have been using, which they became addicted to. It helps. Remember, Rome was not built in a day and in the last several years I have seen real improvement. So we need to be patient.  

These are just some of the ideas Rick Altman shared with me. If you want to get more insights, here's the full video.



Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it, share it :)

IMAGE: Rick Altman on Vimeo 

The 5 Best Sites And Blogs on Communication and Design

Here’s a collection of the top web resources with the best content on communication, presentations and design. 

(1) Presentation Zen

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
— Garr Reynolds  

Without doubt, Presentation Zen is the presentation blog. Best-selling author and speaker Garr Reynolds delights the reader with tons of gems on presentation preparation, design and delivery: the three key elements that make a great presentation.   

Content-wise, Presentation Zen is the benchmark all other blogs should be measured against. If you find someone who writes about presentations without knowing Garr Reynolds, do yourself a favour by not listening to him.

@presentationzen

(2) Ethos3

“In 25 years looking at stuff like this, I have never encountered something like this. You guys really know your stuff.” 
— Guy Kawasaki on Ethos3 

Ethos3 is one of the world’s best presentation agencies. They do two things: presentation design and presentation training. His founder—Scott Schwertly—is author of the boook “How to be a Presentation God”. Ethos3’s blog is full of practical tips on how to become a better presenter. 

@Ethos3 

(3) Canva 

“The easiest to use design program in the world.”
— The Webbys 

I wrote about Canva already. Canva is an online service that makes design simple for everyone. What they have is not just a blog, it’s much more than that. It’s a Design School. Here you can find valuable tips on typography, colour, images, and design in general. They also provide great tutorials and teaching materials. On a scale from 1 to 10, the value you get from their articles is about 11.

@canva 

(4) TED

“Ideas worth spreading.”
— TED mantra  

Just in case you don’t know it (I doubt it), TED is an organisation whose aim is to spread great ideas. They do it in the form of short talks (18 minutes or less). It began as a Conference on Technology, Entertainment and Design (hence TED), and now covers any topic.  

TED Talks are viewed by millions of people every day. There must be a reason for that! Here are the three TED talks I like the most.

@TEDTalks

(5) Big Fish Presentations 

“Content is King, but design is its Queen.”
— Big Fish Presentations 

These guys are not as famous as Garr Reynolds or Nancy Duarte, but they also know their stuff. Their blog covers topics from presentation theory and design to public speaking. Definitely worth checking out. 

@BigFishPresCo 

Putting all together

• Speaking.Alltop 

Alltop.com was founded by Guy Kawasaki, hence it’s guarantee for greatness. It’s an aggregator of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic. Which topics? Anything you can think of. Like presentations and public speaking? Check out speaking.alltop.com. More interested in design? There you go: design.alltop.com. It’s that easy. 

@alltop 

• Echo Story

Disclaimer: I created Echo Story

Echo Story is a weekly newsletter of what I find in business, communication and design, and human-interest topics and think is worth sharing. With Echo Story I help people find better content. The idea is similar to Alltop, but it only focuses on the three topics above. Talking about communication and design, if you don’t want to be bothered finding great content yourself, you can simply subscribe to receive the best of the best straight to your inbox. Once a week, for free. 

Here's what you missed last week. Sign up free if you like it: http://eepurl.com/bdIUb9 

If you know other sites and blogs that you think should make the list, please let me know. I’d love to add them to my favourites.