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How to Design TED-Worthy Presentation Slides (Black & White Edition): Presentation Design Principles from the Best TED Talks

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Black & White edition This is the B&W edition of the book. All pictures inside will be in grayscale.

“Reading this book changed my presentation style and my slides, both for the better - and I've been a professional speaker for over 30 years.” ~ Becki L. James

How to Design TED-Worthy Presentation Slides is a short, practical and step-by-step guide to creating sexy slides.
It is based on an extensive analysis of some of the best TED speakers, such as Brene Brown, Daniel Pink, Amy Cuddy, Larry Lessig, Seth Godin, Bill Gates and many, many more.

LEARN HOW TO BREATHE LIFE INTO YOUR SLIDES, INSTEAD OF DRAINING IT OUT OF YOUR AUDIENCE
By the end of this guide, you too will be able to create sexy presentation slides that keep your audiences mesmerized. More importantly, you will be able to design presentations that breathe life into your slides, instead of draining it out of your audience.
Here’s just a taste of what you’ll learn inside the
• The most common mistake most presenters make – and how you can avoid it
•The one principle that will make you better than 90% of most speakers
• How to quickly create a presentation storyboard
•Bill Gates’ trick for transforming his slides from dull to dashing
• The Seth Godin presentation formula
•The importance of contrast
• Locating and using sexy fonts
•Spicing up your presentations with video
• Displaying data without being dull
•Ensuring consistency between slides
• How to deliver a great TED talk (or any other speech or presentation)
•And much, much more…

“A must read...An essential tool for preparing effective, interesting and "sexy" presentations...a must read for any professional who wants to improve his communicational skills.” ~ Rosalinda Scalia

“The lessons shared in this short book will a go a long way to helping a person give better public presentations. The insights shared by Akash are like golden nuggets in a river full of info!” ~ Alan Portugal

“I have been teaching workshops at universities and Fortune 500 Campuses up and down the East Coast on building better presentations. Akash hits all the right notes in this book. A must read for anyone wanting to build powerful presentations.” ~ David Bishop

“Excellent for those who want to really engage their audience. I incorporated many of the principles within and developed a more effective product presentation.” ~ Tom Tipps

“Right on the mark. Just what I was looking for as a non-designer.” ~ Erik J. Zettelmayer

“Make a greater impact with your presentations. While reading this book I was mentally reviewing my talks where I use PowerPoint slides. I am now changing some of those slides to make a greater impact on the listeners. These tips are easy to implement and make sense.” ~ John C. Erdman

“As always we can expect the best from Akash and we are getting more.” ~ Payam Bahrampoor

“This book gives practical advice. However, it does not stop there. It demonstrates how to use that advice, gives visual examples of what to do and what not to do and explains why. It turns creating a presentation from a dreaded event to one allowing creativity to flow and your passion about your subject matter to emerge on the screen through your slides.” ~ Pandora Training and Consulting

“I will admit to rarely reviewing books. However, this book was such a step above any others I've read on the art of PowerPoint presentations, I had to give it a five star review.” ~ David Schwind

206 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2015

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79 people want to read

About the author

Akash Karia

53 books58 followers
Akash Karia is a professional speaker who has trained thousands of people worldwide, from bankers in Hong Kong to yoga teachers in Thailand to senior executives in Dubai. He is an award-winner trainer who has been ranked as one of the Top 10 Speakers in Asia-Pacific.

He writes books on public speaking and success, sharing proven tools and techniques for the price of a cup of coffee. What separates him from other authors is that his books are based on hundreds of hours of intensive scientific research. All these tools are delivered in a simple, easy-to-read, step-by-step format that you can implement immediately.

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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Profile Image for Suman Srivastava.
Author 6 books66 followers
April 15, 2018
This book takes just a couple of hours to read. But it's got a lot of pointers that will make your slides much better. This book is free of you're subscribed to Kindle Unlimited.
Profile Image for Mr Osowski.
412 reviews5 followers
July 11, 2018
Pretty basic, but a good look at how to approach visual aids.
Profile Image for Shankara Ramesh.
23 reviews1 follower
July 15, 2019
Very good book for mastering your skills on presentation, a lot of good example and useful guide. Must read for engineers.
Profile Image for Roger Thompson.
6 reviews1 follower
November 7, 2021
GREAT BOOK - VERY GOOD AND PRACTICLE BOOK ON DELIVERING WORLD CLASS TOP 10% PRESENTATIONS
Profile Image for Alan Mills.
574 reviews30 followers
February 25, 2016
Really good, short and to the point introduction to using PowerPoint effectively. This is NOT a technical manual; there are a couple of "how to" pointers, which were very helpful, but the point of the book is not "how to do it" but "what to do!"

Thus he gives lots of pointed tips: use high resolution pictures, make them fill the screen. Use as few words as possible, and limit your slides to one idea per slide. Don't be afraid of graphics...but son't go crazy either.

In the end, made me rethink some of the PowerPoint slides I use. Next talk, I will definitely be recipe signing my slide presentation.
920 reviews38 followers
November 25, 2015
When someone puts up slides with only bullet point words on them, I fantasize about all the ways I might kill them. Read this short excellent book and avoid being the object of my fantasies.
Profile Image for Rawan.
1 review
April 21, 2016
It s a good book, and it gives you all the steps that you need to be aware in order to come up with the best presentation!
Profile Image for Kari Yergin.
864 reviews23 followers
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May 23, 2017
Book: how to design Ted worthy presentation slides

Focus on your audience, not on yourself using language to keep it relevant

Avoid the temptation of dumping all of your information onto your slides. Convey only one key message and write that core message down in less than 10 words

In creating slides, begin with a brainstorm, don't create slideuments and select only a couple of key ideas to support your key message

Storyboard using sticky notes, each one representing a slide with a quick sketch of a visual representation of your idea on the slide. Keep it simple stupid. A word or two per slide if you must and a clean visual representation or picture is best

Transferring your key points from paper to slides, remember to limit your text. Complete sentences are not OK. Use only keywords or no text at all!

One idea =one slide rule, using as many slides as you need. Focus on illuminating clutter

Choose images that arouse an emotional response in your audience. Don't just make intellectual arguments; use powerful images. Use your own pictures too. The three second rule says that your audience to understand your slide within three seconds of seeing it so they should be simple and clearly represent your point, like a billboard that grabs your attention and is understood quickly.

Use full bleed images, meaning that the image takes up the entire slide. If you have words on it, just put the words on top of the photo.

Rule of thirds for good pictures.

Avoid clichéd images.

Use the power of empty space, not filling up every little bit of the slide. Get rid of the nine essential. That will create enough empty space on your slides to give them a natural sense of balance

Font: make it match your message. Fun and lighthearted, elegant and sophisticated, commanding bold. Stick to two font types, one for extra large text that draw attention to it by making it stick out and one for smaller sized text, and pair two that have similar personalities. Design for the person sitting in the back of the room, large enough for them to read clearly. Use different font sizes on the same slide to build visual heirarchy. Pay attention to alignment as an important principle of design. I think should look like their place with thought and care. Experiment with rotating text for athletic purposes or to illustrate relative weights of things. Use it, but use it sparingly to make things uncommon and more exciting to look at. If you do it all the time it's predictable.

Ensure sufficient contrast between the background on the tax so that things will be clearly seen. Add text over non-noisy sections of the image. Using midges that contain enough quiet space for you to be able to position the text over. Or, an option to achieve better contrast, is to fill the text box with color like a black background and white text. Then the text box is readable on top of the busier picture. For a make it semi transparent go to format shape, Fill, transparency.

Make your statistics large and bold and combine the statistics with images. Don't be afraid to break up statistics into multiple slides: one slide says number of weeks from registering something to launching it and then The next slide just a big huge 7.5. Pie charts are great for displaying percentages, but limit the number of slices in the pie chart for less than six. | charts are great for changes in quantity over time, but best to limit the number of bars to less than six.use a different color to draw attention to a particular bar. This let the audience know what they should be focusing on. Line charts mainly display trends over time. It should still be easily visible from the back of the room so the line needs to be thick and said against a contrasting background. Label everything clearly. If you have complicated graphs and charts build up to them. In other words first display the first line explain it then display the second one explain it, etc.

Spice up a presentation with a short, high-quality video, that's embedded into the presentation-- insert, movie/video, movie/video from file. Change of pace, quickly show what would take a long time to describe, more powerful than pictures.

Make your slides consistent and with a sense of continuity by ensuring font consistency, image style consistency (A series of black-and-white photos of 50s housewives for instance, or cartoons, or stick figures), and visual element consistency (background is the same, numbered with the same shape in the same spot on the slide, that sort of thing that leads to Harmony).

Practice out loud, at normal speed, practice taking longer pauses so that you get used to being silent on stage, practice at double-speed to solidify the structure in your mind, practice at half you're speaking pace to help you internalize you were taught, practice mentally, practice in chunks, practice in front of a live audience, ask for feedback "please give me at least one point improvement. I want to do better." Arrive early and test the equipment. Avoid speaking on a full stomach but maybe have a sweet to give you energy. Avoid caffeine because it will result in a dry mouth. Sit in all four corners of the room so you get a sense of how you will appear from the back of the room and make sure your slides are visible from all places. Get to know your audience members so you have a connection with them before you get up there. Visualize yourself giving the talk, opening and closing powerfully and making a difference in someone's life.
Accept that it won't be perfect.

Delivery: don't read your slides. Provide verbal transitions between slides. Let your passion flow. Forget about yourself, instead focus 100% on your audience, on the message you're sharing with them, on the why for delivering the message, on the change you want to create in your audience. That way you'll build an unbreakable connection with them and deliver a powerful and dynamic talk.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews

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