The Extreme Presentation(tm) Method

Comics and the Art of Presentation

One insightful way to marry "simplicity of design and complexity of data" is to learn from the art of comics. I have been a fan of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics for about five years now, and I continually find it a source of insights. I first heard about it through a marketing exec at IBM, who told me that Anil Menon, a VP of marketing at IBM, and a one time marketing academic whose work I respect very much, recommended it to all his staff.

Garr Reynolds has a rich post on learning from McCloud here. Reynolds notes the apparent tension between simplicity and complexity, when he shows a "before and after" example of a slide he drew:

In some ways the revised slide on the right is more complex, but from the point of view of its Gestalt, it's more powerful, simple, and easy to grasp quickly.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, though, the ideal for presentation design is to combine both simplicity and complexity on the same slide, to achieve (and I'm now paraphrasing Tufte slightly) simplicity of design and complexity of detail. (The earlier post is here).

Wake Me Up When the Data is Over

Lori Silverman, founder of Partners for Progress, has edited an excellent book about using storytelling to drive business results, called Wake Me Up When the Data is Over.

The book has chapters on using storytelling in strategy, leadership, project management, and marketing and market research, among others, all based on 70 case studies from large and small organizations.

The chapter on using storytelling in Marketing and Market Research, by Steven Silverman, makes extensive reference to Microsoft and Kimberly Clark, two of my biggest clients. Jeff Drake of Kimberly Clark features prominently in the chapter, discussing the great impact they've had from day long training sessions (run by yours truly).

I highly recommend this book.
(Originally posted August 17, 2006)