Shari Lambert of RTI International and Richard Goring of BrightCarbon presented a webinar on creating graphic using simple and effective tools. Here are some of the tips and information they shared.

We are bombarded with information and cannot find the relevant information in so much data. This is where visuals come in. Humans are better at retaining visuals and pictures have a superior effect on human minds. We remember pictures better and for longer than texts. This is important when you are presenting information to clients.

Info-graphics are growing in the current era and it is one of the best ways to get the message across.

Never started with graphic before. So where do you start?

How To Plan Ahead For A Cohesive Visual Story
When you decide to create graphics, always start with the basics. The important question to ask is ‘why are you creating this proposal?’. Graphics are a way to show the client what they are looking for. Use proposal graphics as a navigation tool to show clients the information they seek.

Proposal graphics may be used to convey 6 key marketing messages:

• Corporate profile
• Market position
• Current situation
• Business objectives
• Target audience
• Brand personality

Identify a single most persuasion idea that you want to convey. Identify messages that can be converted to graphics and create a cohesive story to convey the message.

With limited production time or space for graphics use three basic types of graphics, namely, organisational chart, circular diagram and process flow. Every proposal graphic should be checked by an editor with fresh eyes before final delivery

Tools

Pantone is a supplier of inks for the printing industry. Many designers use Pantone as a reference when choosing colors.

Pantone also allows the user to pick, search, and convert to find the best match for colors online.

Use the Colblindor tool to check colour blindness. You can upload a JPG image and view it in eight different colorblind simulations.

Another helpful site is Duarte’s Diagrammer™.The Duarte Method™ is persuasive methodology designed to shape ideas into presentations that shift audience beliefs and behavior.™ This site is a visualization system that houses more than 4,000 customizable PowerPoint diagrams.

Best Practices For Graphics Databases

Be Descriptive
Be descriptive with your naming conventions for folders and files. This will allow your users to quickly find the item they’re searching. Adding tags and categories provides the user more ways to customize their search and the folder system layout to fit their working methods.

Be Restrictive
To ensure the integrity of your images and content, be sure you mark each file as “read only” so users do not accidentally save their work over the baseline material. You can find this in Attributes within the file properties.

Set the Standard
A graphics database is a great tool to help your team keep aconsistent brand across your company’s proposal responses. Ways you can utilize the database to set the standard is by incorporating images that align with the company brand/focus; providing your users a color palette; creating templates for spines, cover pages, and letterhead; and including a best practices workbook to guide them through proper formatting of images and best font choices, as examples.

Creating Clear Graphics Using Simple Design Tools
Goal of using graphics should be clarity. It should clearly and neatly convey the idea to the viewer in a simple manner. A good philosophy for slide design is “one idea per slide,” but in a word document you should not place ideas together as people will assume they are related.

People are built to make order of their world. We use clues like color, contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity to discern order. Used well, a designer can use these concepts to develop clear graphics. Used poorly, we will lead the audience astray.

Using icons is one method people use to spruce up a list. But do not overuse it. Use different colours or patterns to show different points or steps in a process.

Break down a list to sub-groups to give people more digestible bites of information rather than one less defined group.

For a slide presentation, placing a good photo along with the content is a good call. This is an effective way to get your audience to digest the slide quickly, then focus their attention on the speaker.

Picture can be adjusted in PowerPoint to be in a similar tone, so they look like they belong together. You can adjust color, tone,saturation, brightness, contrast, etc.

Do not make things too colourful. Stick to a palette and do not distract your audience. Colour coding sections is another way to make the document or PowerPoint more cohesive.

PowerPoint Tricks

• Various sites you can use for:Data visualization and punchlines: Information is Beautiful
• Combining images and data visualization: Unsplash
• Icons: Illustrio
• Design inspiration :Creative Bloq
• Visual storytelling: BrightCarbon

Tips

• Use morph transition to make slides more lively.
• Zoom function to draw attention to points
• Lens function to draw attention to areas in complex image