When you are presenting an idea, using images or visuals can help you drive your message across the listeners in a more effective manner as compared to a slide bursting with bullet points. Also, as our minds processes visuals way faster than text, it helps the presenter save a lot of time and keep his audience glued to the presentation.
However, that doesn’t mean you don’t use text at all. It’s always the amalgamation of short text with right kind of images that can sweep your potential client off his feet. In the following you can learn about the ‘right kind’ of visuals and how to use them:
1. Use High Quality Images
Your idea is brilliant and you’re well-prepared to present it, but then your presentation cuts a sorry figure by showing low-res, blurred or pixelated images, and even worse – images with clear watermarks.
You need to choose high-quality images with a good resolution and make sure you’re not making any copyright infringements by using them. There’re so many platforms where you can get creative and high-res images all for free.
2. Images Should Go with the Text
The images you use in presentation should be a visual representation of the text beside it. For instance, on the slide that talks about your goals, don’t put an image of nice green field with blue sky (unless your actual goal is to create a green field with blue sky). Also, don’t use an image that simply says G-O-A-L, that would be useless and too straightforward.
What you can add is an image of a dartboard, a progress graph, a pathway that leads to a destination, or simply a model/ example of how your product will eventually look like. In this regard, planning a presentation in advance through storyboarding can help you a lot.
3. Maintain Consistency
Some presentations do a mistake of showing photos on some and then graphic images or vector illustrations on the others. Well, you may think that it is quite trivial, but actually inconsistency in images doesn’t goes unnoticed by observers.
Once again, through a well-thought storyboard you can decide in advance either to go with photos or graphical images. Even if you choose to go with any one of these image types, try to maintain consistency in color scheme or theme of all images in your presentation.
4. Keep Your Brand and Audience in Mind
While selecting images, try to keep your audience as well as your brand’s personality in mind. For instance, if you’re presenting in front of stiff suited corporate clan, avoid any non-serious or comic images.
Similarly, if you’re presenting a brand of funky sneakers, your visuals should show youth, fun, creativity and light humor.
Remember that a successful presentation needs to be strong on all fronts, be it textual or visual.