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A High Flying Presentation Makeover

Discover how professional speaker and businessman Jim Garland transformed his “dilapidated old propeller plane presentation” into a high-flying centerpiece for his Flight Plan for Excellence speech.

Aviation Company PowerPoint transformed with modern design and new template.

Graphic improvements support inspirational message of excellence and accomplishment

SharpDetails-Title-Before
SharpDetails-Title-After
BEFORE: A text-heavy title-page; the audience may already be asking, “when will it be over?”AFTER: Jim’s new title page features a dynamic new widescreen template frame. Colorful images help set the stage for a dynamic and engaging presentation ahead.

Jim Garland is in the business of keeping private jet planes looking their best. But when Jim was called to speak at a luncheon meeting of the “Professional Aviation Maintenance Association,” his PowerPoint presentation looked more like a dilapidated old propeller plane wasting away in the hangar. So Jim called on Kevin Lerner of The Presentation Team for presentation salvation.

“I need to this presentation to look as good as my airplanes,” the 50-year old businessman decreed. “It’s an inspirational talk, and my visuals are hardly inspiring.”

The foundation of a fresh new presentation: Template created in Adobe Photoshop

What Can You Control
Bold type and a sharp image of a mechanic (reflective of the audience) helped drive the accent the point of this slide: You control your attitude!

Lerner started his presentation makeover with an overhaul of Jim’s basic PowerPoint template, an ordinary white background Office theme with teal curves at the top. Working in Adobe Photoshop, Lerner created a 1920×1200 16:10 widescreen document featuring a bold navy-blue-bordered 150-pixel wide frame. Inside this frame, Lerner envisioned, would be graphics related to the key messages of Jim’s talk, to be inserted as background images in PowerPoint. The blue frame was saved as a .png document, and imported into PowerPoint. Back in PowerPoint, Lerner inserted Jim’s company logo and his website URL at the top of the frame template. At the bottom, a simple branding tagline tied the presentation concepts together.

The frame-style template provided the flexibility to integrate many full-screen images while maintaining a consistent look and feel. But for the basic slides without visuals, and for the master layout, Lerner designed a background slide featuring a subtle light-blue starburst emanating from the center.

PowerPoint “Theme” standardizes fonts, colors, and animation

Jim’s original presentation featured titles of various sizes and fonts jumping around the page. By creating several “PowerPoint Layouts” and creating consistent colors and fonts in this custom “PowerPoint Theme” Lerner was able to reign-in many of the titles for consistency and stability. Calibri was the original presentation’s title font; Constantia for the body. For the makeover, Lerner used a no-nonsense “Rockwell” font, which projects well in large group settings.

One of the killer culprit’s of Garland’s presentation was his bullet points. Plenty of them. An increasing number of designers are creating presentations “Beyond Bullet Points,” and Lerner’s design philosophy is “one message per page.” So for Jim’s “Five Traits of Personal Excellence” slide, Lerner expanded the slide into five individual pages, with a consistent background. Each page had its own key message with a prominent font.

PowerPoint-Redesign-Jim-Garland

Subtle transitions and clean animation added style and panache to the slides. After several practice-runs and rehearsals (always vital for any speaker!) Jim delivered his Flight Plan for Excellence presentation to rousing applause. His inspiring message of triumph and perseverance supported by powerful presentation visuals, Jim’s PowerPoint presentation reflects the “Sharp Details” of his planes…and professionalism of a legendary speaker.

Aviation company, Jim Garland, makeover, PowerPoint Design, redesign

Presentation Perfection for Clients around the World.

  • arrows
  • aarp-foundation
  • adt
  • american express
  • ash
  • bet
  • celgene
  • comcast
  • crown investment
  • environics
  • faa
  • fse
  • icf next
  • ifa
  • marriott
  • mid florida
  • motorola
  • nasa
  • oracle
  • pepsico
  • ryder
  • software ag
  • traub hospitality
  • true north
  • v2soft
  • velos
  • xscion
  • "We engaged The Presentation Team to do a Presentation training for our team and he did a great job. He spent time understanding our requirements and the skill level of our team members and created a course which met our expectations and goals. I highly recommend The Presentation Team as a Presentation (PowerPoint) trainer."

    Navdeep Sidhu
    Senior Director, Software AG

  • "Kevin Lerner provided best-in-class services when hired to work on promotional materials for the launch of a key product at Motorola. The expertise and quality that he brought to the project were second to none and as a result, he delivered a top-notch presentation that was quickly adopted throughout the organization. Kevin is great to work with, delivers on time, is a great team player and is always willing to go the extra mile."

    Maria Cardoso
    Motorola

  • "Kevin has been a working with Cox Communications to deliver world-class PowerPoint presentation visuals since 2009. His ability to meet our specific needs, timeframe, and budgets has been exceptional. His professional interaction with our team reflects his deep expertise in the industry, superior presentation design skills, and commitment to superior service."

    Jonathan Freeland
    VP, Video Marketing at Cox Communications

  • "Kevin is an enthusiastic, creative, and passionate presentation guru. Our company was impressed and felt the value of his training in 2013 that he was invited again recently to again share his knowledge. Both times he has been energetic and addressed many areas for presentation development. From planning to follow-up Kevin is personable and easygoing, motivating our teams to take their presentations to the next level."

    Yoshimi Kawashima
    Project Coordinator, Nissin International

  • "Kevin helped me immensely improve my presentation slides development, from tips & tricks to aesthetics, all with the intent of getting the message across crisply and creatively. I've already received praise for decks that incorporate the skills obtained from his training. I highly recommend Kevin's services."

    Era Prakash
    General Electric

  • "Kevin helped me immensely improve my presentation slides development, from "The PowerPresentations seminar opened my eyes to all the limitless possibilities in presenting."

    Leah Gordillo
    Saint Francis Medical Center

  • "Kevin helped me immensely improve my presentation slides development, from "[Kevin and The Presentation Team have] always delivered 110% in terms of meeting our objectives for finished product and budget"

    Paul Price
    Watsco Corp.

  • "I had more people come up to me after I spoke, commenting on the visuals you created, than I did on the subject matter!"

    Andy Smith
    Smith & Robb Advertising

  • "As a Fortune 1000 company, we sought to produce a classy, yet conservative presentation for our shareholders. It was evident that you and your team listened to our thoughts as you developed the presentation..."

    Will Flower
    Republic Services

  • "Your expertise in the filed of PowerPoint and general presentation techniques helped elevate us to the level necessary to beat the competition."

    Mike Geary
    James Pirtle Construction

  • "Kevin brought a high level of creativity, enthusiasm, and deep multmedia experience to our team. He worked dillegently with the team to produce an outstanding proposal which we subsequently won.

    Jeff Keller
    Accenture/L3

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