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Find color codes and color combinations that you  can use in your presentations/posters.

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Create, save and share beautiful palettes in seconds!

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EVERYONE SHOULD SEE THIS BEFORE YOU START YOUR POWTOON!!!

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EVERYONE SHOULD SEE THIS BEFORE YOU START YOUR POWTOON!!!

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How to Create a Powtoon From A to Z (2017)

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ADDING VISUALS (IMAGES AND ICONS) TO YOUR POWTOON

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ADDING VISUALS (IMAGES AND ICONS) TO YOUR POWTOON

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Where do I begin? INTRO TO STOP MOTION STUDIO APP

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Where do I begin? INTRO TO STOP MOTION STUDIO APP

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Begin shooting the stop motion sequence. Move each figure bit-by-bit in very small increments each time. It may be the entire body if the figure is walking, or it may just be an arm, head or leg.

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HOW TO ANIMATE OBJECTS IN YOUR POWTOON - *POINT A TO POINT B EFFECT*

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HOW TO ANIMATE OBJECTS IN YOUR POWTOON - *POINT A TO POINT B EFFECT*

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How to Use Powtoon's  A to B Feature - Zoom in, Zoom out and Scroll

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Check the songs available from this website. Once you know which song you want, see Mr. López to download it and include it in your project.

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Audio Library is a YouTube channel dedicated to search, catalog, sort and publishes free music for content creators.

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You can use this app on your iPad (from self service) or on a laptop or iPhone at home.

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Let's Make a Movie.

Want to create movies like Wallace and Gromit or those groovy Lego shorts on YouTube? With its user-friendly interface and powerful editing tools, you can bring your imagination to life and share your creations with the world. Perfect for both beginners and professionals, the Stop Motion Studio app is the ultimate tool for creating captivating animations. Download it now and start animating today!

Stop Motion Studio it's simple to use, it's deceptively powerful, and it's tremendous fun. Available for iPhone, iPad, and macOS as well as Android, Windows, Chromebook, and Amazon Fire devices.

Use your digital camera.

Take your stop-motion animation to the next level with Stop Motion Studio and your full-size Canon or Nikon DSLR camera! Create professional-quality stop-motion animation with the app's advanced camera controls. Easily control objects and movements using Live View. Control shutter speed, ISO and aperture directly from the app. Take advantage of the quality of a full-size camera.

Magically get rid of unwanted objects in your movie.

Stop Motion Studio's masking tool is a powerful feature that can help you remove unwanted objects from your animations with ease. Whether it's a string used to hang objects during capture or other distracting elements.

Turn good looking pictures into spectacular.

Transform your stop motion animations with the powerful image editor in Stop Motion Studio. Easily adjust the composition, fine-tune color levels, and apply stunning filter effects to bring your animation to life. With non-destructive editing, you can experiment with different styles and refine every detail until your animation is just right.

Made with Stop Motion Studio.

From quirky comedies to epic adventures, the possibilities are endless. Join the ranks of talented filmmakers who have created award-winning movies using Stop Motion Studio.

Stop Motion Studio in the Classroom

Stop Motion Studio is an excellent tool that can enhance the learning experience in any classroom! As a powerful and user-friendly app, Stop Motion Studio allows students to bring their creative ideas to life, while providing endless opportunities for project-based learning and collaboration. Stop Motion Studio is a great classroom tool. It's used by thousands of schools around the world.

Check out the buzz.

Stop Motion Studio has received widespread recognition and has been honored with numerous awards. It was featured as 'App of the Week', on Apples Keynote, and on Apple TV Ads. Stop Motion Studio has been seen on various TV shows around the world and has earned a reputation as the go-to app whether you are a beginner or a professional stop motion animator.

Stop-motion animation is a great way to bring toys and other objects to life - and learn the basics of filmmaking.
The New York Times

Stop Motion Studio makes it easy to create your own stop-motion movies.
The Washington Post

All you need is an iPhone or iPad, a tripod, the right software, and a bit of creativity.
PCMag

Stop Motion Studio Brings Out the LEGO Moviemaking Geek in All of Us.
Technewsworld

On all your devices.

Create and edit stop-motion projects seamlessly across all your devices. Whether you're using iOS, macOS, Android, Windows, Chromebook, or Amazon Fire HD, you can easily start a project on one device and finish it on another.

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Stop Motion Studio is a unique app to create stop-motion animations. Powerful, easy to use, and lots of fun. Available on iOS, Android, Windows & Mac.

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You can also listen to the different songs in this YouTube channel. See Mr. López to download

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"no copyright music" "free copyright music" "youtube audio library" "youtube music library" "youtube audio" "music library" "youtube background music" "free youtube music" "royalty free music for youtube" "royalty free music" "background music for youtube" "youtube library audio" "youtube music songs" "youtube songs" "youtube free music"

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Music for Creators is a YouTube channel dedicated to search, catalog, sort and publish free music for commercial purposes, destined to content creators and f...

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Free to use, good resolution images.

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With most people tuning out of a PowerPoint presentation within the first 10 minutes, developing engaging slide show presentation ideas that keep your audience hooked till the end can be a challenge.

This is why we've created this post with 100+ creative presentation ideas to help you put together exciting presentations that don't put your audience to sleep. You can use these presentation ideas for business meetings, webinars, classrooms, online courses, pitch decks and more.

Here are some of the ideas we're covering:

Use neon colors and duotones

Unify transitions horizontally

Use a monochrome palette

Tell a personal story

Use isometric illustrations

In this article, you'll find unique slide examples, templates, designs and more. Put these slide show presentation ideas to practice using our presentation maker and create your own presentation in minutes.
Here's a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit Presentation templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more below:
Quick Read

Add bright and bold colors to make your presentation stand out and grab your audience's attention. Create a vibrant and dynamic look by using neon colors and duotones.

Instead of using different transitions for each slide, use the same transition horizontally throughout your presentation. This creates a cohesive and visually pleasing flow.

To create a sophisticated, minimalist look, limit your color choices to shades of a single color.

Connect with your audience and make your message more relatable by incorporating personal anecdotes or stories into your presentation.

Add depth and dimension to your presentation with isometric illustrations, which can be a fun and engaging way to present complex information.

Sign-up for Visme's presentation software to apply these creative presentation ideas.

100+ Creative Presentation Ideas

1 Use Neon Colors

Neon colors will give your presentation enough color kick to keep the viewer's attention. Use neon colors either as the background, as specific elements or as details inside the slides. The trick with neon is to not go overboard with the contrasts. Instead of using a neon rainbow, think more along the lines of neon accents.

2 Be Minimal

Using a minimal design composition is a great way of being unique. The trick is to have just enough information and visual details for the viewer to feel comfortable seeing the slides. A minimal design can instill calm and awe in your audience when done right. The trick with minimalism is to know when enough is enough, you wouldn't want to be boring instead of minimal.

Use this presentation theme and mix-and-match the slides! Create Now

3 Use all caps

Another creative presentation idea is using all caps when you feel like the topic of your presentation can be delivered with few words. Using all capitals in your slides will give the message importance. This design might not be suited for a text-heavy presentation but maybe one with an audio narrative that goes along with it, or bullet points.

4 Go vertical

Rectangular presentations are definitely the norm, but with the rise of Instagram Stories, this might be starting to change. Now that we can put archived stories into a Highlights, why not publish vertical presentations there? Going vertical is just one idea, along with that you can add any other design technique.

5 Use duotones

Duotone doesn't exactly mean "two colors," it actually means "two tones." The idea behind this design angle is to use two contrasting tonalities which can have different shades. The difference between duotone and two colors is that it has a more edgy look. Depending on what two tonalities you choose, it can be subtle or very powerful. The photos used in the design also need to be customized to the duotone color you chose.

6 Add a video in different shapes or snippets

Videos can be a powerful tool in your arsenal for engaging your audience during a presentation. Not only do they help to break up the monotony of a lecture-style presentation, but they can also help to explain complex concepts, add visual interest, and evoke emotions.

One way to make your videos stand out is by using different shapes or snippets. Rather than presenting a standard rectangular video, consider incorporating shapes such as circles, triangles or diamonds. These shapes can add a unique and visually appealing element to your presentation.

Another way to incorporate video snippets is by breaking up a longer video into smaller, bite-sized pieces. This can be particularly useful if you have a lengthy video that you want to show but don't want to lose your audience's attention. By breaking it up into smaller segments, you can keep your audience engaged and prevent them from losing interest.

Don't worry about the design complexity. If you create your presentation in Visme, you can resize your videos instantly and turn them into any shape you want.

Sign up. It's free.

7 Unify transitions horizontally

Unifying the transitions between slides is always a great idea, but doing it horizontally is especially effective. By keeping all the movements going in one direction, it's both easy to follow and will look great. You don't need to just apply horizontal transitions to the switch between slides, you can also apply animation to the titles and images. As long as they all go in the same direction, you are gold.

8 Black and white + spot of bright color

This presentation design idea is highly effective if you're looking for a creative way to present information.

Adding a bright color to a black and white scheme can add just the right amount of attention-grabbing detail to your presentation. Try choosing a powerful color so that it's really noticeable and pops visually. You can use the color in small amounts or in large sections. Up to you, just remember to maintain a balance throughout.

9 Use a color theme

A cohesive color theme throughout your presentation can engage your audience and create a more visually appealing experience.

To start, consider the overall tone of your presentation and what emotions you want to evoke in your audience. Are you presenting on a serious topic, such as healthcare or finance, where a more subdued color palette may be appropriate?

Or are you presenting on a more lighthearted topic, such as creativity or innovation, where bright and bold colors can help to capture your audience's attention?

Once you have a general idea of your color palette, try to use it consistently throughout your slides. This means using the same background, font and accent colors for headings and graphics- like the presentation template below.

Visme's presentation templates offer a wide range of professionally designed themes with 300+ slides in 20+ different categories. You can create visually stunning slides with our carefully curated color schemes and stylish designs.

Read this article about 25 free presentation themes in Visme and find the perfect one.

10 Add full-screen videos

The use of full-screen video in your slides can have a big impact on your storytelling. There's a catch though. The wrong video will be detrimental to your message, be mindful of the videos you chose to grace the background of your slides. The video should either tell your story without words or be a complement that won't interfere. The wrong video will confuse your viewers and it will be hard to get their undivided attention back.

If you're looking for quick idea inspiration, check out our YouTube video where Mike shares 30 of our favorite presentation ideas at a glance.

11 Use an 80's visual style

If looking for a unique design style, why not try an 80's style for a change. Neon graffiti writing, disco balls, and brightly colored shapes might go well with your presentation's topic. You can use 80's visuals as small complementary elements or as the entirety of the presentation style. Nevertheless, if your presentation is about something quite serious then maybe you should try another style.

12 Go vintage

Another creative presentation idea is the vintage look. This could work really well with a history-themed presentation or anything to do with recuperating old traditions. When we say "vintage" we mean sepia-toned photos, intricate picture frames, bold fonts which look like they came out of old posters.

A vintage color palette is usually pastel turquoise green, ochre yellow and washed out blue and orange. You could consider using vintage mockup sets to create scenes for your slides, or use vintage style fonts, and old photographs as backgrounds.

13 Use a monochrome palette

A monochrome palette is one that maintains a single tonality in different strengths. For example, you can create a presentation in shades of blue, or in shades of orange. Use the palest shade for the background and a stronger shade for the titles and decorative shapes. Try doing it the opposite way as well. You can even use photos with a bit of a filter effect in the chosen color by adding a color filter.

14 Tell a personal story

Telling stories from your own life-whether those stories are deeply moving, humorous tales, or just little snippets that allow someone to look into your history-can be a great way to make a presentation more meaningful.

Colin Stokes uses this to his advantage in his TED talk. He begins by talking about the movies he watches with his daughter and what she likes, and then moving into watching a movie with his son, and wondering how it has affected him, allowing him to move seamlessly into his actual points.

Watch the video below to learn how Colin Stokes did it

Choose a relevant story from your past, and tell it with all the honesty that you can. Your audience will feel that, sympathize, and therefore connect more with your message.

15 Creative photo crops

The photos in your presentations can be cropped hundreds of different ways. From simple circles or rectangles to more elaborate triangles, polygons, letter shapes or even a brushstroke. Analyze the message of your presentation to know which shape to use for the cropping of your photos. You can also create a collage with the shapes as long as they don't distract from the information being presented.

16 Add fun illustrations

Adding fun illustrations is a great idea to engage your audience during a presentation. They can help break up text-heavy slides, make your presentation more visually attractive and reinforce your message.

Hand-drawn doodles, icons and graphics and animated GIFs are all illustrations you can use. To maximize the visual impact of your illustrations, you can use them in 3D.

With Visme, you can enhance your presentation by adding 3D objects that allow you to customize their colors, size and alignment. Additionally, you can add 3D animated graphics to take things to the next level.

When using illustrations, it's important to remember to use them sparingly to avoid overwhelming your audience. Less is more when it comes to adding graphics to your slides. Remember to match the illustrations with your theme and color scheme to keep things consistent.

17 Thick and bold fonts

Huge chunky fonts are a great way to call attention to titles on slides. You could even try making the letters bleed over the edges or place the words vertical along the side. The best thick and bold fonts are the ones with minimal decorations. Try using fonts that have strong corners or the opposite, extreme rounded terminals. It will also work best if the title is short and sweet.

18 Go with nature

Freshen up your presentation with some natural elements around the edges or as a background. You could use full-screen background photos of leaves, or use palm fronds coming in from the sides of the slides. Another presentation idea would be to use nature related photography along with other design ideas like interesting photo crops. This technique could be used for presentations which relate to nature or natural topics, but also for a home decor proposal or creative direction pitch for a TV ad. This technique could be used for presentations about environmental topics or even about home decoration.

19 Use circles

Circles represent wholeness and a natural sense of completion. They can signify eternity and constant movement. They can also make your presentation more friendly and emotionally accessible. You can try using circles as decorative elements or as the shape for cropping images and as backgrounds for illustrations.

20 Add some sparkle (glitter backgrounds)

21 Get crafty (ripped paper details)

Sometimes to tell a story, visual details can really help get a mood across. Ripped paper shapes and edges can give a presentation a special feel, almost as if it was done by hand. This visual technique works for any type of presentation except maybe in a corporate setting. Ripped paper can be found on creative graphics resource sites or you can do it yourself and take a photo.

22 Cut-out paper illustrations

Another crafty idea to design your slides is by using cut paper illustrations. This technique could look really crafty or quite elegant if done well. Cut paper can be used as an elaborate background, as the letters in titles or as decorative elements. There are some great cut paper bundles online to use as PNG files which can be uploaded to the Visme editor.

23 Pathway transitions

24 Use isometric illustrations

If you are looking for a different way to illustrate your slides, why not consider using isometric illustrations? This style of illustration is great for explaining things that can be separated into parts. The parts can be animated as well. An isometric illustration can work for any kind of presentation, from technology to corporate. It will give your presentation a modern edge and a professional look.

25 Use motion graphics

Motion graphics are a great way to illustrate an idea with animated objects. They don't tell stories on their own, they support the context and illustrate the content.

For example, if your presentation is about travel, you could have flying airplanes across the slides or bags on a luggage conveyor belt. For something more abstract, you can use moving shapes and add effects to the titles. Your Visme editor has a variety of design tools to help you create all sorts of content with motion graphics.

Here's what one of Visme's satisfied customers Jessica L. | Small-Business Owner, has to say about Visme's presentation tool:
"No need to go back to PowerPoint. Visme makes project presentations easy and fast. Lots of useful templates and excellent graphics. I enjoy the features they continue to add and update often. They make project work easy".
26 Add GIFs to your slides

27 Use quotes between slides

Quotes can be good breathers between a bunch of informative slides. You can either use them to separate ideas inside your presentation or to start new sections of information. It's important that your quotes represent the topic of your presentation so that they make sense and not confuse the viewer.

28 Start with "once upon a time"

One of the most effective and engaging ways to present a presentation is by incorporating creative storytelling techniques.

If a presentation can be created as a story, then why not go all the way and start the presentation with a classic story opening? Using the "once upon a time" phrase will instantly grab the viewer's attention because it will be out of the ordinary. Make a slide especially for it with a visual that matches the topic of your presentation.

29 Turn the slides into a scrolling infographic instead of a presentation

To showcase your content in a unique and engaging way, consider using creative slide ideas that break away from the traditional slide-by-slide approach. For instance, you can arrange your slides vertically to create a scrolling infographic instead of a classic slide-by-slide transition presentation.

An added bonus to this presentation style is to add parallax scrolling or interaction animation. As the viewer scrolls down, the information fills each slide progressively. It doesn't continue until the viewer scrolls again. This technique is best for displaying online slide show presentation ideas.

30 Engage Your Audience

What's one of the best ways to make your presentations more interesting? Make the audience a part of them.

Regardless if you're presenting in person to a room full of people or via Zoom to viewers around the world, there are a number of techniques to engage your audience with both your content and yourself. The trick is to make them feel connected somehow, like they can relate. You can achieve this with humor, storytelling, asking questions and inviting them to leave comments in the webinar chat window.

Take this speech by Donovan Livingston. He delivers a commencement speech in spoken word poetry, and specifically encourages the audience to take part, saying they should clap, throw their hands in the air, or otherwise participate if they feel so moved. While not seen, several people heard cheering and clapping throughout the video.

Participation can also be accomplished through things such as games, posing questions or something as simple as asking participants to raise their hands.

31 Use a scrunched paper background

Give your presentation a laid-back and grunge feel by designing it with a scrunched paper background. It can be any kind of paper really, depending on your topic. It could be notebook paper, or printer paper, it could even be recycled paper. Try a few different types of paper until you find the one that suits your story.

32 Add interactive pop-ups

Adding interactive pop-ups is a game-changer when it comes to creative ways of presenting. These pop-ups allow you to go beyond the traditional approach, giving your audience a more dynamic and engaging experience.

Interactive pop-ups can take many forms, from quizzes and polls to clickable infographics and interactive timelines. With Visme, you can access various interactive features that can help you create engaging and effective presentations.

For example, you can create clickable icons or buttons that allow your audience to explore additional information or resources. You can also create interactive timelines that enable your audience to explore different events or milestones.

One of the most powerful interactive features of Visme is the ability to create quizzes and polls. You can make interactive questions and answer options that allow your audience to engage with your presentation on a deeper level.

You can also use this feature to gather feedback from your audience, allowing you to tailor your presentation to their needs and interests.

Watch the video below or read this article to learn how to create an interactive presentation.

33 Use a back-to-school theme

A back-to-school theme can make your presentation look like a lot of fun. This is a great technique for teachers and educators welcoming their students back to a new school year. The background can be a sheet of notebook paper, an open notebook, or a blackboard. The edges could be decorated with pencils and paperclips, maybe an eraser or sharpener. The back-to-school theme has lots of possibilities.

34 Use a billboard-inspired theme

Use billboard mockups to create slides which look like billboards. This could look interesting and quite unique. You could use the same billboard for all the slides, or different ones for a more varied approach. This technique would work great with a pitch for an election or a local spot in a government office.

35 Use black-and-white photography

Black and white photography is a classic design technique. They import elegance and sophistication to any design by providing a minimalistic approach to the visuals. The photos can either be desaturated from color photos or given an artistic flair with extra contrast and fewer grey tones.

36 Explain your reasons

What people really want to know is why you're giving the presentation you're giving. This is especially true if you're pitching to investors or potential new clients. When you share your why with the audience using storytelling and body language, you make meaningful connections and lasting relationships

Simon Sinek explains quite well why this is so important-the greatest leaders, the ones who inspire the most people, understand why they do the things they do, rather than just what or how.

37 Add an audio narrative

Your presentation doesn't need to be silent, especially if you won't be standing by it to tell the story yourself. Adding an audio narrative can turn a viewable presentation into an experience. You can either set it up as a video that runs on its own and the viewer looks and listens, or it can be triggered by arrows that are clicked on.

38 Follow a space theme with photography

Most of the photos from Nasa are labeled as public domain. Meaning that you can give your presentation a space theme quite easily. Choose images of astronauts in space or more abstract and colorful images like distant galaxies and nebulas. The latter can make great backgrounds behind content without the topic necessarily being about space.

39 Do a space theme with illustration

An illustrated space theme can be either colorful and whimsical or sober and elegant. By choosing the style of illustration you use, you can either use this technique for presentations related to children or scientists. Cartoon astronauts can be lots of fun, line illustration planets can be educational and data-driven drawings can be informational.

40 Include music

Sometimes, when listening to someone talk for long periods of time, it helps to have something else to draw your attention. While images are great, including music can really help stimulate an audience and set the mood.

Dean Burnett talks about why this happens: "[Music] provides non-invasive noise and pleasurable feelings, to effectively neutralize the unconscious attention system's ability to distract us." Essentially, music is entertaining enough that, when in the background, can keep us focused on otherwise un-entertaining things.

Whether incorporated into individual slides, in a video, done live, or with a music-playing device nearby, this creative presentation idea can be a great way to enhance the quality of your speech or talk.

41 Graffiti photography backgrounds and details

42 Stop-motion

The stop-motion technique can take time but it can also make your presentation unforgettable. There are lots of ways to use stop-motion, either with characters doing actions or objects that move around and create a scene. Stop-motion can also be used to create titles that move into place. What the title is written with can be anything, from toys to plants. The theme and topic of your presentation will ultimately be the driving point to what kind of stop-motion can be used. But be sure that it works from educational to promotional to corporate.

43 Claymation

Very similar to stop-motion, claymation is the animation of things created with clay or play-doh. Anything can be created with clay, so the possibilities really are endless about what can be achieved. This technique really does take a lot of time, you can source it out to a professional or buy some already created footage. The claymation can be just a decorative element in the background or it could also be the center of the presentation.

44 Color blocking

The color blocking technique is another creative presentation idea that entails using color in large sections and in contrasting tones. The idea is that the color blocks will be strong and colorful. The color blocks can either be the shapes that determine where the information goes or just a way to separate the slides in specific sections. Any type of presentation can benefit from color blocking. Just make sure you use colors that go together and don't clash.

45 Get surreal

Surrealism is an avant-garde movement from the 20th century which was meant to tap into subconscious creativity. This might not be the kind of design technique for any sort of presentation but it can work for one that is about art, or literature or other creative outlets. There are plenty of surrealist artworks in the public domain sector or the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These can be used as subtle backgrounds or visual complements to the text.

46 Polaroids

Polaroids are a photography favorite. The original Polaroids from the 70's could be used as vintage polaroids that have been kept in a box for years. The newest Instamatic photographs, which are the new kind of polaroids, can be used for a fun way to show photos and visuals in presentation slides. You could either use one polaroid per slide or a collection of polaroids on a table or corkboard.

There are many topics that can work with Polaroid photography backgrounds and details in your slide show presentation ideas.

47 Use a Handwriting Font

48 Use a geometric background

A geometric background can look really nice on any presentation. Geometric backgrounds can be tiled polygons or more abstract compositions of different size polygons. The decision to choose between tiled shapes and more creative compositions will depend on your creative angle and disposition. You can use these types of designs with any colors, so you can match the theme or your brand.

49 Coffee style design

Using a coffee-style design can work for any PowerPoint presentation idea, from office-related topics to digital nomads to anything or anyone who loves coffee. If the background is subtle, it can fit a more serious topic or data report. It can make a boring presentation just a bit more visually entertaining than the rest. Of course, it can also be perfect for a small coffee brewer pitching their company to investors.

50 Include memes

You've seen them everywhere by this point. You might be pretty sick of them. However, that doesn't mean memes can't be useful-in fact, using a couple strategically can surprise the audience and make them laugh.

The presentation " Memes, Memes Everywhere" focuses on, unsurprisingly, memes, and explains their purpose while using examples on every slide, which help support their points and add some humor to a very text-heavy presentation.

Choosing relevant memes and using them sparingly can really help add some personality to your presentation, without distracting from the work.

51 Polka dots

Using a polka-dot background can give your presentation a whimsical look or simply give it a subtle texture. The polka dots could be small and soft or big and punchy. A strong polka-dot background can work great in a creative setting or even a boring data analysis. The style of polka dots will depend on the general topic of your presentation. You can use the polka-dot design as a full background or as a decorative section on the slide.

52 Metaphors

Visual metaphors can be useful in a similar manner; they can spice up your presentation, illustrate your point, and make your work far more entertaining. James Geary speaks about just how important metaphors are.

His presentation provides several examples of metaphors--such as the phrase "some jobs are jails"--and explains just how hard it is to ignore the lasting power of a well-used metaphor. Because of the connotations a metaphor can bring to the table, their use is an excellent way to imbue added meaning to your words.

53 Use timelines in your slides

Timelines can be used in lots of different ways inside a PowerPoint presentation, and the ideas are limitless. A timeline can either be inside one slide, or it can be connected between various slides. You can make a timeline with icons, connected shapes, or an inclined line. The timeline can be a visual way of explaining a chronological event or a plan of action that needs to be taken care of. Make sure the timeline fits the rest of the theme.

54 Use a comic book style

Comic books are a source of inspiration for many people. The visual aspect of a comic style composition can really make your presentation shine. There are a few ways you can use this technique. You could set up the slides as if they were snippets of a comic book, place the text in speech and thought bubbles and apply a background with a pointillist texture. If using characters, make sure the characters fit the theme of your presentation. For a perfect fit, hire a designer to create a comic book presentation just for your company.

55 Use a manga style

Looking for creative PowerPoint slide ideas that stand out? Consider taking inspiration from the Japanese art of Manga. Manga can give your presentation a distinct and eye-catching look, much like comic books.

It isn't as versatile as a comic book because it has a more specific look, so it might not work for all topics. It can work for more creative outlets like fashion, art, and photography. Manga has a specific style for the atmosphere around the unique characters as well. They are more common in black and white and look very photographic.

56 Use psychedelic visuals

Psychedelia was a big part of the design world in the 60's and 70's. Music and creative event posters were so intricate and colorful that they took an important place in the design history books. This design style can be used for a unique visual approach in your presentations. Just like many other techniques we have mentioned, they can be used as a background in slides or as decorative elements. The swirly shapes and contrasting colors can call attention to the viewer in a positive way.

57 Use neon lights

Neon lights are a great way to give your presentation some life when it's otherwise visually bland. There are plenty of neon light fonts available online to choose from, from classic style neon tubing on a wall to a neon style given to a font to make it look like neon. Presentations of any topic can be given an additional visual with a bit of neon brightness.

58 Cinemagraph backgrounds

A cinemagraph is like a GIF loaded with elegance. The idea behind a cinemagraph is a photo with a moving section which makes it look cinematic. This kind of background can keep your viewers happily hypnotized while listening to your audio narrative or keep them on the slide longer to truly grasp the information being given. There are cinemagraphs available for all sorts of themes and topics. You can definitely find one that suits your needs.

59 Full-screen video backgrounds

A full-screen background can be really appealing. But just like other design ideas, the video you choose needs to match the theme and topic of your presentation. Your best bet is to have a video which is directly related to what your presentation is about. Videos can be created especially for your purpose, sourced with permission from YouTube or bought from a stock video site.

60 Visualize data

Staring at a large amount of numbers on screen can be overwhelming for most people, even if the realities of those numbers enforce your point. What's the best way to avoid scaring your crowd? Put the data into easily understandable visualizations.

If you want to take this a step further, you can use illustrations or create infographics to make these data visualizations even more engaging.

61 Use a wild west theme

The wild west is not a very versatile theme but can work for a history project or a proposal for a wild west themed party or event. What entails a wild west theme? Brown sandy tones, horses, cowboys, and tumbleweeds. If the full-on wild west theme is too much, you can also take a cue from the era and be inspired by the color scheme. Another approach would be to use photography from the actual west of the United States, mountains and deserts and so on.

62 Use mind maps

63 Use interactive geographic maps

Looking for creative ways to make a presentation more interactive? Consider using an interactive map instead of a static one.

The difference between a static map and an interactive map will define how much attention your slides get. Regions can switch colors according to a change in data over time, making the map more into a chart. With Visme, you can make your maps interactive with live data. All you need to do is sync your data from a Google Sheets file and when your presentation is published online, your map will always be synchronized to that data.

64 Color contrasts

65 Live data graphs

Adding live data to a presentation can turn your slides into evergreen content in a flash. You can use any type of chart and populate it with live data such as bar graphs, line graphs, pie graphs, and more. You can add live data graphs to one or two slides in your presentation or have a series of them. Creating a live data graph is easy with the Visme editor.

66 Color fade transitions

Transitions come in lots of different styles. We have mentioned horizontal transitions, animated transitions, and pathway transitions. This particular technique involves color as the ruling factor.

A color-fade transition makes each slide connected to each other through color. This can be achieved with gradients, color blocks, or colored photo filters. Make your PowerPoint presentation ideas stand out with color fade transitions.

67 "Grow" your presentation so it looks like one animated slide

This creative PowerPoint idea is quite interesting as it really only uses one slide that grows upon itself. The practical way to do this is to create the final slide with all the parts and information set up like a finished puzzle. Once you have the completed slide, duplicate it as many times as you need and systematically take off a bit of information until you've reached the first title slide. Once you have all the slides, make sure they are in order before downloading the entire thing.

68 Use humor

Want a great way to connect with your audience and make a memorable, more engaging presentation? Be funny. When used strategically, this is a great way to capture attention.

Morgan Spurlock makes wonderful use of this in his TED talk. For example, in one of his earliest statements, he offered individuals the opportunity to buy the rights to name his TED talk-which he refers to again at the end, where he reveals the title. He peppers the entire presentation with humorous commentary that nonetheless supports his point.

Create relevant jokes or find a way to bring out the humor in your subject, and your audience will be much more engaged and more likely to remember your words.

69 Tree diagram transitions

A tree diagram is one of the eight thinking maps which help visualize idea and concepts. The purpose of a tree diagram is to classify and organize information. This map can help build a presentation by making sure each slide is a continuation of the one before. They might need to be grouped into sections so that all the information is relayed easily.

70 Journal style (with hand-drawn illustrations on the margins)

One creative presentation idea is to make your talk just a little bit different than the rest is to use a journal style. The general visual idea for this technique is to make your slides look like the pages of a journal. The style of the journal will depend on what your presentation topic is. It can be a whimsical bullet journal or an intricate botany journal. You could even consider handwriting on paper as a background.

71 Ink splatters

Use ink splatters to decorate your slides any way you like. They can be big and impressive behind the content, or they can be small and subtle like drops from a pen. An ink splatter can give your presentation a bit of an artistic flair and if done right, can make your slides look elegant and clean. Any style of presentation can benefit from some ink splatters as a decorative element.

If you're looking for fresh presentation slide ideas, why not experiment with ink splatters and see how they can enhance your next presentation?

72 Passport with stamps

73 Express your emotions

We can sometimes be afraid of expressing how we feel, even to those we're close to, much less in front of a crowd. However, showing them makes your words more authentic and can generate compassion or excitement in your audience.

Take this TED talk by Thordis Elva and Tom Stranger , for example. While the two talk about their experiences, their voices break and crack. The emotional turmoil they went through is clearly heard, and viewers can clearly understand their pain.

This can take some getting used to, and some courage. However, the results are well worth the effort.

74 Use a video game theme

Video games come in all shapes and sizes. From kids' games to arcade games to car games. Each one has their own style, just like presentations do. If you think a video game visual style is good for your project, consider all the different kinds until you find the one that fits best. You can use game screenshots as backgrounds or infuse the entire design of the presentation with the video game style you chose.

75 Use postcards

76 Incorporate robots in the design

Using robots in your slides can be a creative approach to visually elevate your presentation. There are different styles of robots you can add to your presentation design; realistic photography of anamorphic robots, cute illustrated robots, or robotic parts from factories. These visuals might only apply for technology-themed presentations or about robots themselves. Cute illustrations of robots can be great backgrounds for whimsical topics or other styles of storytelling presentations.

77 Chalk on blackboard

Looking for creative slides presentation ideas? Consider using a chalkboard design to add a unique and nostalgic touch to your presentation.

Writing on a chalkboard is not limited to a school setting or a bar menu. These two might be the most common yet they are not the only possibilities for using chalk on a blackboard. A good handwriting font is the best companion to a chalkboard design. Some of these fonts are already available with a chalky texture and others might need some professional tweaking to get the right texture.

78 Get inspired by a specific location

Even if the PowerPoint presentation ideas you are designing are not about a specific place in the world, you can be inspired by one to set up the color scheme and feel of the slides. For example, if you get inspired by Greece, you can use white and light blue hues or even photos of Greek islands. If you get inspired by Brazil, you can use photos of the beach, the texture of the boardwalk tiles or green, blue, and yellow color schemes.

79 Use props

Using props can quickly turn a run-of-the-mill presentation into a unique, interactive experience. Kenny Nguyen demonstrates this well. In his talk he often refers to the "sword of yes" and "shield of no." Naturally he picks up a sword and shield from the table to help demonstrate his points.

Choosing similar props can help you really illustrate your points-and make it that much more entertaining, too.

80 Use hashtags as titles

In the age of social media, hashtags are used every day. They appear regularly on social media, in spoken and written conversations, and of course in content marketing. Why not include some hashtags as titles? This technique will work great in a presentation for a social media content management pitch, or an in an influencer marketing strategy. On another note, hashtag titles can even be used for any type of presentation geared at the digital generation.

81 Black background, white letters, and color accents

When you use a black background, the colors that you place on top will usually look brighter than if they were on a white background. When creating this kind of color palette, make sure the colors you use don't clash with each other or with the black. Along with the bright colors, make sure you use white to make the composition pop! Neon colors or pastel tones are what will work best.

82 Vintage film edges

Even though we are used to taking photos with our phones, the classic nostalgia of film is still prevalent in the world of visuals and design. The graphic representation of a film negative is as recognizable as an envelope representing an email. Use a vintage film edge along the horizontal edges of your slides to give your visuals a cinematic feel. Even better if you make the edges animated so that it looks like it's rolling along on a projector.

83 Adult coloring book inspired design

Using a coloring book design can be really creative. Practically anything can be turned into a coloring book style illustration. A great way to use this technique is to have the first slide with the un-colored illustration and then progressively color in the illustration as the slides progress. Furthermore, if the illustration is depictive of the information, the visuals can be even more engaging.

84 Stripes

A stripes design is as classic as it gets. From pinstripes to artistic colorful lines, you can use them as a subtle background or a powerful striped theme intertwined with text boxes. Stripes are the kind of design technique that can work for any type of presentation, from corporate to educational.

85 Make each slide look like a social media post

Just like postcards and polaroids, you could try a creative approach and use social media templates to put the content in. The most notorious social media visual channel is Instagram. It has been known to inspire offline events as well. Make your slides look like social media posts or social media pages. For this technique, you can either use screenshots or templates.

86 Ink in water

Dropping ink in water creates beautiful colorful bubbly designs which can be photographed at high speed. These images can be used as backgrounds for any type of creative theme presentations. Choose the color and thickness of the ink design to match the theme of your presentation. There are also animated versions of this effect which can be bought like video stock.

87 Lego bricks

Use lego bricks as inspiration to fill your presentation slides with color and fun. Use the bricks to create slide frames, letters or even charts. The best approach to a lego inspired presentation is to be creative. There are lots of things you can do with lego, you could go as far as using the legos to write the titles of the slides. Don't use the Lego logo though unless you are specifically designing a presentation about lego.

88 Use classic storytelling techniques

A presentation is, in a way, like a story-you're talking about your chosen subject and leading viewers on a journey to discover what that subject means. Moreover, stories hold an intrinsic interest for us. Therefore, you can easily use several storytelling techniques to help improve your presentation.

Alex Blinkoff goes into this in great detail, examining things such as "The Hero's Journey" and provides several examples of ways to use storytelling techniques in your presentations. Check them out, and decide what might work best for your subject.

89 Jigsaw puzzles

Pieces of a jigsaw puzzle can be used to make charts, infographic diagrams, or interlocking frames. The idea behind puzzle pieces is that things come together to form a whole and this concept can be used for any slide and any kind of presentation. Make sure to use a suitable color palette that matches your theme and the rest of the presentation.

90 Headlines coming in animated on boats/trains/airplane

Headlines or titles can be given a life of their own inside the slides. One interesting and creative approach would be to make the titles enter the slide on top of some kind of vehicle. The vehicle could be anything, from a train to a boat, to an airplane. Depending on the type of vehicle, this animated technique can be used for child-themed topics, transportation themes, travel ideas, or even about a corporate sales report.

91 Use a camouflage design

Camo doesn't necessarily need to convey a sense of military, although it does carry a strong connection. Thankfully, camouflage comes in different styles, from jungle greens to desert browns. Other out of the box camouflage styles are the ones where the colors are completely off the charts, like pinks and blues. Camouflage designs are better used as backgrounds or small subtle sections.

92 Use unique novelty fonts for headers

There are so many novelty fonts to choose from out there these days! Using a unique novelty font for the titles and headers is a great way to add some visual pizzazz to your slides. Try looking for some really special fonts that carry personality. Once you have selected the font, add some color and texture to make it look even better.

93 Use a city skyline

Using a background of a city skyline can work great for a presentation related to business or corporate topics. It can also be perfect for an urban travel related theme or educational presentation. You can choose to use photography as a background or with the buildings cut out from the sky. Another choice is to find an illustrated city skyline and use it as a border on the slides.

94 Use a connected dots background

One of the design trends of the last few years is the connected dots visual. It's used on websites and on printed flyers. It's so versatile that it can be added to any kind of presentation in a heartbeat. The lines can be short or long between the dots and the composition can be tight or spread out. You can find connected dot visuals easily on sites like Freepik, in lots of different colors. If you can manage vector graphics, you can also change the composition of the dots quite easily yourself.

95 Use a bokeh background

Bokeh is a photography and light technique which turns dots of light into bright shiny spheres. With a bit of creativity, the lights can be turned into shapes, like hearts or stars. This design style is great for backgrounds since it's mostly abstract. It works best as a complement to the content instead of an important visual aspect. You can find bokeh backgrounds in stock photo sites or make it yourself.

96 Use watercolor designs

The use of watercolor designs is an easy way of infusing some lively color into a presentation. Watercolors can be a splash on the background, shapes around the content, or colorful strokes intertwined with text boxes. Depending on the color of the paint used, the watercolor technique can be used for any type of presentation. A soft watercolor brushed background can work for a feminine theme and a deep intense splash can add visual creativity to an otherwise boring corporate presentation.

Just like watercolor graphics, paint can add a dose of creativity to any presentation. Different to watercolors though, paint is more intense. Paint based graphics come in all shapes and sizes, from thick brush strokes to paint drips. Digital paint compositions can also make great backgrounds for colorful and creative presentations.

98 Use bright fun colors

Why create a bland presentation when you can make it fun and colorful instead? Creative color palettes can include up to six different colors which look great together. Use shapes, cut-outs, color blocks, swashes, anything your heart desires. This technique is for letting go and being creatively free with color. Just make sure the colors go together by trying out some palettes first.

99 Use arrow graphics

Arrows symbolize direction. They can be a great addition to your charts, infographic visuals and slide sections. You could even do the entire presentation using arrows. According to their size, color, and thickness, they have different temperaments. Look for different styles of arrows and see if they fit your topic and theme. Freepik has some great arrow visuals and the Visme editor also has arrow icons and infographic visuals.

100 Use electronic visuals

Another great idea for a background visual is the inside of a computer system. The intricate details of a motherboard or a close up of a memory chip can make a great visual impact. Apart from using an electronic background image, little pieces of electronic devices can be placed around the slide as decoration. This technique is generally limited to electronic or computer theme topics.

101 Metaphors

Visual metaphors can be useful in a similar manner. They can spice up your presentation, illustrate your point, and make your work far more entertaining. James Geary speaks about just how important metaphors are.

His presentation provides several examples of metaphors--such as the phrase "some jobs are jails"--and explains just how hard it is to ignore the lasting power of a well-used metaphor. Because of the connotations a metaphor can bring to the table, their use is an excellent way to imbue added meaning to your words.

102 Keep it feminine

A feminine style design can work for your presentation if your company makes products for women or if your targeted audience is women. By feminine design, we mean light and soft colors, subtle shapes and a general airy feeling to the composition. Feminine design can be minimal but it can also be decadent and full of style. Whichever you chose, make sure it fits with your audience.

103 Go futuristic

A futuristic style can fit any theme as long as the concept of the future depicted, fits the topic of the presentation. Futuristic design can be of many different styles; from spaceship driving controls to cosmos related atmospheres, to flying cars, and artificial intelligence. Even color palettes can look futuristic if you add some metallic tones.

104 Add a music background

A music soundtrack can be added to any presentation that doesn't have any other sort of audio already. The best music for a presentation is one without lyrics, in other words, an instrumental track. A good track will accompany the content in a positive way and not interfere with the message. You can find audio tracks easily online.

105 Communicate with images

A picture can speak a thousand words. Naturally, they can be used to communicate concepts that, for the sake of space or time, you might not be able to include in the presentation itself. This slide deck uses this strategy to its advantage.

The presentation includes many images as backgrounds and minimal text. The images used always either enhance what's being said or, in some cases, provide the answer for viewers. For example, the second slide states "The Landscape Today," and includes a bleak background with a broken, tilted picture frame, emphasizing the idea that the following slides (which describe the landscape) offer some pretty disheartening information.

Using images in a related fashion can help express your views and emphasize your message.

106 Include artsy data visualization

Data visualization is a way of showing data and information in a way that is visually expressive. Creative data analysts can make some really beautiful creations and you can hire them to make them for you. If you haven't seen any creative data visualizations, take a look at our collection of the best of 2018 and get inspired. You can either make the whole presentation into a data viz or add them to some of the slides.

107 Stay branded

This creative tip is a simple one. When creating your presentation, do your best to stay on brand. This, of course, will work only if you are creating a presentation for your own brand. If creating one for a client, then you should stay on brand with their own brand style guide. This means only use the brand colors and fonts, use photos, textures, and shapes that match the brand.

108 Ask questions

A great tip to make your PowerPoint presentations ideas more interactive is to ask questions from your audience. Like the example below, you can display only your question on the slide. Once the audience has pitched in their opinions and answers, you can click to reveal the actual answer. You can enable this type of interactivity on click when making a presentation in Visme.

109 Replace boring bullet points with visuals

While adding bullet points in your slides might be better than adding walls of text, they're still not the most effective way to get your message across and engage your audience. Take things up a notch and replace boring bullets with visuals, such as photos and even icons. Here's an example of how you can use icons to add a creative twist to the plain ol' bullet points.

110 Share your slide deck

Downloading your slide deck and presenting in front of an audience is not the only way to use your presentation. Make the most of your slides by sharing your presentation online.

Add interactive elements, such as clickable buttons, links, hover effects, popups, embedded videos and more so your audience can view and engage with your slides on their own.

If you've created your presentation in Visme, you can share your presentation publicly or privately using a link, or embed it anywhere you like.

Start Using These Creative Presentation Ideas

Ready to start creating your own presentation after over 100 pieces of inspiration? Choose your favorite creative presentation ideas and incorporate them into your own presentation.

You can add interactivity, animation, visuals and all kinds of creative elements to your presentations when you design them in Visme's online presentation maker. With our Dynamic Field feature, you can automatically update key information in real-time across all your slides or multiple projects. Customize existing dynamic fields or create new ones and format them to maintain design consistency.

Create a free account with Visme to start building a presentation your audience will love.

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100+ Creative Presentation Ideas to Engage Your Audience

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We've created a list of creative presentation ideas to inspire and engage your audience. Create a catchy presentation with these 100+ ideas.

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What Is Stop Motion Animation and How Does It Work? | Mashable Explains

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Beautiful Free Images & Pictures | Unsplash

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WHAT IF YOU FORGET SOMETHING DURING YOUR PRESENTATION? 

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WHAT IF YOU FORGET SOMETHING DURING YOUR PRESENTATION? 

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HOW TO STRUCTURE/ORGANIZE YOUR PRESENTATION TO GET THE AUDIENCE ATTENTION

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HOW TO STRUCTURE/ORGANIZE YOUR PRESENTATION TO GET THE AUDIENCE ATTENTION

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They all tell a story.

No matter how many facts or charts need to be presented, incorporating stories into a presentation will keep your audience focused and intrigued.

Using stories to support data is a well-known technique in all aspects of public speaking, from motivational talks to in-company sales pitches.
Here's a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit modern presentation templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:
In this guide, we will look at 7 ways to structure your presentations using storytelling techniques to keep your audience engaged until the very end.

Look closely at each one to see which fits your presentation's purpose best!

Planning Your Presentation Structure: Like Building a Lego Model

Is it easier to separate the correct pieces before you start building? Or is it better to search in a big bucket with mixed parts for every new piece you need?

We're pretty sure you will pick the first option. In the beginning, it might seem like this option would take longer, but the opposite is true.

The first step to a successful presentation structure is to brainstorm your ideas and combine them into a rough draft. But first, consider the message you want to relay to your audience.

The Message

What is the message you want to convey with your presentation?

A good starting point is to decide if it will be informative, entertaining, inspiring or persuasive.

In a business setting, you might want your presentation to do two of these things: inform and persuade. If you are a mindset coach for companies, then you might want to entertain and inspire.

The main message should be easy to grasp from the title on your first slide. Think of an appropriate way to word what you want to give your audience in one or two sentences. This can of course be changed later, but having a preliminary title will help get your ideas in order for what comes next.

Once you know which direction your presentation will take, it's time to jot all your ideas down on paper to create an outline and rough draft of all the points you will cover.

7 Ways to Structure Your Presentation

Now that the brainstorming and rough draft are out of the way, it's time to start structuring your presentation. This is when we introduce the storytelling aspect into the equation.

All the information you have gathered and organized in your rough draft now needs some attitude to really get your message across.

We are going to look at 7 different styles of storytelling structures that work great for presentations. They all have a different style of delivery and cadence. Choosing one for your presentation will depend on your message and who your audience is.

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Fact and Story

Presentation guru Nancy Duarte wrote about this presentation structure in her book " Resonate." She suggests that mixing storytelling with the relay of facts can help your audience stay interested until the end of your presentation.

According to Duarte, this type of structure should start off with an initial setting of the present reality: the "what is." From there, an invitation to adventure is presented and the first instance of "what could be" is told as a story to illustrate how the initials facts can be improved.

This comparison of presenting the facts as what they are at the present moment with stories that show how things could be improved is what keeps your audience interested and waiting for more.

The conclusion should end at a high point, considerably higher than where it began. The audience should feel like they learned something and, at the same time, inspired to change.

This structure maintains a level of suspense and excitement, perfect for presentations that need to inspire AND inform.

The topics he chose were extremely relevant to our present day and the audience related to all of them. The personal stories added to the intrigue and the audience left feeling like data visualizations are not only beautiful but also quite important.

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The Explanation

According to Gavin McMahon, co-founder of fassforward Consulting Group, the presentation structured labeled as The Explanation is meant to teach new insights and abilities.

Its main purpose is to inform about a process or plan to either fix a problem or learn something new. A good way to incorporate storytelling into the structure is to show the progression of the facts along with the progression of a story.

The presentation progresses in an upward motion following these steps:

1. The Lay of the Land shows how things stand right now, what the destination is and how you plan to get there. The point is to get the audience excited and on board as quickly as possible by showing them the entire process straight up. Tell a story that relates directly to the introduction. Better yet, start with a story.

2. The Roadmap is a visual map of how you will get to the final destination and reach the resolution. Set the audience on the right track.

3. The First Step begins the adventure to get where you want to go.

4. T he Next Steps is the middle section of the presentation, where all the steps are laid out one by one.

5. Almost there is the catharsis where you look back at how much has changed and progressed since the first step.

6. The Arrival is the celebration of the end of the journey. The audience should feel like they have learned something new and gained new knowledge.

The Explanation structure can be used for presentations by consultants that want to teach new ways of doing things inside a company or department. It could also perfectly fit in a sales meeting where a presenter can explain their process of a masterful sales plan.

The presentation starts off with a discussion on the natural animal and human condition of power and ends with a personal invitation to change your life with a 2-minute practice of power posing.

If you are a lover of the show "Grey's Anatomy," this is the idea behind the power pose that the neurosurgeons do before a big procedure.

The Pitch

As you know, a pitch in the business sense is when a presenter uses the power of a presentation or speech to convince the audience of something he/she believes will improve a system or solve a problem, according to Gavin McMahon, co-founder of fassforward Consulting Group.

The Pitch presentation structure is like a climb uphill that takes you over a hurdle and on to a positive resolution.

It shows how the presenter's idea can really improve a situation. By using a real and relatable story, the pitch makes more sense and feels more important.

1. The Wind Up is a quick summary of what's going on right now to presents the facts in a way that is easy to grasp and relatable to the audience.

2. The Hurdle presents the problem that needs to be solved . Relay the problem with a story so that the emphasis is doubled.

3. The Vision presents a glimpse into the main idea on how the problem can be solved.

4. The Options is the moment when two different options are laid out as possibilities to solve the initial problem. The idea is to give an average option first, followed by a great option second. If there have already been tests and experiments to prove these facts, then these are the story.

5. The Close is the point where the ideal option is presented as the best and only option.

6. The Fine Print tells the audience exactly how the problem will be solved, the steps that need to be taken and the tasks to be resolved.

7. The Hook is the uplifting conclusion to the presentation which relays an added bonus to the solution of the problem.

Use The Pitch presentation structure when you want to convince someone that your idea is the best for their problem. This structure also works when a new startup is looking for new funding or sponsorship opportunities.

Ten years later, that piece of ocean makes more money from scuba diving tourism than it ever did from fishing. He continues to talk about the same problem at a larger scale, the diminishing supply of fish and the destruction of the oceans.

His pitch to solve the impending problem is to turn the high seas into a natural reserve. He finishes by telling the audience that the plan is being pitched to the UN and that every individual can help their country abide by the new agreement if it goes through.

The Drama

There is a well-known structure in literature called "The Hero's Journey" which follows the plight of a main character from the beginning of a story to the end and leaves the reader feeling like they've learned a lesson they will never forget.

1. One Fine Day. The introduction sets the stage with a situation where things are not perfect but just average. Imagine as if it were the first page of a book, where the setting is laid out and the audience gets an idea of a time and place.

2. The Challenge. Suddenly a problem appears that can't be ignored. The things that need to be solved are presented as a challenge.

3. Descending Crisis. At this point, the problem is attacked head on but things gets worse until it hits rock bottom.

4. Rock Bottom. When all seems lost and everything is at its worst, the story arrives at a standstill. As an added bonus, the presenter can pause for effect.

5. The Discovery. This is the moment when a glimmer of light shows up and there is a discovery, a new way of resolving the problem.

6. The Rise. By discovering new abilities, the problem can be tackled in a positive way.

7. The Return. Not only are the problem and challenge resolved, the character and the audience break through and reach an unexpected happiness threshold, opening the world to a whole new range of possibilities.

8. The Lesson. The conclusion is reached with an unforgettable lesson and resolution. The audience will feel inspired, informed and entertained.

He begins the story by telling the audience about what his life was like before he joined the Marines and what drove him to do it.

He tells how the Marines became his family, and closest friends. Then, right before deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan, he had an accident that separated him from the Marines for good.

He continues to explain how he went on to become an actor, followed by the creation of his project to unify theater with military service.

His talk ends with an example of the theater pieces he coordinates to be presented at military camps. Listeners are left with their hearts full of a newfound hope for humanity.

Situation - Complication - Resolution

According to Gavin McMahon, co-founder of fassforward Consulting Group, most presentations in the realm of B2B sales and business consultancy follow the Situation - Complication - Resolution structure. It is a three-element storyline linked by the words but and therefore.

The starting point is The Situation, where current conditions are shown in an unbiased and transparent way. The situation connects to the next step through the word but.

A simple example: Our home decor company is selling pretty well this month, but...

In the above example, it could look something like this:
Our home decor company is selling pretty well this month, but ... we have been spending too much on international shipping.
When presenting The Complication, use facts to prove it. Present it as the challenge that needs to be overcome. The Complication is a low point, but from a low point we can only go up.

The final destination is The Resolution, which is connected to The Complication with the word, therefore.
Our home decor company is selling pretty well this month, but we have been spending too much on international shipping. Therefore, we need to start using a new company that has a better price range and great service.
Back up all of your information with real facts and proof.

Situation - Opportunity - Resolution

A similar structure to the one above, the Situation - Opportunity - Resolution replaces Complication with Opportunity. This three-part structure is also joined by the words but and therefore.

The difference is that instead of the movement going down and then up, it goes slightly up and then levels out.

This structure is perfect when you need to show that something is not that hard to fix; that the problem might not be so big after all and that the solution is easy to grasp.

A presentation that follows this structure could turn out to be quite short, if only the facts are presented, but that would leave the audience feeling like "is that it?" Adding an interesting story to help the audience relate makes the overall presentation more effective.

This TED talk by Adam Galinsky about how to speak up for yourself is a perfect example of the Situation - Opportunity - Resolution presentation structure. He starts off by saying: "Speaking up is hard," and instantly everyone in the audience can relate.

He gives a few personal stories about times when he should have spoken up and others when he shouldn't. He gives contextual proof and explanations about how sometimes we feel powerless, other times powerful, and how this affects if we speak up or not.

His solution to the problem is not a huge effort but rather a personal mindset change. The presentation ends with an inspiring quote by the speaker's father which leaves the audience feeling like they will know exactly when it's the perfect time to speak up, or not.

Hook, Meat and Payoff

This presentation structure, like The Drama, is deeply founded in the art of storytelling. While the Hero's Journey is more of a literary technique, Hook, Meat and Payoff is more like a spoken-word progression.

It's like when you come out of the movie theater: You feel better about yourself and the world around you, as if you've learned something important that will make your life a little better.

One of the most famous TED talks of all time, this presentation starts with her personal story of the time she suffered a brain hemorrhage and stroke.

She is a neuroanatomist; she studies brains for a living. Her experience of having a stroke is one of the deepest stories you'll ever hear about the union between science and spirituality.

Her presentation hook, a real human brain which she shows to the audience, very much grabs your attention. The meat of the talk is also entertaining and interesting; she has the audience laughing and crying right along with her.

In the end, she recounts the moment when she felt her body die and then woke up feeling like she was a different person. She had lost all capacities with the stroke, and it took her eight years to learn to talk and walk again.

The Payoff is her invitation to everyone to feel like they have Nirvana at their fingertips, that being conscious of the world around us is not an impossible task.

Make a Storyboard

Now that we've looked at the seven different ways that you can structure your presentation with storytelling techniques, it's time to make a storyboard.

A storyboard is what film makers use to set up the structure of their movie before filming it. It is created with the help of the screenplay, following the flow of the story. Each rectangle in the storyboard is a scene in the film.
(A note for the "un-artistic": Don't worry about things looking amazing right now! Uneven squiggles and weird shapes work the same way as perfect squares. The designed and finished look will come later when you set it all up in the Visme editor.)
Presenters use this process of storyboarding to set up their presentations because it really helps with productivity. A storyboard is essentially a visual draft of your presentation.

As you add the story aspect to your presentation, make sure you don't get too wordy and try using visuals instead of too much text. Use one or two sentences at most for each slide.

The best way to make a storyboard is with index cards, using each card as a slide. You can add things or easily take them away before you even start to design the final draft.

If it makes things easier, you can take a look at some presentation templates in Visme to see how we've created different slides. This might visually inspire the cards in your storyboard.

Build it with Visme

You are now ready to move on to the final step: building your presentation with Visme. Okay, you can create it with whichever presentation software you like, but we think you'll conclude Visme is one of the best choices out there.

Promotions aside, it's time to bring it all to life.

First, open a new presentation canvas, then choose a template or start from scratch. When you start from a blank canvas in Visme, you can add pre-built slides one by one from the slide library.

Create your slides by following the storyboard. For an added bonus, you can use animations, videos and audio to make your presentation unique.

If your presentation is meant to be seen on its own, online or sent as a scrollable PDF, there might need to be more text than on a visual presentation which accompanies a speech. You can try animating the text so it's not just a big block of words.

Using audio also helps, but if the viewer has their computer on mute, they might miss it. Make sure your first slide gives the instruction to turn up the volume.

If your visual presentation is going to be used as a backdrop for a speech, you can forgo some of the text and make it more visual.

Remember to rehearse your speech along with the slides so it all flows seamlessly. TED speakers suggest you rehearse a spoken presentation at least 10 times until it flows naturally.

If you need more help with your presentation design, don't forget to grab our free e-book below.

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7 Ways to Take Your Presentation Structure to the Next Level

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They all tell a story. No matter how many facts or charts need to be presented, incorporating stories into a presentation will keep your audience focused and intrigued. Using stories to support data is a well-known technique in all aspects of public speaking, from motivational talks to in-company sales pitches.

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In this video, they animate a piece of clay. Watch the process of taking pictures and moving the clay a little in between pictures.

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iMovie Basics: Video editing tutorial for beginners

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How to make a good impression when you present

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How to make a good impression when you present

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First impressions matter. A lot. This is particularly true for public speakers, who stand before crowds, sharing their passion and expertise for a living. The audience immediately sizes up a speaker and makes an initial judgement, even before that speaker UTTERS A SINGLE WORD.

Don't believe a first impression can happen that quickly?

In her book, 5 Ways To Make A Killer First Impression, Vanessa Van Patten, author of Human Lie Detection And Body Language 101, referenced a Princeton research project in which people watched a video of political candidates for a microsecond (that's really fast). They were then asked to predict who would win the election.

The results?

The subjects had a 70% accuracy rate. "People can make incredibly accurate snap judgments in a tenth of a second," Van Patten said, unsurprised.

How the audience perceives you, in a mere second, will have lasting effects. Make a bad first impression, they may tune you out or even get up and walk out. Make a great first impression and they will hang on to your every word.

The old adage, "You won't get a second chance to make a first impression" is spot on.
Click on the slide below to view the presentation.
What Happens in the Brain During a First Impression

Our brains are like little computers. We have the equivalent of hardware (our unconscious mind) and software (our conscious mind) working on our behalf to help us learn, move through space, and stay alive.

Our conscious mind can handle roughly 40 bits of information a second. That may sound like a lot to you, until you realize that our unconscious mind can handle a whopping 11 million bps.

Long story short, since our unconscious minds can handle more data processing, we evolved to allow it to handle many mundane tasks for us, including developing first impressions.

These first impressions helped keep our ancestors alive. Was that noise made from something benign or dangerous? Is that animal going to walk past me or kill me for food? As you can see, first impressions have always been important.

So here we are with our unconscious minds handling first impressions because our conscious minds become overwhelmed easily. How does our unconscious mind handle those first impressions?

Through what are called "mirror neurons." When another person comes into our view, these neurons fire and match the emotions of the other person. So if that person is nervous, we instantly feel nervous. If they are angry, we become angry. If they are calm and happy, we are calm and happy in their presence.

In this way you could say that emotions are more like viruses than feelings. We pass our emotions back and forth to each other every day all day long.

In this way we really still are like animals. Dogs instantly sense when another dog or person is nervous or ready to fight. We do the same.

Think of the implications here when standing in front of an audience. If you walk on stage carrying fear with you, your audience will pick up on it and will get an instant "bad" feeling about you. "I get a bad feeling about that guy." This is why we get instant feelings about one another.

First Impressions: Other Ways an Audience Will Size You Up

Besides getting an animalistic feel for you, an audience will also quickly take the following into consideration to make a snap judgement about you:

1 Are You Likeable?

In a Wall Street Journal article, Ben Decker, Chief Executive Officer of Decker Communications, is quoted as saying, "Likability isn't something you are born with, like charisma. It's something you can learn."

Any audience wants to instantly like a presenter. They want to feel that presenter is warm, kind, intelligent and human. Do you feel you put these characteristics on display?

2 Do You Have Passion?

When you take the stage, does the audience automatically fall asleep, or does your passion cause them to sit up in their seats and pay full attention? Only develop topics you are knowledgeable and passionate about.

3 Are You Confident?

You probably remember those first days back in school when you and your friends would instantly size up the new teacher. The first thing you would try to determine was would you be able to get away with anything? If the teacher was very confident, chances are you wouldn't be able to get away with much of anything.

When you take the stage, do you exude confidence or are you a walking bundle of nerves?

4 Are You Speaking with Your Entire Body?

How can people get a first impression from you before you even speak one word? There is other language besides spoken language, and that is body language. Are your gestures and body language saying the right things?

5 Are You Trustworthy?

Do you smile when you take the stage? Do you make eye contact with the audience, or stare at your slides?

6 Ways to Make an Excellent First Impression as a Presenter

Now that you are fully aware that you are being judged, let's look at some simple but effective ways you can ensure you will give a fantastic first impression.

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1 Be Prepared

If you want to present yourself as confident, it's important that you are utterly prepared. Preparing for your presentation ahead of time is key. Not only should you spend time outlining and developing your presentation, but also saying it out loud a few times.

Also, if possible, spend some time in the venue beforehand. This will allow you to get a feel for the space and ensure everything is set up the way you need.

2 Dress the Part

What would happen if someone showed up to a black-tie affair in khakis and a ripped T-shirt? They would be asked to leave. Conversely, what would happen if someone showed up to a surfing lesson in a tuxedo? They would most likely be asked to change.

It's important to dress the part when giving a presentation, but how do you know exactly HOW to dress? You must know your audience and your topic. Are your topic and audience more formal or casual? Are you are talking to millennials about investing in Bitcoin? If so, causal will work best. Are you talking to a group of baby boomer CEOs about IRA planning? Better put on a suit.

The more you know about your topic and audience, the better able you'll be to dress the part.

3 Create a Fantastic Introduction

Why not make a great first impression before you even take the stage? You never know who will be introducing you. They may or may not have a lot of energy or excitement in their voice or attitude. Don't leave your introduction to chance.

Create one yourself by writing a paragraph about yourself that gets the audience excited. Can you add a VP, CEO, CFO or any other valued letters to your name? Have you written any books or won any awards? Try to sell yourself in the intro. It will go a long way in making a great first impression.

4 Use an Attention-Grabber

Some people will make up their minds about you as soon as you step foot on the stage, while others will still be on the fence until you begin speaking. This is your chance to win them over so don't blow it!

Use an attention grabber such as a joke, a startling statistic, or a personal story. This trick wins over most crowds and gets them on your side immediately.

5 Leverage the Power of Pre-Event Marketing

This is akin to the introduction tactic. The idea is to make people fans of yours before they even see you in person.

You'll want to speak with event organizers and ask how it would be possible for you to provide the audience value ahead of time. Once you have this information, be sure to use the magic number 7 - it generally takes 7 times before someone says yes to an offer.

Provide 7 touchpoints before the event to market yourself as an authority in your industry. As for channels, think about using online and social media channels, Facebook Live presentations, direct mail campaigns and using specific hashtags.

Yes, this will take some effort but you will be shocked at how powerful this strategy is. And once you see how well it worked the first time, you will be motivated to put in the effort every time.

The next speaking engagement you have, don't leave anything to chance. If you follow these tips and strategies, you are sure to make an excellent first impression every time you take that stage.

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5 Ways Presenters Can Make a Great First Impression

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First impressions matter. A lot. This is particularly true for public speakers, who stand before crowds, sharing their passion and expertise for a living. The audience immediately sizes up a speaker and makes an initial judgement, even before that speaker ...

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HOW TO USE ANIMATION IN YOUR PRESENTATIONS (SLIDESHOWS)

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HOW TO USE ANIMATION IN YOUR PRESENTATIONS (SLIDESHOWS)

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Most presenters tend to find themselves at two extremes of a spectrum: They either use no animation or transition effects at all, making their slides deathly boring, or they use too much, adding every bell and whistle they can find to their slides. But animation can be used in a way that both captures your audience's attention and also furthers your message.

With modern presentation tools, everything inside your slides can be animated. This way you can create a visual storytelling experience, instead of simply relaying a bunch of stats, figures and text.

In this guide, you'll find some tips and tricks for creatively and effectively using animation in your presentations.
Here's a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit interactive presentation templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:
Principles of Animation for Presentations

When creating a presentation and giving it that injection of life that only animation can, there are a few things you need to remember.

Don't confuse or overwhelm your audience with too much animation.

Keep the amount of animated effects to the minimum necessary. Make sure that it's not overpowering the message or the visual impact. It's easy to go overboard with all the options inside presentation software, just make sure you don't go overboard.

Stay consistent with the animation effects you use.

When you add animation to elements in your slides, stay consistent with your choices. Stick to only two and, at the most, three types of animation. Don't apply an "enter from left" animation to the title and then an "enter from right" to the subtitle, much less a "pop in" to the rest of the text.

Follow a direction so that the information is easy to grasp.

Following along from the previous point, use the animation effects to follow a direction for your content. Choose from top to bottom or from one side to another, or any other effect that can call attention to the most important point in each slide.

Visualize an eye flow.

When designing your slides and adding animation, think of the way an audience scans information. Imagine your audience looking and your presentation and add effects accordingly. You can add an important animation to the parts that need more attention and less to the larger filling content. Don't animate in the wrong direction--your audience will thank you for it.

With these simple tips you should be able to use animation in your slides without a hitch.

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Creative Ideas for Using PowerPoint Animation

With the help of animation, a set of slides can be turned into a flowing scene. In her book Slide:ology, Nancy Duarte presents the idea of turning the slides into a series of movements. This progressive animation style gives the viewer a completely different feel. Therefore, capturing their attention as they wait for what's to come.

Although Duarte's advice is primarily for creating a PowerPoint animation, this short presentation created with Visme flows seamlessly from one slide to the next, as if the viewer were following a path.

To create a presentation like this, you have to think of the big picture. Imagine the slides connected to each other in a larger space and that the data follows a path inside it.

The first thing you need to do to the slides is to get rid of any elements that would generally show up on every slide. For example, your logo on the bottom right corner, page numbers, or headers and footers.

The slides need to have connecting elements between them. A blue area starts on one slide and continues to the next. Elements can bleed off at the sides to seem like the slide is only looking at a piece of the larger space.

The transitions then mimic the movement that a person would take along a path: up, left, up, right. The elements move in the direction of the transition completing the illusion.

For an added bonus, the elements in each side can also be animated to create even more visual impact.

Do's and Don'ts of Animated Transitions

When applying the transitions to your slides, it's important to remember a few things. Otherwise, you might overdo it and your presentation will look messy. Thankfully, Visme doesn't have options like broken glass, swirls, and pixelating effects. Let's just stay away from those.

Here is a rundown of do's and don'ts for slide transitions:

DO

Do use the transition if it helps tell the story.

Do use the transition if it guides the viewer through the presentation.

Do use the transition if it helps to add emphasis to a specific section.

Do use transitions AND specific element animation if they balance each other.

Do analyze if it might be "too much."

Do always use the preview function to check on your progress.

DON'T

Don't use the transition if it doesn't add anything positive to your presentation.

Don't use different transitions, unless you are creating a scene like we explained above. And if so, be mindful of how you use them.

Don't add transitions which confuse and distract from the story.

Animating Elements Inside Slides

Now that we have looked at some animated transition ideas, let's move on to the elements inside your slides. In Visme, you can animate pretty much anything, from shapes to text to graphs. As we mentioned before, elements can have a relation to the transition. But they can also have other visual effects.

Let's take a look at some creative animations of elements inside slides.

Building the Story

One creative way of using animated elements is to mimic the construction of a complete image. The way to do this is to design the last slide of the presentation first. The idea is to have all the pieces of the puzzle laid out in their correct place and then work backward.

This is how you do it:

Create the final slide with all the data and information placed in its final position. It's easier if each snippet of information has its own separate section.

Duplicate the slides in the slides list. The number of duplicates you need depends on the pieces of the puzzle you added to the finished product.

Once you have the duplicates ready, go to the last one and animate the entrance of the last piece of data.

Continue one slide up, delete the piece which you just animated and animate the one that comes before it.

Work your way back, deleting and animating each piece of the puzzle until you get to the very beginning.

This presentation doesn't need transitions because the elements are doing all the work. Use the same type of animation for all the elements to maintain a unified style.

Using Animated Graphs

There is this handy little tool in the Visme editor called the Graph Engine. All graphs generated with this tool are automatically animated. Therefore, they are perfect for adding to your animated presentations.

How to use the Graph Engine:

Click on the Data tab on the menu on the left and select the option Charts (it's the first option at the top left).

Choose the type of graph you want to use and input the data. You can do it manually or import from an Excel spreadsheet or Google sheet.

Customize the colors and fonts in your graph to match the rest of your design.

Pick the type of animation you want the graph to have. Choose from: bounce, elastic, ease-in and ease-out. Whichever you use, make sure it fits the animation style of the rest of the presentation.

Insert it into your slide. It will animate automatically.

Yes, there is an option to turn off the animation if you don't want to have it. Then, you can add an animation inside the slide as you would for any other element.

You can read more about it here or check out this short tutorial:

Animating Venn Diagrams

When you add a Venn diagram to your presentation, it doesn't need to be static. Why not animate each section and bring it to life? First, animate the circles (or whatever shape you are using) by customizing their entrance onto the slide. Once the diagram is complete, animate the text to appear in its corresponding area of the diagram.

Since there might be many parts to your Venn diagram, make sure the animations don't look jumpy or slow. Try different time increments until all the parts flow in a pleasing way and don't confuse viewers. You can use the timeline in the Objects tab for help.

Using Animated Gradients

Using gradients to animate your slides is a subtle way of adding movement to a story. Animated gradients can be incorporated in many ways. For example, you can progressively change the color of the background from green to blue. You can also let the viewer discover an image as the slides progress. Gradients can also be added to darken a shape as the story unfolds.

The trick to using color gradients is to create a color palette. This way you can control the progression from one color to another. Use the hex colors so that you aren't guessing what the next color should be. A blue to green progression can be used for a presentation about rain cycles, for example.

You could even use a day-to-night animated scene that changes from slide to slide. The sky can enter sliding in from the top or bottom like a theater backdrop, like we did in this short animation created with Visme.

Do's and Don'ts of Animating Elements Inside Your Slides

Here are some important tips to remember when animating the elements in your slides.

DO

Do consider the balance of all the animations. Do they all need to be there?

Do animate the most important snippets of information.

Do use the same style of animation to maintain a unified design.

Do use the timeline in the objects tab for help with the timing of your animations.

Do always use the preview option to check your progress.

DON'TS

Don't animate every single thing in your presentations. It could get overwhelming.

Don't mix too many styles. The movements will lose balance.

Don't set all animations to move at the same time. Give them some progression.

How Are You Animating Your Presentations?

Now that you have seen some creative animation ideas, which one will you use in your next project? Are you already using animations in your slides? Leave us a link to one of your Visme projects in the comments below so we can check it out!

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PowerPoint Animation: Tips for Using Animation in Your Presentations

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A visual guide to effectively using animation and transitions in your presentations to further your message, with real-life examples and step-by-step instructions.

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#video on #stopmotion explains the process of taking different pictures and then making them into an animation.