How we define design and the tasks associated with being a designer constantly in flux. Layer on a industry that rarely agree on what job titles mean and you have a recipe for misconceptions and confusion.

Within all of that madness, there is still one aspect of design that is universal. You must be prepared to present your work.

That’s a different threshold than saying you WILL ALWAYS present your work, but you should be prepared.

This immediately will cause a few of you to reconsider the idea of being a designer, but I want to offer you this bit of comfort. No one will do a better job of representing the work than you will.

So with the facts above defined, let’s take a moment to discuss what presentations are and how you can leverage your design skills to make sure your work bounces off the the screen while remaining sticky enough for those following along at home.

Craft, magic, or both

The qualities that make a presentation outstanding are hard to describe without relying heavily on comparison. That's because quality presentations often mix together a variety of techniques found in different forms of communication.

Good presentations are often layered in visual detail that is typically limited to print design. Those details are often accompanied by low information density because presentations have a timing quality that is similar to video. Finally, there is the work of the presenter who drives the presentation forward the way an actor or comedian commands the room during a live performance.

with the low information density of video