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CHAPTER 2

25

Creating Ideas, Not Slides

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Finding Your Inspiration

Much of communication today has the quality of intan-

gibility. Services, software, causes, thought leadership,

change management, company vision—they’re often

more conceptual than concrete, more ephemeral than

firm. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s a

struggle communicating these types of ideas because

essentially they are invisible. It’s difficult to share one’s

vision when there’s nothing to see.

Expressing these invisible ideas visually, so that they

feel tangible and can be acted upon, is a bit of an art

form. The best place to start is not with the computer.

A pencil and a sheet of paper will do nicely.

Why take this seemingly Luddite approach? Because

presentation software was never intended to be a brain-

storming or drawing tool.

The applications are simply containers

for ideas and assets, not the means to

generate them.

It’s been an easy trap to fall into, launching presenta-

tion applications to prepare content. In reality, the best

creative process requires stepping away from technol-

ogy and relying on the same tools of expression that

you grew up with—pens, pencils, and crayons. The goal

is to generate ideas—not necessarily pictures yet—but

lots of ideas. These can be words, diagrams, ...