Storytelling with You

chapter 8illustrate with images

When may your topic or message be best served by an image? If you've ever presented from a stage, it's likely that you've contemplated and perhaps used pictures in your presentations. But what about in your normal day‐to‐day meetings with slides: when and how might you effectively use images there?

You've seen examples of what not to do. A stretched photo that has the sole purpose of filling empty space on the page, a stock image of hands shaking on a slide about partnerships, clip art or comic strips that are only tangentially related to the topic and distract or annoy rather than play any role of utility—these are instances to avoid. I have heard the directives that lead to these misuses: “We have some extra space on that slide; let's put something there,” or “You should spice up your deck with some pictures!” These statements illustrate both the wrong reasons to use images and the incorrect manner in which to use them.

Pictures used well are extremely powerful. They can help you explain concepts, increase understanding, maintain attention, reinforce content, improve memorability, and more. I'll mention that I'm using the words image and picture interchangeably. We'll explore a variety of specific image types soon, demonstrating through examples and sharing practical tips that will help you effectively integrate images of all types into your visual communications. Before we do that, let's get specific about why we might integrate pictures into ...