Six major trends in business briefing design in 2018: from storytelling, negative space to intelligent design
This article (opens in a new tab) author Liu Yiyou (opens in a new tab), is Presentation. Founder of Easy Presentation Workshop (opens in a new tab). He has more than ten years of experience in business presentations and is good at presentation structure, information visualization, strategic proposals and fundraising presentations. Thank you for the permission to reprint, hereby thank you.
The year 2017 that has just passed can be said to be a year of vigorous development for newsletters. Presentation teaching, presentation books and online resources are increasing rapidly. It can be said that a hundred schools of thought are contending. It’s so lively! Among them, flat style is very popular. From the interface design of mobile devices and websites to the visual design of presentations, it is not difficult to see flat design, and then quasi-flat design appeared.
At the same time, breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have also affected the development of presentation software. More intelligent functions have been introduced into the software, allowing anyone to easily make more professional designs. In the new year, what will briefing design look like?
In the past year, during many briefing trainings and corporate consulting projects, I have seen various needs and changes in briefing design. At the same time, because I am personally concerned about the presentation trends in Europe, America and China, and am well aware of the impact of technological innovation on presentation design, I decided to spend some time sorting it out and adding some of my personal experiences to formulate the six major trends in business presentation design in 2018. I hope I can share it with you, and I hope I can get some feedback.
Trend 1: Let data speak─not just tell stories, but also use data to tell stories
Using storytelling to deliver presentations is no longer a new topic. The difference is that telling stories may have given you better presentation results in the past, but now if you don’t know how to tell stories, you will definitely lose the audience’s attention quickly.
Nowadays, people generally have a “lack of attention” phenomenon. Because the huge amount of information overloads our brains, most of the information will be automatically blocked, and only a small amount of information can be noticed. Therefore, how to capture the audience’s attention will become more important, and more diverse storytelling methods will emerge in an attempt to capture your and my attention.
Can just telling a story make everyone pay? Such questioning voices continue to appear, especially in business presentations, where there may not be so much time for you to tell a story; you must know that if you don’t tell it well, it may become an “accident”, and people who use data every day may prefer to see the data as a basis for judgment. Data is one of the most important elements in business presentations. If you can tell stories through data, it will be more effective.
If you want to tell a good story through data, start by drawing a good chart/drawn by Liu Yiyou
In 2017, we also saw more briefings and articles with charts and data, which are not only more eye-catching, but also easier to be trusted and shared with others; in 2018, this trend will be even more obvious.
Trend 2: Visual communication─Visualization is no longer just a bonus, but a necessity
Visual information design has been widely used in our lives. From the guidance illustrations on public transportation, marketing materials in department stores, mobile apps to information graphics in the media, etc., it not only lowers the threshold of understanding, but also raises our needs and standards for information visualization, and this is also reflected in our inspection standards for the visualization of presentations.
Visual information design has been applied in life, and it has also improved our standards for visualization / Photos from Aimai, Internet pictures
Now, there are more tools to make better data visualization, and people can also visualize more ideas, and more stunning visual charts will appear in front of us.
There are many free visualization tools on the Internet, making visualization easier to operate/Illustrated by Liu Yiyou
Trend 3: Scenario-based images - high-resolution, but more realistic pictures or images that are closer to the scene or situation
A large number of high-quality free pictures (opens in a new tab) have appeared, which have improved the resolution and texture of the pictures in the presentations. However, more and more “image collisions” have occurred, but this cannot prevent others from using them. Therefore, many companies and individuals began to use photos taken by themselves. On the one hand, they do not have to worry about the dilemma of conflicting images, and on the other hand, they are closer to the real situation of the content. Thanks to the continuous improvement of the photography functions and pixels of mobile devices, we can draw materials from the situations around us anytime and anywhere.
Photos that are close to the audience’s lives are more resonant/Illustrated by Liu Yiyou
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Compared with thousands of words, a picture of a real situation may be easier for people to understand/Illustrated by Liu Yiyou
Trend 4: Negative space design─enhance the texture and make it easier to focus on the content of the presentation
The so-called “negative space (opens in a new tab)” (Negative Space) refers to the space outside the main body and all design elements within a given range. The use of negative space can create a dynamic feeling. When the positive and negative spaces reach a balance, the space will appear static, and vice versa. “Blank space” can be regarded as an application of negative space.
Chinese ink paintings make extensive use of negative space to achieve overall balance/Internet picture
Making good use of negative space and deliberately destroying the overall balance can create a sense of dynamics in the picture/Illustration by Liu Yiyou
In the past, we were used to using images as part of the background, and full-page images have always been the mainstream. But recently, “negative space” design has begun to be used in presentation design, changing the role of the image from the background to the main body.
Thanks to the advancement of presentation software, negative space designs that could only be produced by graphic designers or professional designers in the past can now be easily achieved through the simple built-in image filling function. This will become the latest mainstream technology this year.
Through the combination of picture filling and animal patterns, another use of negative space is created.
The effect of filling pictures with fonts is also one of the uses of negative space / Internet picture
Trend 5: Reappearance of nostalgic style - elements from the 1980s and 1990s are integrated into presentation design
In 2017, there was a wave of nostalgia for the 1980s and 1990s, which affected the style of graphic design and naturally spread to the design of briefs, including Moody Tones (opens in a new tab) and Memphis Style (opens in a new tab) (Memphis Style).
Moody Tones are tones with higher gray scale, atmosphere and mood, showing the film feel of the 1980s and 1990s.
Moody tones presents a tone with higher grayscale, atmosphere and emotion/Internet picture
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Moody tones are used in presentation design to present a texture/Internet picture
Memphis Style, on the other hand, is an asymmetrical design that uses geometric structures and does not use plain colors. There is no need to follow the rules of “what is right” and satisfies the innovative appetite of modern young people.
Memphis Style is characterized by its use of geometric structures, asymmetry and unsubtle colors.
](Memphis Style flat icon design/internet picture
Trend 6: Intelligent design - the combination of artificial intelligence makes presentation design feel like a plug-in
In order to allow users to focus more on the content of the presentation, Microsoft has injected artificial intelligence into PowerPoint and launched “Dictation (opens in a new tab)” multi-language translation and smart dictation plug-ins, “Microsoft Presentation Translator (opens in a new tab)” real-time translation of subtitles on presentations, “Designer” and “Morph” to quickly create textured and dynamic presentations, “Excel Maps for complex data” instant data visualization, etc., helping users improve work efficiency and productivity, and strengthen their ability to work communication and design creation.
Another set of plug-in software iSlide (opens in a new tab) is positioned as a professional presentation beautification plug-in to help users solve four difficult problems in producing presentations: low efficiency, insufficient professionalism, lack of materials, and poor design. It provides functions such as one-click optimization, design and layout, color library, icon library, and icon library. Interested friends can go to the official website (opens in a new tab) to learn more.
Summarizing the above six trends, have you seen the trend of briefing design in 2018? Welcome to leave a message and study with me!
★This article (opens in a new tab) is written by Liu Yiyou (opens in a new tab), for Presentation. Founder of Easy Presentation Workshop (opens in a new tab). He has more than ten years of experience in business presentations and is good at presentation structure, information visualization, strategic proposals and fundraising presentations. Thank you for the permission to reprint, hereby thank you.
★ Extended reading: Ten trends in presentation design in 2018: The era of reading presentations on mobile phones is here
★ To improve your content power, please don’t miss the online course “Content Power: The Super Power of Building Brands (opens in a new tab)”
Further reading
- Three major trends in business presentation design in 2019: Scenario-based architecture, visual personalization and intelligent interface
- The second meeting of “Lun Liu Lai Briefing”: the starting point of presentation design, starting from understanding the audience
- The presentation hacker has evolved again, and you will immediately become a presentation master
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Vista Cheng speaks and runs workshops on AI workflows, writing and content systems for companies, schools and public agencies.
