My New Job Title: Chief Drawing Officer

I am the world’s first Chief Drawing Officer. And I carry my title with pride 🙂

Powerpoint presentations are primarily dull. We’ve all seen words and graphs put together in a logical order in an exhibition, organized by boxes and bullet points so that you can send the message easier, cleaner and more transparent to your customers. But don’t you sometimes yawn when you repeatedly see the same presentation?

I decided to change that, even though there is not much flexibility in consulting regarding how creative you can be with your presentations. But they do become very personal, and your style is unique; I can quickly identify which one of my colleagues did a presentation because, in the end, it is more relevant to me than a business card or a photo.

What’s my style? How did I get there? I like art, the logic of art (I know, is there such a thing?), the equilibrium of a painting, and the feeling it gives you. And all that comes from every detail, from where you put a spot of colour to the colours you use (with all the different shades), the number of layers, the image you build, and the message you send. Art is fantastic; it teaches many things, from imagery to feelings.

I look at my presentations as though they were a piece of art. Of course, content matters but most of the time, there are plenty of ways to send a message. See advertising companies. I use images instead of words, graphs instead of figures, and engaging titles to make my point. And the colours, oh the colours, how much freedom you have to choose the right shade of grey (no connection whatsoever with the book 🙂 ). But there are slight differences between colours, shades and especially what you want to make your client understand or feel with those colours. I am an avid colour user, ensuring the colour transmits my worry, concern, exact point, and what have you.

From an aspect point of view, the final touch is how you arrange images, words, graphs, colours, and little boxes on the slide. Balance is my only purpose, simultaneously emphasising the slide’s central message. Sometimes moving a box a few millimetres to the right can change the slide’s appearance and “feel”. Choosing suitable shapes can do the trick, also. In the end, the fall should look like a piece of art.

The final touch of every presentation is the story. My presentations are stories, with an introduction, content, critical point, conclusions and end (the end being primarily about what will happen next). Any presentation that is a story reaches its audience. Storytelling is the most applauded presentation method lately, and there’s a reason for that: stories are easy to understand and remember and emotionally involve the audience.

My presentations are beautiful stories with colourful pictures. It doesn’t sound proper for consulting, but it made me the world’s first CDO.