What you DON'T say matters too

Last week I had the perverse pleasure of working in Scranton, PA. Sure, it's the home to the fiction Dunder Miflin Paper Company and the sometimes we wish-to-be fictional character "Lunch Bucket Joe" Joe Biden, but if you're stuck there like I was, it becomes all too real.

Please consider these facts; it was 11 degrees, they have something like 4 feet of snow on the ground, it's actually quite close to Appalachia (scary), two of our bags never arrived. Safe to safe, I'm not a big fan of Scranton.

But Brian, your blog post title teased me into thinking you were going to say something important...what gives? Well, while in Scranton, I witnessed a classic example of body language and it's power in presentations.

The dining options in Scranton featured all of the usual suspects...c'mon, you know which ones. We deduced the least painful option to be of a scarlet-colored variety, especially between Monday and Wednesday. WORK WITH ME PEOPLE!!! I can hear the Stones song in my head right now, got it??? Very good. Let's continue.

Okay, we walk in and we are NOT greeted by a friendly, happy face. Instead it's our waitress, they had obviously let the hostess leave, as the place was empty. So now waistress-turned-hostess-yet-still-waitress is large and in charge. She's in no mood for another table, but the place is scheduled to be open for another TWO hours!!!!

We did not feel special, cared about or even welcomed. We didn't get a simple smile and we certainly didn't feel like our soon to be delivered dinner would be good, no matter how tasty it actually turned out to be.

The point of all this is, when you say things in a presentation like "It's great to be here" you better damn well mean it!!!!!! Be truthful with your emotions because your audience can pick up the truth, even if you try to hide it.

Remember, emotions are the key to connecting with people during a presentation. Sure, you all like to think it's great information. WRONG ANSWER...try again. It's EMOTION. Do you really think people remember bullet points or data-dumps? NO!!!! They remember how you made them FEEL.

So, the next time you're looking for dinner in Scranton, be sure to remember the Rolling Stones, hum a few bars of that tune, and you'll know where NOT to go.

Teaching as an art form

Something I have wanted to do since I was a Senior in college was to teach design at the highest level of public or private education. Essentially, to be able to teach people who were solely in front of me to learn from my experience. It started for me when I was a design lab administrator in college, and I found I was easily and comfortably able to teach other students things I knew. Even if it was in small doses, it was tremendously gratifying to me.

A couple of years later, I found myself in my day-to-day job as a Junior Designer at a prestigious Chicago-area design firm (pounding out 65+ hour work weeks with 2.5 hours of total commute), and I realized two things—one, I really hadn't learned nearly what I needed to survive in my industry while I was fighting through the Northern Illinois University Visual Communications program, and even more frustratingly, two, is that what I had learned, I didn't really feel as though I knew why I had learned it. So, the top design school in the Midwest didn't teach me enough, and what they did teach was vague and oblique to the point where I had no idea what the real practical application was. Great.

At that point, I realized that I wanted to go back someday for a Masters in Fine Art, to allow myself to teach college-level design, with real-world applications.

Fast forward 20-odd years, and I still have not returned to acquire my Masters degree, and as time goes one, lifestyle congeals, family is built and a career plods forward, and making the drastic move to return to school for another degree fades further from my reach.

When we started talking about the ideas and philosophies behind SquarePlanet, one of the keystones of the business plan was to be able to develop workshops around teaching what our careers had given us both in experience, and changing the way people think, work and behave with presentations. When we realized how important presentations are to anyone—business, educational or social, we started to focus on the fact that NONE of us are truly taught how to create or develop a presentation, let alone design slides or stand in front of your peers with in idea to promote.

Wait a minute—everyone knows (or thinks they do) how to use PowerPoint, craft messages, and stand up in front of people to talk, but no one was EVER really shown the right way to do this? Really? I think we might be on to something here. This is not intuitive stuff here, yet how many times have you seen people take this task feebly into their own hands, and throw away a massive opportunity?


This past Thursday was the very first SqP Presentation Boot Camp workshop. Boot Camp. Really? Well, yeah. The idea is that we ALL need to have what we know to be the presentation status quo needs to be stripped down to nothing, erased from our collective memories, and started again from scratch. A clean wipe board, if you will.

Our first 1-day school was not without hiccups and rough spots, but for the two of us to be able to get in front of a group of people who really wanted to be there to learn, it was not only an awakening for our class, but it was honestly one of the most rewarding things I have done in my career, and I can't wait to do it again.

With very few nerves or jitters, I was very comfortable in freely giving my experience and knowledge—even in such a small dose—to an eager audience. It was immeasurable joy for me, and it really was something that I enjoy doing. I know Brian enjoyed the day, too, and I really believe that our first students got something valuable from the day.

I'm looking forward to the March 17th school already, and I can't wait to get up in front of our workshop again.

All the right reasons

No matter what you do well, someone will hate it. No matter what you do poorly, someone will love it. Please yourself and reach your own personal goals and you will be a success at whatever you do.

Sometimes.



It doesn't always work that way, but it should.

I have spent the last 18 years of my career trying to please clients, and for the most part, I have accomplished that task. The problem is, most clients aren't really comparing my work to anything other than the previous garbage they had before. Unfortunately, in most cases, the bar is set really low. My goal has always been to raise the level of professionalism for any client, and make them look and feel as polished as they can possibly be—even to their own ham-fisted undoing.

It's a frustrating high wire act of balancing what the client thinks they want and what the creative team knows to be the best solution. The old adage, "the client is always right," is almost always getting in the way, though. The problem with that is that if the client was right all the time, they wouldn't have needed my professional experience and they could have done their own work themselves. The reason they hired me in the first place is for my experience and ability to do something they could not. Thus, the client might know what they want, but the almost certainly do not know how to execute to a successful completion.

So you run the risk of clashing with a client over details that will make or break the project, or not even have any effect on the resultant product. And in the end, you must determine which battles to wage war over, to suit your own goals for any given project.

In the end, your goals should always be in the best interests of the client—to represent them in the best possible light, all while doing the best work you can given the time, budget and other constraints.

If you manage to make yourself proud of your own work in the process of making the client shine, then all the better.

Brevity

A university creative writing class was asked to write a concise essay containing these four elements:

• religion
• royalty
• sex
• mystery

The prize-winning essay read: "My God," said the Queen. "I'm pregnant. I wonder who did it?"


There is something to be said for not saying anything. Think about it.

Jobs

"My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other's negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts. Great things in business are not done by one person, they are done by a team of people."

-Steve Jobs

teh internets haz made u stupid.

My wife and I read a lot of books to our 2-year old daughter, as she brings us a constant supply of books asking us to, "reeeead." There is a growing stack of children's books in her room now that get my "stamp of stupidity," because of bad grammar, incorrect punctuation, slang speech and a general lack of discipline in something that is essentially teaching our kids how to read and speak.

I see it now a lot in the Chicago Tribune and other major newspapers that should employ more experienced copy editors—or even someone who has actually graduated college to do the job. Professional web blogs are littered with terrible English. Some of the industry books written by presentation specialists could use another once-over, as well.

The lack of proper grammar in the written word is bordering on epidemic. It's fine in a text or on Facebook (though it still makes you look stupid), but when you are presenting anything to an audience, it is always in your best interest to make sure your Ts are crossed and your Is are dotted. Literally, and not figuratively.

Internet conversational communication has made us all stupid. It made us lazy. We have forgotten how important the written word is, and how your use of the English language says a lot about you (and potentially your company).

It isn't that much to ask that when you are putting something together for a presentation or anything that puts you out in a spotlight, that you let someone else look over your words. At least proofread your own work. Worst case scenario, let the obligatory spell check have a glance at your efforts to make sure that you are on point, and not looking like a fool.

Have a power failure.

Really. Go unplugged.

Since the Mac computer was unveiled in an Apple Computer commercial during the Super Bowl on January 24, 1984, designers and creative ilk have been attached at the hip with electronic devices that were supposed to make their lives easier. In reality, it turned processes that 25 years ago took days or weeks and made them tasks that now take minutes or even seconds. They also allowed clients to expect work or edits completed virtually immediately. The computer has also become a crutch. Designers, writers and artists now rarely sit in front of a sketchpad or a notebook and create without the aid of some plug-in or digital tool.

It's wrong, and it's a bad way to be creative.

We all are guilty of it. We need to bang out a brochure or a logo, or write some new copy for an ad, and we sit down in front of the computer, open our favorite Adobe or Office or iWork product and we start moving things around hoping they fit.

It's backwards, and that's not how we were taught to create new things or generate ideas and concepts.

With presentations, like anything else created, we should begin with ideas—from our heads—not a computer. Inspiration can be found in many places, but rarely is it offered by your computer. Computers lack creativity. Computers have no personality. Computers can't be emotional.

Computers are stupid.

So unplug.

The first step to creating something new should be with a notepad or a sketchpad. A pen, a pencil, a crayon. Post-it notes work. Napkins. The back of your hand. Anything organic that can be a canvas for ideas—good ones, bad ones, weird ones, and things that you don't even give a chance to work. Explore, sketch, brainstorm, create and develop ideas in your head and with your hands, not with a mouse or a keyboard.

Your rewards will be in the results.

Driver's Ed

You'd never think of letting someone out on the crowded highways without having them sit through Driver's Ed or at least taking a driver's school. The fact is, driving might be something that you could wing if you had to, but there are so many nuances that if left to your own devices, you are a hazard to yourself and everyone else.

Presentations are not any different—though not nearly as dangerous. Maybe.

No one taught you how to use PowerPoint or Keynote, yet you muddle through it to build your presentation. EVERYONE does it.

No one taught you how to develop the content for a presentation, yet we all have data dumped the kitchen sink into slide template after slide, filling it up until another bullet point will not fit.

No one taught you how to speak to an audience of one or one-thousand, but we all have done it with clammy hands and shaking knees. We have all been there.

So when given the need to present an idea, product or concept to any audience, we hand the keys of the family truckster to the admin with no driver's license and let them loose on rush hour traffic. Bad move.

Most of us aren't born speakers. Most of us aren't born designers. Most of us aren't born writers. We are taught our skills by someone who knows what they are doing. Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Steve Jobs, Tom Hanks and Tom Brady—all have coaches who guide them on the proper ways to do things and to improve their craft.


Maybe it is time that we recognize that as a whole, our society has no idea how to give presentations.

Fontography: Type on the Internet

I promised I would have something on this yesterday, and after a couple of hours wrestling with the US Postal Service's website, not only did I not want to look at a computer screen for a while, I also was looking for painkillers in the form of Kentucky sipping bourbon. Safe to say, I wasn't interested in posting font source links last night.

Since college, I have been a typography geek. All kinds, all styles, anywhere I can find new typography, I'm there looking for something interesting. So much so that while still in college at Northern Illinois University's Visual Communications program, I was developing a typeface of my own. Not a very normal thing for a college student to be producing in his spare time, but I'm not what you call normal, either.

Collecting "fonts" as they had become known at the cusp of the computer design age (a type 'font' is actually the term for the metal slugs that each size of a particular typeface for setting up a page of words in printing presses), had become an obsession for me. I loved anything with good typography on it. Still do, as a matter of fact, though today I take much more appreciation in things that were done long before computers ruled the communications world.

Anyway, the internet has changed typography for ever. You can acquire any number of thousands of typefaces with the click of a mouse for free, and the best ones out there for not very many bucks. Pay for them when you come across ones you like, because I can tell you first hand, typeface designers don't make a whole lot of money for the large amounts of labor they do.

Using custom typefaces in your presentations can add a massive degree of professionalism and style, without a lot of effort or stress. Please avoid ornate, decorative or script faces, though, as readability and legibility (I'll get into those more later) are of major importance in the success of your written words. Anything described as a "headline" or "display" face should not be used for any amount of copy more than a few large words. Avoid compressed, condensed and even italic in anything but the most minimal of needs. Leave those decisions to the people that do it for a living, and keep it as simple as possible.

In fact, only in certain situations would I use a serif face in place of a cleaner, easier to read sans serif face (which is what Arial is).

Clean, simple, easy to read. These are what you should look for in a new typeface—if you already don't have a corporate typographical standards manual to follow.

Having said that, there are more than a few places on the internet that I really love to go to find new typography. Here's a list of some of my sources for new ideas in type:

Free Typography:

• Font Squirrel
• Fawnt.com
• Acid Fonts
• Abstract Fonts
• 1001 Free Fonts
• da font

Pay Typography:

• Letterhead Fonts
• Blambot Comics
• Fountain Type
• OurType
• T26

Both Free and Pay:

• exljbris Font Foundry

Great Typography Resources:

• Typophile
• Antrepo
• FontShop.com Type Navigator
• What the Font?

These are only a few of the literally thousands of wonderful typography resources out there on the interwebs, but are some of my bookmarked favorites. I'm always looking for new sources of typography so if you know of new ones, please do pass them along.

Now, I do realize that this may be like giving a loaded gun to a toddler, but with a little restraint, a beautiful typeface can go a long way in really projecting the right style and image to your audience. Just don't over-do it with the type—keep it to one or two faces that work well together and you will be golden. It isn't easy—that's why there are professionals that do this sort of thing for a living. :)


Have fun, and keep it clean and simple.

Fontography

One of the easiest ways to push your presentation to the next level is the proper use of typography. Your company has a brand, and probably a corporate typeface or two that the marketing department uses in your corporate collateral. They might even have the corporate typeface in both PC and Mac formats. Easily installed on your computer, using the corporate typefaces in your presentation is the best way to simply put you "on brand" without fear of offending your company's branding police.

You can find a very simple tutorial on installing new fonts on a PC using various Windows operating systems here. A similar tutorial on installing fonts on a Mac can also be found here.

In absence of a corporate type face, there are always alternatives to the lazy standard of Windows Arial, which is really a Microsoft-owned nearly identical rip-off of Helvetica. Using a clean, easy to read typeface is of utmost importance, but don't rely on the standard default font that PowerPoint force-feeds you. There is nothing memorable about a Windows operating system font on the wall.

Tomorrow, I'll provide a list of my favorite typography sources—free as well as pay-to-own. A simple type change can make a huge difference in the emotional connection of your audience to your visuals.

Walk a mile in another man's shoes.

Empathy. Something that most people seriously lack when creating business or academic presentations. But it's one of the most important things you can remember when you are developing a presentation for yourself. Walk a mile in another man's shoes, really. Or rather, never give a presentation that you wouldn't want to sit through yourself.

In the case of presentations, this issue has numerous outlets.

First of all, you absolutely need to identify your audience and understand their frame of reference before you write your speech. Are they techies capable of understanding your technical jargon, or are you trying to teach or educate your audience? Both options require very different techniques for delivery. Spew the techno-jargon on your unacquainted audience, and you will soon see the light—as audience members begin to surf the web on their iPhones. You have to speak to your audience—not condescending, but in a way that will keep their attention, while also getting the message to them.

Bombarding the target with dimmed lights, 12-point copy-filled slides, and boring content will surely not let your message be heard. Most people will give you 15 minutes of their attention before they tend to lose interest, but they will easily be able to tell right off the start of your presentation if even those 15 minutes are warranted. If you are not compelling, your message will be lost.

Put yourself in the eye of the audience. You know if your presentation is worth sitting through or not. If it is not in your mind, imagine what your audience will feel.

Back to School

Since the new website was rolled out last week, we have had a few questions about the SP presentation workshops or schools, or whatever you would like to call them. Admittedly, this section of the website is lacking and is currently undergoing a rebuild and restructuring. The workshops are going to be really beneficial to our clients, but to many others as well. It will be clearer soon, I promise.

For now, though, I'll attempt to provide a bit more clarity here, for those who have asked.

No, these aren't classes to teach you how to use Powerpoint or Keynote. We're going to assume you have at least a basic, working knowledge of those tools. Sure, there will be some tips and tricks along the way, but these are NOT tutorials on how to import images or how to change the color of text.

No, we're not going to bring you into a big auditorium and lecture you on public speaking. Actually, we are creating a very warm and comfortable environment, that will make our classroom sessions not only very personal and casual, but limiting each class day to a small number of people at one time, it will be a very hands-on and direct approach to interactive learning.

So here is the nitty gritty of these workshops—we're basing the whole concept on the human brain.

It's accepted that each hemisphere of your brain serves different types of thought. The left side of the brain serves thought in a linear fashion—logic, rational, structured and tactical. It takes in verbal commands and organized structure. The right side of the brain serves creative and holistic thought, and tends to absorb input via imagery and ideas. Both process information differently, and most people are dominant to one side or another.

In any audience, you will have BOTH types of people, so you need to not only consider that in your presentation to them, but as you build your own ideas, as well.

So each day will focus on the left- and right-brained parts of developing brilliant presentations. Day 1 is the right-brained part that speaks in ideas, concepts, pictures and imagery, and Day 2 will focus mostly on the verbal, linear and logical development of the presentation, through speaking and orator development. They both MUST overlap, though, so we will cover both sections on both days to some degree.



These are 2-day workshops—you can do one, or the other, or both—it's up to you. Each day will have a different emphasis. The first day will be the "Creative" day. Roll up your sleeves and get dirty. Well, not really. But you will learn to re-think the ways you have been developing and designing presentations.

What does this mean? Well, for starters, we're going to teach you a different way to think about developing a presentation visually and verbally. No more template-driven, bullet-riddled litanies of copy to have your audience read from while you recite exactly what's up on the screen. We're going to start from the beginning, and that doesn't mean the slide template. We'll also discuss subjects such as identifying your audience, identifying your message, creating a plan and concept around that message, building the presentation structure, working with (and around) brand guidelines, typography, image sourcing (and legalities), and some basic design theories to help you lay out at least interesting presentation slides. The "creative" side of this is not only about the slide backgrounds your audience sees—it is SO much more than that.

In our Creative session on Day 1, we will also touch on the SquarePlanet presentation philosophies and how they differ from the status quo currently plaguing the corporate and university world today. With that, we will also spend a bit of time on the aspects of the actual verbal presentation, and how you can help your audience interact and retain your messaging better. It doesn't hurt to have a bit of speaking help, too, so we'll touch a bit on that during Day 1.

Day 2 will have a small bit of overlap for those who can't make it to the Creative workshop, touching on our philosophical concepts and ideas on how to develop memorable presentations. This will include a brief overview of the creative side of the process, for anyone only focusing on the verbal side of presentations.

The "Presenter" workshop will dive into tips on getting comfortable in front of a crowd of any size, the power of the pause, the SquarePlanet 4 keys to a successful presentation (authenticity, personal, simplicity, restraint) and many other topics that face anyone standing up in front of an audience. We will develop your skills as a presenter, and teach you what you need to know to develop a presentation that is clear, concise, captivating and memorable.

These schools will be held in the middle of the week, in the middle of each month, and they will fill up quickly. If you would like to get a seat for any of these workshops in the next few months, don't hesitate to contact us through the website. We're really excited about what we can offer you and your company.



-doug

Dumb Dome

My beloved Bears failed to show up at snowy Soldier Field yesterday. While one loss is no big deal, is does dampen some of my enthusiasm for the upcoming Monday Night match-up against Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings in the Metrodome.

ATTENTION...ATTENTION...YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE...THE ROOF HAS COLLAPSED.

I'm not making this up. Due to massive snow storms, the teflon roof of the 30 year old Metrodome failed, forcing the NFL to re-schedule this weeks game to Detroit. This is a big deal! 70,000 people are suddenly holding tickets to a game that now must happen 5 hours away. Both teams are affected, massive dollars are lost to the local economy, the TV crews are scrambling, etc, etc.

So, if you were to guess the spot with the latest, most up-to-date, most complete coverage of the roof collapse, what would you come up with? Well, if you're like me, you would think the official site of the Metrodome would be the spot.

Guess again!!! It's almost laughable how woeful the site is and continues to be in reporting the problem. The officials of the dome are making a presentation, albeit an awful one, but a presentation nonetheless.

They have failed to offer clear, reliable information. They have failed to offer any personal account or information beyond phrases in the form of a PDF news release. They used too much restraint, holding any and all information close to the vest, so much so that they are no longer a credible source.

So, the morale of the story is, don't make inflatable domes in bad-weather cities and remember that what you say, and sometimes what you don't say matters. WE deserve better! And as I have four tickets for next Monday's scheduled game inside this now open-air venue, I demand better.

Metrodome...you need help. LOTS of help. Go Bears.

Ohio...I love Ohio!

Hi all.

So, just to be clear, while I like Ohio and some of my most favorite people are from Ohio (Walsh, Close, Janning) I have no reason to actually be pointing to Ohio.

I WAS TRYING TO POINT TO CHICAGO...WORK WITH ME PEOPLE!!

Ohio is the home of Dean Martin, the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Goodyear Blimp. What's not to love? I'm glad that so many of you noticed, that said, come visit SquarePlanet right here in good ol' Chicagoland.

THANKS

-Brian

full circle. but square.

It's amazing to think that this whole thing has really materialized in the span of about 2 months, but it has. A phone call on a Tuesday night in October has given birth to a fresh new idea and a fresh new company based on the experience and talent of 2 life-long friends. In retrospect, I guess the whole of our careers has really just prepared us both for this new project.


Brian and I have known each other since kindergarten, which was about 35 years ago or so. Too long to remember, but this whirlwind has stirred up a lot of childhood memories, which is why you will see a lot of references to our past, including the use of our elementary school throughout our website. You'll probably get sick of the 70s and 80s pop culture references, too, but that's who we are so we don't plan to hide any of that.


So stay tuned, there is a lot of really interesting things planned for this space and this new company. We have more ideas than we can even convey to each other, so there won't be a shortage of things to discuss here. We also both talk a lot, so there never will be a lot of dead air. We have a lot to say.


One of the great things that w are doing right off the bat with this company is the development of the SP Presentation Workshop/School program. We're still at odds on what we're calling it, so you will see it referred to as a school or classroom or workshop, but regardless, they will be 2 separate but content-overlapping days of presentation theory and practical application development in an intimate environment within the SquarePlanet workspace once a month. Two days—one for creative endeavors like design, layout, typography, brand management, concept development and writing—and one day for presenter education, like getting comfortable in front of a group, the structure of a good presentation, techniques for powerful speaking, interacting with an audience, thinking on your feet and other techniques. Both days will include a bit of overlap from each session so you can focus on one part of your presentations, or you can attend both classes and get the big picture thinking that will make your presentations worth sitting through.


These are beginning in the middle of January, and will be in the middle of the second week. Seats are already almost filled for January, so if you are interested, drop us a line. We're still working through the details of the pricing, but figure in the range of $750 per day per person.


I think we also might be offering a FREE seat in the January 2-day school in a Facebook contest soon, so if you are interested, definitely pay attention to our other social media outlets.




-doug