Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations [Paperback]

Garr Reynolds (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0321668790 | ISBN-13: 978-0321668790 | Edition: 1

In his internationally acclaimed, best-selling book Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, presentation master Garr Reynolds gave readers the framework for planning, putting together, and delivering successful presentations. Now, he takes us further into the design realm and shows how we can apply time-honored design principles to presentation layouts.

Throughout Presentation Zen Design, Garr shares his lessons on designing effective presentations that contain text, graphs, color, images, and video. After establishing guidelines for each of the various elements, he explains how to achieve an overall harmony and balance using the tenets of Zen simplicity. Not only will you discover how to design your slides for more professional-looking presentations, you’ll learn to communicate more clearly and will accomplish the goal of making a stronger, more lasting connection with your audience.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In today's economy, all of us—even those of us who aren't trained as designers—must become design thinkers.  But how? At last, Garr Reynolds has unlocked the secrets and presented them in a compelling and useful way. Whether you're a professional preparing a talk, a student tackling an assignment, or anyone trying to craft a richer life, Presentation Zen Design is the most important book you will read this year."
—Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind & Drive

"To change the world, you need to pitch. To pitch, you need to design. To design, you need this book."
—Guy Kawasaki, Co-founder, Alltop.com, and former chief evangelist of Apple

"Garr has once again visually captivated readers with a book that will inspire millions to communicate effectively. He wove together freshly inspired Zen concepts and displayed them breathtakingly. Read this book, I know it will take your breath away as it did mine."
—Nancy Duarte, CEO, Duarte Design, and author of the best-selling book slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations

"No visual backdrop will energize a lukewarm, uninspired message. But wrap a clear, powerful, authentic presentation in great design and you get what every speaker aspires to: electrical connection with your audience. Buy this book and learn from the best design educator on the planet. Your audience will thank you."
—Pamela Slim, author of Escape from Cubicle Nation

About the Author

Garr Reynolds is the author of the best-selling book Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery with over 100,000 copies sold and translated into 17 languages. A leading authority on presentation design and delivery and sought-after speaker and consultant, his clients include many in the Fortune 500. A writer, designer, musician, and long-time student of the zen arts, he is currently Associate Professor of Management at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan and Director of Design Matters Japan. Garr’s popular blog on presentation design and delivery is at www.presentationzen.com

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: New Riders; 1 edition (December 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321668790
• ISBN-13: 978-0321668790
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 0.6 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #24 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphic Design > Desktop Publishing
  • #42 in Books > Business & Investing > Skills > Running Meetings & Presentations
  • #98 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Graphics & Multimedia

More About the Author

Garr Reynolds is an internationally acclaimed communications expert, and the creator of the most popular Web site on presentation design and delivery on the net: presentationzen.com. A soughtafter speaker and consultant, his clients include many in the Fortune 500. A writer, designer, and musician, he currently holds the position of Associate Professor of Management at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan. Garr is a former corporate trainer for Sumitomo Electric, and once worked in Cupertino, California as the Manager for Worldwide User Group Relations at Apple, Inc. A longtime student of the Zen arts and resident of Japan, he currently lives in Osaka where he is Director of Design Matters Japan.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical Insights for Designing Slide Presentations January 3, 2010

By Arthur D. Johnson

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I pre-ordered this book in October and was delighted to recieve the package from Amazon.com as a delayed Christmas gift to myself. Reynolds has followed-up his best-selling Presentation Zen with this new book covering the design aspects of slide presentations. I stumbled across the Presentation Zen blog a few years ago and have been a devotee of Garr Reynolds ever since. Along with Nancy Duarte from Duarte Design, Garr has been a seminal thought leader in the movement to replace boring and tedious slide decks with interesting and engaging presentations.

A long-time resident of Japan, Reynolds combines his knowledge of Zen with his design expertise to give us a beautiful book with a strong point of view advocating simplicity as a foundation for slide presentations. The book goes well beyond mere advocacy and is chock full of specific techniques and tips that will help you build a winning presentation. Even though I've followed his work for some time, I found several useful new ideas that I'll be able to implement immediately.

Presentationzen Design covers everything from typefaces and color, through negative space (read the book), and harmony. However, Garr doesn't just make a point and move on. I especially appreciated the great research and added content. He sprinkles in supporting articles from subject matter experts such as Nancy Duarte on sketching and planning in analog, David S. Rose "The Pitch Coach" on the importance of design and delivery in high stakes venture capital presentations, and John McWade on the use of photographs to tell your story. If you can only have one design book for building your presentation this is it.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book for Presentation Creation December 30, 2009

By Jason Davis

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Presentation Zen Design is an excellent book, geared for people who want to build impactful presentations but lack a deep design background.

Garr's first book, Presentation Zen, did an impressive job at giving an overview of what makes for a great presentation. He covered preparation, crafting the story, basic design principles and delivery strategies along with a nice selection of sample slides.

This book expands significantly on the first book's design section and this is a good thing. Once you've made the decision to move beyond typical PowerPoints it's great to have a book filled with so much practical information and lots of examples. With sections on type, color, images, video, layout and presenting data (an area where so many of the presentations I see fall apart), Presentation Zen Design provides a comprehensive toolkit for creating compelling presentations.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Didn't create as much of an impact as the first book March 12, 2010

By Charlie TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Presentation Zen Design

Garr's a great writer, and his first Presentation Zen book made a huge impact on how I create PPT slides. His new Zen Design book is unfortunately more of the same. He covers some art and design topics in detail, such as color selection, font kerning, recommended fonts, how to take your own digital photographs, symmetry vs asymmetry but otherwise it is more of the same.

I read through Zen Design and felt it did not add as much value as the first book. Sure, some of the topics are interesting but I've gotten the same lessons from other professionals in the area of photography and art. It felt like Garr ran out of new topics to discuss and fleshed out some of the earlier concepts - which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Overall, I felt that you could just buy and read the first book and be well on your way. The Zen Design book isn't mandatory. It's good to read, but not as important as the first book.

Pros: Covers more design topics in detail, excellent tips abound

Cons: More of the same, nothing revolutionary, not as good as the first book

Overall: 3/5 stars