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How to make PowerPoint scream

Saturday, August 11th, 2007, by Daniel V.

When you ask any designer worth a salt to work with PowerPoint (or any Microsoft software, for that matter), they usually cringe. After all, professional creative types who consider software by Adobe to be the tools of choice are bound to scoff when presented with the watered down, wizard-laden offerings that make up MS Office. However, when WashingtonVC wanted to strengthen their branding efforts, we stepped up to the challenge by making PowerPoint scream.

One of the design briefs was to raise the bar on their PowerPoint presentation - and - simultaneously port that presentation over to a web-friendly Flash version. We looked at PowerPoint and decided we’d try to make it scream. Our flash designer, Mike Wasiak (”Woz”) was tasked with testing PowerPoint and pushing it to the limit. This testing allowed us to find what technical constraints we’d be working within and where PowerPoint could allow us to make WashingtonVC shine.

After much perseverance, frustration and eventual victories by Woz, we managed to create a PowerPoint presentation that uses some beautiful digital video, vector-based flash animation and slide layouts that have taken PowerPoint to a completely new level.

The feedback we’ve received on this presentation has been flying thick and positive. Check out the web-based flash version of this presentation for yourself and contact us if you want one for your organization