Design Concepts Presentation Assignment

 

Instructions: Use OAKS to choose a topic for your presentation. The topics consist of design principles and elements. If you would like to work as a pair, consult with your classmates and then sign up with a partner in OAKS. After researching and studying them, you will create a compelling presentation to share your findings and designs with the class.

Guidelines/Rules

The Presentation:

If you use slides, the presentation must not be text-heavy. Therefore, do not use the traditional bullet-point style. They are visually boring and the presenter might make the mistake of reading from the screen. Peruse this article to discover some ways to avoid killing the audience by bullet points.

Here are some additional guidelines and rules for preparing and delivering your presentation:

  • When showing imagery of your design principle or element, use some of your own. They can be from a past assignment, or you can create them just for this special presentation to us. This makes it more personalized and highly original.
  • Add variety to your presentation with handouts, writing on board, verbal explanations, etc.
  • If you do use slides, minimize the number, and avoid having a slide for everything that you say. Don't allow the slides to becomes a crutch.
  • Remember that your presentation should be graphics-rich and not dominated by text.  As I stressed earlier, too much text becomes a crutch and might encourage reading from the screen.
  • Be more organic with your images.  In other words, don’t copy ALL of your images from the internet.  They may not be copyright-free anyway.  So surprise us with more unexpected and not-yet-seen imagery.  For instance, if you wanted to display a road sign as a symbol of color or lines, why not take a photo of one from a familiar street corner rather than copy/paste the staid material from the web.  Or if you want a picture of a flower, why not snap a photo.  These are just two simple examples. Think! Think! Think! Create! Create! Create!!!

Content:

As for the content, your goal is three-fold:  define, show examples, and inspire. Therefore:

  1. Inform the audience of the meanings of the principle or element.
  2. Provide visual examples, including some of your own.
  3. Your presentation should inspire application of the principle and element. The oral and visual information that you provide should be so compelling, that your audience will garner ideas and be inspired to apply them in their own designs.
  4. Please keep in mind that your examples should mostly relate to desktop publishing, graphic design, websites, photography, and digital media in general. Avoid having too many examples from areas such as architecture, interior design, sculpture, and painting.  The audience should be left with a “can do” feeling in relationship to this course.

More on Delivery & Submissions:

Delivery: Be sure to start by introducing yourself. The time limit is 8 minutes for the presentation and 5 minutes Q&A. 

You must moderate the 5-minute question and answer period in an interesting way. Some suggestions are:  A) ask the audience questions, B) revisit a slide for more explanation C) suggest a question for the exam. Please don't neglect this very important part, as it will count into your grade.

 

Final Submission: Write a 1-2 page summary, as well as two possible test questions. Then upload it in the OAKs Dropbox for your group (called Presentation Summary). Feel free to include images in your summary to help make the point. The text of the summary, ideally, should be less than 500 words. If you want to submit the slides also, you may do so, but it's not required.

 

About the Grade:

This will count as a regular assignment.