Almost every design project has a DIY option available for ambitious amateurs. For example, you can remodel your own kitchen, cater your own wedding, and knit your own holiday sweater. However, even though you can tackle these tasks on your own, should you?
For example, is it really a good idea to remodel your own kitchen if you have no construction skills? Probably not.
For DIY projects, the more technical skills you have, the better your chances will be for success, no matter how simple something appears on Pinterest or YouTube.
Articles featuring Pinterest fails have been popular recently due to their hilarious content featuring DIY projects gone wrong. Check them out here and here. The point of these articles is clear: amateurs beware; professionals make difficult projects look simple.
This lesson can easily be applied to presentation design. Professional presentation designers make the art of presentation slide design look simple. Don’t be fooled though; creating a custom deck that includes sophisticated visuals is a challenge often best left to the pros.
If, however, you are one of the few design amateurs with just enough experience and determination to successfully tackle a DIY presentation design, we have the resource you need to get started: presentation design tutorial videos created by professional presentation designers.
The presentation design tutorial video below provides instructions on how to use color overlays with photos on PowerPoint slides. This technique can be executed completely within PowerPoint; Photoshop is not necessary for this tutorial.
View the two slides below, as well as the subsequent slide deck to see examples of color overlays on photos within a PowerPoint presentation:
View these slides within the completed presentation deck below:
Check back often for more PowerPoint tutorial videos.
Also, check out our Presentation Makeover series on the Official SlideShare blog. Similar to Pinterest fails, we showcase DIY versions of slides, and then also show how those slides were transformed by Ethos3 professional presentation designers.
Slide Makeovers: Presentation Design Lessons from Real Slides
Slide Makeovers: Buffer’s Social Media Guide
Slide Makeovers: How We Amplified a Bestselling Author’s Advice
Conclusion: If you are a design novice, and you plan to attempt the Design-It-Yourself approach for your next presentation, arm yourself with as many technical skills as possible. Subscribe to the Ethos3 YouTube channel to receive the latest additions to the Ethos3 Presentation Design Tutorial library. If you would like to leave presentation design to the professionals, contact us today.
