The Contrast
An important job of the slide designer is to gather information and ideas and arrange them so that they present a well organized message to the viewer. A second and equally important job is to make your presentation interesting or even exciting. Contrast is a wonderful tool for accomplishing this.
Contrast is simply the use of something different. It can used with any element in your project: type, a graphic or photograph, texture, rules, alignments, white space, or balance just to name a few.
One way to employ contrast is to simply balance one element with a different element. An extra bold typeface with a normal face. A red with a blue. A large object with a small one. A single element balanced against a large white space. This is what I call “balance” contrast and the list of examples can be as long as you want to make it. Often the greater the contrast the greater the interest.
The second, and I think more exciting, way to use contrast is to set the stage in a slide (or maybe even your entire presentation) with regular, repetitive, organized material and then dramatically break that organization with an oversized, off axis, or off-center element. Maybe a large or brightly colored graphic — often the bolder the better. This is what I call “splash” contrast and it can be a very dramatic and quite effective way of turning a boring slide set into an exciting project.
Examples of “splash” contrast: A large drop cap introducing a block of text or a quote. One large photo on a slide of equally spaced, equally sized smaller photos. A large irregular graphic that forces a run-around in neat columns of text.
Be brave, be bold, surprise your viewer with contrast. It is the spice of your presentation’s life.