Interview presentation font size

frag420

Hi

I have a second round interview this Thur which involves doing a presentation, I pretend to represent the company whom I am interviewing with and the interviewees will be the clients. They have provided a brief to work from and I am using Powerpoint for the presentation. Now the presentation is very text heavy, I have decreased the amount of text used by using bullet points however there is still quite a bit of text on some of the slides.

Now I was told to have the font size no smaller than 30 so as to make it readable, its currently 18. So I was wondering if I had one slide answering one part of the brief would it be better to keep all that info on the one slide at 18 font size or use two slides at 30 font size this splitting the info between the two slides. There are three aspects to the brief so this would need to be done for each as each has a lot of info.

Also can anyone recommend a cool font to use instead of the standard Arial, calibre, Times etc?

Sorry about the long post and hope it makes sense....

cheers

riaganach

frag420 wrote: »

Hi

I have a second round interview this Thur which involves doing a presentation, I pretend to represent the company whom I am interviewing with and the interviewees will be the clients. They have provided a brief to work from and I am using Powerpoint for the presentation. Now the presentation is very text heavy, I have decreased the amount of text used by using bullet points however there is still quite a bit of text on some of the slides.

Now I was told to have the font size no smaller than 30 so as to make it readable, its currently 18. So I was wondering if I had one slide answering one part of the brief would it be better to keep all that info on the one slide at 18 font size or use two slides at 30 font size this splitting the info between the two slides. There are three aspects to the brief so this would need to be done for each as each has a lot of info.

Also can anyone recommend a cool font to use instead of the standard Arial, calibre, Times etc?

Sorry about the long post and hope it makes sense....

cheers

Is it a technical or sales presentation they want you to do?

Presentations should not be text heavy....

Let me give you a few ideas:

1. Use < 10 slides, little text, lots of pictures.
2. Use up to 10 text or diagram heavy backup slides. So if someones asks you a question, you can refer to a back up slide to further info
3. If people are reading your slides, they're not listening to you
4. If you are reading your slides, you're wasting your time!!! (Have one or two key ideas for each slide and practice out loud your delivery).
5. Don't use a laser pointer
6. Don't stand behind any tables or lecturns- walk about!
7. Google 'Presentation Zen' and buy the book for future reference
8. Tell a story and use the acronym SCRAP - situation, conflict, resolution, action, proof.

Best of luck with it...

Zipppy

riaganach wrote: »

Is it a technical or sales presentation they want you to do?

Presentations should not be text heavy....

Let me give you a few ideas:

1. Use < 10 slides, little text, lots of pictures.
2. Use up to 10 text or diagram heavy backup slides. So if someones asks you a question, you can refer to a back up slide to further info
3. If people are reading your slides, they're not listening to you
4. If you are reading your slides, you're wasting your time!!! (Have one or two key ideas for each slide and practice out loud your delivery).
5. Don't use a laser pointer
6. Don't stand behind any tables or lecturns- walk about!
7. Google 'Presentation Zen' and buy the book for future reference
8. Tell a story and use the acronym SCRAP - situation, conflict, resolution, action, proof.

Best of luck with it...

Great advice...similar to what I might have said .. Bar point 9 ... Whilst a fab point, how in practice would you use in a presentation ?
I've done a few interview presentations over the years ( didn't get jobs mind) so perhaps myself and OP would benefit from expansion of this point....

frag420

riaganach wrote: »

Is it a technical or sales presentation they want you to do?

Presentations should not be text heavy....

Let me give you a few ideas:

1. Use < 10 slides, little text, lots of pictures.
2. Use up to 10 text or diagram heavy backup slides. So if someones asks you a question, you can refer to a back up slide to further info
3. If people are reading your slides, they're not listening to you
4. If you are reading your slides, you're wasting your time!!! (Have one or two key ideas for each slide and practice out loud your delivery).
5. Don't use a laser pointer
6. Don't stand behind any tables or lecturns- walk about!
7. Google 'Presentation Zen' and buy the book for future reference
8. Tell a story and use the acronym SCRAP - situation, conflict, resolution, action, proof.

Best of luck with it...

Cheers for the advice, very helpful. It is a media sales presentation.......
I am going to minimise the text in the presentation and then hand out a printed presentation afterwards that will go into more detail should they require it for reference.

I see a reference to point 9......am I missing something here??

Zipppy

frag420 wrote: »

Cheers for the advice, very helpful. It is a media sales presentation.......
I am going to minimise the text in the presentation and then hand out a printed presentation afterwards that will go into more detail should they require it for reference.

I see a reference to point 9......am I missing something here??

My bad...I meant point 8 ...apologies

riaganach

To answer Zippy:

That SCRAP acronym is good for certain types of presentations. For example when you're trying to get mind-share with a group for some solution you're proposing.

However it isn't very applicable for sales presentations. Might come across as too simplistic or patronising.

When SCRAP was taught to us, it was not just suggested as a way to communicate in presentations, but also for 'efficient' communication in other scenarios. It has a sort of logical narrative that helps bring people with your thinking. And it's easy to remember!

stevenmu

You should ask if they have a PowerPoint template they could share with you. The presentation would then look familiar and professional to them, and should meet any of their requirements regarding fonts etc.

frag420

stevenmu wrote: »

You should ask if they have a PowerPoint template they could share with you. The presentation would then look familiar and professional to them, and should meet any of their requirements regarding fonts etc.

I did consider this but decided it beast to be 100% independent of them when doing this. O looked at some of their case studies for previous campaigns and the fonts are all Calibri which I find boring. This presentation brief is for a major kids movie for a major film studio(while this is only for an interview these are the type of briefs I will be working on should I get the job) so I was trying to find a font that stands out a bit more than the usual but without being too.........out there i guess, so as to distract from the presentation. Maybe I am over thinking it??

If anyone has any suggestions I am all ears or eyes in the case of boards!!

Eoin

Don't over think the font thing, and err on the side of caution. You're not designing a movie poster. If they always use Calibri, then that sounds like an easy choice - I think it would be a positive for it to feel more familiar to material they've seen or created before. Don't use Times New Roman though; it looks butt ugly on screen.

I am going to minimise the text in the presentation and then hand out a printed presentation afterwards that will go into more detail should they require it for reference.

Good idea - have the explanatory text in the notes section for each slide, which won't appear on the screen. Just use the slides to emphasise what you're talking about; there's no point in reading out the exact same text they'll be reading on-screen as has been said above.

Now I was told to have the font size no smaller than 30 so as to make it readable, its currently 18. So I was wondering if I had one slide answering one part of the brief would it be better to keep all that info on the one slide at 18 font size or use two slides at 30 font size this splitting the info between the two slides. There are three aspects to the brief so this would need to be done for each as each has a lot of info.

30 sounds massive! But did they tell you that, or is it something someone else told you?

LFC Murphy

Sorry to bud in, I also have a 10 minute presentation to deliver.

I'm wondering if I mimic the company's presentation template i.e. branding, logo etc or do I style it myself independently.

Thanks