Is it necessary to become a graphic artist to design effective visually interactive content? No, not really. Will it greatly expand your visual communication potential to gain some graphic design skills? Absolutely. Creating digital graphics may not be your primary calling in life, but that doesn’t mean you should always leave the job to someone else. Give serious thought to expanding your abilities in this area.

Consider that the definition of communication is changing. Because of the ever increasing influence of digital media in our lives, everyday communication (not to mention presentation) is becoming more media-based. This shift means our interactions are coming to include more visual elements. Old communication skill sets that used to consist mainly of talking, writing, and typing are being supplemented, and sometimes replaced, by media creation skills. If you don’t believe me, look at the way our kids are interacting today. Video exchange platforms such as YouTube are surpassing television in terms of viewing influence. Anyone with a cell phone can capture video clips of all imaginable events, and then the clip circulates around the world within hours on the Web.

Granted, you may not have aspirations of turning into a digital videographer, but gaining a few media creation skills, especially graphics skills, is as important these days as knowing how to type. If you don’t master such basic skills that even grade school kids are learning today, your influence in coming years will be negatively affected. As forms of visual/media language become more commonplace, you don’t want to be left behind.

Now is a good time to start enhancing your spatial abilities. At the very least, consider taking a community college course on graphic design. Grab a book, look through help files, attend workshops, or pursue whatever method suits your learning style best. You should explore at least basic skills that allow enhanced graphical expression. The freedom this knowledge brings, coupled with Relational Presentation techniques, is stunning. The entire concept of being a visually interactive presenter relies on your expertise at manipulating visuals. Yes, using photos all by themselves is good, but having the ability to change such images in ways that better suit communication goals is even better.

Adobe Photoshop is the professional standard for working with digital imagery, but numerous other options are available as well. If nothing else, learn how to downsize images (reduce the dpi), add bevel and glow to text and shapes, crop and erase portions of images, and combine different pieces of images together in aesthetically pleasing ways to create collage graphics. Many of these techniques now can be accomplished directly in PowerPoint 2007.

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