As wonderful as pictures are for bringing colorful depth to speaking subjects, they are merely a part of the visual vocabulary skills you’ll master in this course. Appreciating the importance of PowerPoint’s shape tools, and all the ways shapes can improve your design and content goals, is another critical step toward visual fluency. This book opens your eyes to shape-based content—what we call shape graphics—and then looks at essential color considerations that may have never crossed your mind.

The book’s later pages are a sanity saver in coming days, too. That’s because part of being a visual communication expert is knowing how to prioritize which message components deserve the time and resources associated with quality design. Not all do. You need to know which are which. We’ll cover:

• Designing with shape color gradients
• Applying Shape Effects
• Filling shapes with pictures
• Making Custom Shapes
• Best practices for color
• Making Shape Graphics
• Examples of content made with shapes
• Slide Visualization techniques
• Preparing for your Presentation Platform