Author: Mary Gow

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7 Ways to Make Your Presentations Sparkle

Hypnotic2
Image by Mary Gow
If you have nine minutes to spare watch these two videos. The first is produced by BNET Video, with Carmine Gallo explaining how to present like Steve Jobs. The shorter video below features tech evangelist and author Guy Kawasaki. Here’s a highlight of their tips:

1) Set the theme with a single headline;

2) Provide an outline and verbally open and close each section with a transition;

3) Be big on visuals and short on bullet points;

4) Make your numbers meaningful (for example “75,555 iPhones are sold every day”);

5) Use video clips, surprise guests, memorable props (like he unveiled the mac air by pulling it out of an interoffice envelope;

6) Use Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 presentation rule: use 10 slides, talk no longer than 20 minutes, and use 30 point type (or a point size that’s the age of the oldest member of the audience); and

7) Rehearse rehearse rehearse. Know your material (so you can captivate your audience as you talk through your compelling images).

Do you have any tips to add?

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Inside the Modern

Inside SFMOMA
"Inside the Museum," Photo by Mary Gow

I took this photograph at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The Steins Collect show is a “must see” (through September 6th) if you enjoy the work of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. A movie that shows at noon most days and runs 52 minutes documents the endearing friendship between the two artists.

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5 Tips for Making a Living as an Artist

Recently I heard a panel of five artists each share five tips on making a living as an artist. Here’s my distillation, my favorite five after going over 25:

1) Realize you are a brand and people buy into how you present yourself.

2) Making art is a daily practice so always be making something. Especially something that means a lot to you.

3) Don’t get discouraged by the noes. You’ll learn from each one.

4) Have integrity. This is perhaps the most important quality.

5) Find your place, your voice. Don’t even think about the “Art World” when you make your art.

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Make Your Own Scan-O-Gram

Gow-O-Gram

Gow-O-Gram
Gow-O-Gram by Mary Gow

Photograms are one of my favorite art forms. They are cameraless photographs often produced by placing objects on top of photo-sensitive paper and flashing them with light under the photo enlarger in the darkroom. I once saw images of objects scanned and decided that might be a way to shortcut going to the darkroom. Here’s the result of my first experiment on my scanner. Making art from your image scanner has been around for as long as the scanner has been around. What have you been scanning?