29 Visual Presentations, so Good They’ll Make You Wanna Slap Your Mamma

If you’re into exceptional visual presentations, presentation designs and visualizations in general then this is going to be a treat for you. However, if you’re not… well, sorry.

A lot has been said on how to create a great presentation. The basic rules are somewhat simple, but sticking to them and providing the information you want at the same time is a completely different story. That’s why many people struggle with it (myself included).

First, some how-to information. For those of you who want to learn interesting tactics and methods of creating great presentations here are some valuable resources:

How to Prepare Public Presentations that Knock the Socks Off by writetodone. This article gives a complete tutorial on how to create a memorable presentation. And it surely deserves a spot on a must-read list of every presentation designer.

Start your presentation with PUNCH by Presentation Zen. The beginning of a presentation is probably the most important part. If you want to have any kind of impact you have to grab your audience by the throat. Boredom is the worst enemy of every presenter.

Not to toot my own horn here, but I have my two cents in the discussion as well. Feel free to check out two posts of mine: 2 Slides That are Ruining Your Damn PowerPoint Presentation and How to Screw up Your Presentation in Just One Single Step.

OK, back to the topic. As promised, here’s a list of some exceptional visual presentations for your inspiration.

29 Presentations That are Slapping-Your-Mamma-Good

Let’s start with a set of presentations by an organization called the RSA. Their YouTube channel (RSA) is full of great talks that have one thing in common. They are all visualized by hand drawings appearing on the screen in real time. Here’s what I mean:

The Secret Powers of Time

Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

Changing Education Paradigms

21st century enlightenment

Smile or Die

Where Good Ideas Come From

The guys at Common Craft present a similar style when it comes to visualizing their presentations. However, they are using cool paper cuttings instead of real time drawing. Apart from that, their “Plain English” series provides a lot of value explaining many things that may at first seem difficult to explain.

Twitter in Plain English

Blogs in Plain English

Social Networking in Plain English

World Wide Web in Plain English

RSS in Plain English

Borrowing Money in Plain English

Electing a US President in Plain English

and finally…

Zombies in Plain English

The next package comes from GOOD Magazine. Completely different style than RSA’s or Common Craft’s (as many of the videos are not even narrated), but still, exceptional visualizations that are truly entertaining to watch.

Catch Me If You Can

Business Uncertainty

Drinking Water

The State of the Planet

Immigration

Nuclear Weapons

Of course, these three channels don’t have a monopoly for great visualizations, and there’s a lot more stuff out there. For example, these:

History of the Internet

The Animated Guide to Polish Success

Imagining the Tenth Dimension

MC Yogi – Vote For Hope

Origami In the Pursuit of Perfection

This list would not be complete without a couple of classy TED talks:

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead

Seth Godin on standing out

Hans Rosling shows the best stats you’ve ever seen

Now it’s your turn to share. Shoot me a comment and link to some great visual presentations. I will make sure to update this list with your entries.

P.S. Happy Mother’s Day! (for those of you who don’t know, in Poland the 26th of May is the Mother’s Day).