The importance of soft skills cannot be underrated. As it was discussed in the previous week blog post technical skills are core. So, is it enough to succeed? In fact, people would unlikely follow Mark Zuckerberg in his aspiration to launch Facebook if he did not have the great presentation skills to sell his idea. In this blog post we share simple and valuable advice that your child can start applying with the next school presentation task.

1. Simplify and stress the main message

Before creating a blog in any format, one should ask: “What do I want my audience to remember?” After that, get rid of all unnecessary elements that are not related to the main topic. The paramount idea is to build logical structure and identify the visual centre (the element, your audience should take a look at first). The example below puts this idea visually, contrasting right and wrong approaches.

2. Use “The Rule of Three”

The advice we inherited from Apple founder, Steve Jobs. He claims that up to three short lines of argument is a basis for a successful speech. It will help a speaker focus when the audience will be able to follow the material better. People do not like complicated talks. In the MacWord presentation in 2007, Jobs discussed three products: telephone, MP3 player, and internet device. Though it was all about one product: iPhone. Thus, winners use simple and brief messages to be recognisable. To help your child start applying the rule, prepare together a simple tree point note for every school presentation, oral or visual task. When it becomes a habit, the little speaker becomes much more confident about what to say and how.

3. Less words, more visuals

Pictures draw greater attention than text or graphs. By our nature we all love stories; it triggers emotional response. To present data in story format, visual contents must be used. It will let people immerse into your story, build and enlarge emotional ties. For instance, if your child would like to talk about the history of car manufacturing in a blog, contrasting pictures from the past and present will make it vivid and memorable rather than simple tables with date and place. To learn how to create your own visuals, check our Digital Art Workshop video from our Visual Art’s teacher at the end of this post.

4. Build a composition

Rule of thirds is a very useful tool utilized by photographers, artists and graphic designers. Any visual artist knows this principle. According to the rule of thirds, an image looks more exciting and dynamic when the main subject is not placed in the centre of a picture. Visual experts’ advice is to place the subject to where the lines of a net intersect (any corner); it will make a more interesting composition, putting stronger emphasis. A child can make better, more professional visuals if applying the simple rule of thirds.

5. Balance the colours

The most advantageous combinations of colours are using different shades of a single colour, several close tones and contrast combinations. A simplistic way to balance colours is to use a picture as a basis for the colour layout. For this purpose, place a dropper in Photoshop on a picture and choose a more convenient colour shade. The same hack is used when creating a blog in social media, such as Instagram stories where dropper function is also included.

To get more professional insides about Photoshop, Illustrator and other visual mastering programs, you can sign up for the free trial lesson on Photo and video editing + YouTube. Let’s help your child to build stronger visual skills in 2021!

For more information about Kiddy School and our courses please visit the program page.