I’m sure that you’ve sat through your share of less than stellar presentations. (of course our are always stellar - just ask us! ) The PowerPoint slides are out of order. The speaker reads her notes or even worse reads the slides and has her back to the audience. The pacing is comatose. The visuals suck. It’s not a pleasant experience for anyone in the room.

Whether you’re using PowerPoint or Keynote, speaking in a large auditorium or a small conference room, you can give an effective presentation by avoiding these common mistakes.

1. The deadly handout
Avoid giving audience members handouts to read before your presentation at all costs. It’s hard enough to gain and keep someone’s attention during a presentation. Add a distraction in like a handout that they can thumb through while you are speaking, and it’s over.

2. The kitchen sink
Go ahead and admit it. You’re tempted to load each PowerPoint slide with every bit of information it can hold. Visuals, composed bullet statements, sound effects, goofball transitions… Resist! Distill your content to the most relevant points and use those points as cues during your presentation.

3. The empty vessel
Have you ever listened to a long presentation and then can’t summarize what you just heard? Don’t waste your time — and your audience’s — creating a long, boring monologue. Begin with an end in mind. Figure out exactly what your goal is — and what you want the audience to understand. These goals should drive your content. Think motivational speech. I heard this once from a preacher who said ta great formula is: start low, go slow, raise higher, catch fire.

4. Keep them awake
Do not read from the slide. The bullet statements are meant as memory cues to keep you on track. THEY ARE NOT YOUR SCRIPT! Instead, add commentary that reinforces, highlights, or extends what your audience is seeing. Research has shown that most people speak at 150 words per minute, but can process language at 900 words per minute. This means by the time you have words up on the screen, your audience has already read them. (Assuming, of course, your message is interesting and relevant.) Glancing at notes is fine, but if you’re reading aloud, you’re not actively engaging your audience. Work the room!

5. The ego trip
This presentation isn’t about you. Well, not all of it anyway. Focus on your audience and how you can meet their needs. What’s in it for them? You made it to the presentation so don’t spen too much time rehashing your qualifications. If you weren’t qualified you wouldn’t be there. We’ve all had to endure endless “let’s talk about me” introductions. Make sure your presentation is written about and for your audience, not you.

6. Graphic vomit
Appearance counts. Be aware of the visual impact of your presentation and use typography, color, and imagery purposefully and consistently. Color is a powerful signal: use it to mark a new section or highlight key points. Choose fonts judiciously and make sure they’re readable. Cutesy fonts? Just say NO! Most important: make sure your presentation has a logical beginning, middle, and end, and add a call-to-action, if appropriate.

7. The data dump
Facts, figures, and statistics are important to your presentation, but they can also be as dull. Add life to key points with relevant stories, anecdotes, and humor. A great story can make even the most complicated presentation engaging and informative. It can also relax your audience and help you make a connection with them.

8. The lame leave-behind
Don’t print out your presentation as the leave-behind piece, that’s lame. Why not create an abridged version of your talk that highlights key messages or have a high-quality brochure available that includes more detailed information about the subject of your presentation.

Delivering powerful presentations relies on more than speaking skills. To make your presentation memorable, you need a compelling story that is organized in a logical manner with strong, pleasing visuals. And not one of the above mistakes.

The individual building blocks of graphic design (line, shape, color, value texture and format) demand a thorough education in and of themselves, and then an understanding of the comprehensive way in which they must seamlessly and organically work together to successfully communicate a message. To the untrained eye, choices about the various elements that make up a design may often seem mysterious or random; in fact, to many the primary skill of the designer is to make something look “right.”

While there are acknowledged best practices for achieving excellence, there is never a “one size fits all” methodology to guarantee design greatness. In fact, two essential principles of graphic design are not teachable: passion and empathy. And yet both are critical components of achieving design distinction. Design without passion is simply manipulative persuasion. Design without empathy leaves the designer without the meaningful ability to connect one mind with another through their work. At the same time, the skills that can be taught, such as working within the world of pigments, or managing the aesthetics of form, language and image, are robustly complex and can take a lifetime to master. However, the more information we have, and the more access to information we have, the more capacity we will have to create a meaningful representation of the world through design.

Graphic design has the unique ability to reflect the culture in which it is created. Color, typography, layout, and style all contribute to the modern expression of design in our society. The extension of any one of these sensory perceptions vastly impacts the way we think and act—and the way we perceive the world around us. When these perceptions change, people change; consequently, the world changes.

Those of us who live and breath the world of advertising, branding and design, have much to think about. Why should we care about brands in times like these? Because it’s during these times of recession that businesses can have the highest level of vulnerability and opportunity. Those responsible for shaping and maintaining a brand have much more influence over whether the current news climate weakens or strengthens their brand than they may realize.

It’s natural to be more motivated by the fear of what we might lose than what we have to gain - that is true of many business owners, executives and managers. The potential risk of loss creates a fight-or-flight reaction, which can lead to extremely unproductive decisions. It’s very important that they examine themselves during these times of recession, because what our brains perceives as a threat may actually be an opportunity. Authenticity and integrity will make the difference between whether a brand is vulnerable or getting stronger.

When I am confronted by companies that want to decrease their advertising during times of transition, I am reminded of something I read in Ogilvy On Advertising by marketing guru David Ogilvy. One of his favorite stories illustrates a very relevant point. David Ogilvy and a friend , Mr. Wrigley, were on a train journey to California. Ogilvy asked Wrigley that why with a lion’s share of the market, he continued to advertise his chewing gum. “How fast do you think this train is going?” asked Wrigley. “I would say about 90 miles an hour.” “Well,” said Wrigley, “do you suggest we unhitch the engine?”

Sadly, marketing budgets are usually one of the first things slashed. Marketers worry about spending, but don’t consider the long-term ramifications of their decision. Budget slashing creates brand vulnerability - a by-product of fear. The higher the fear-factor among company decision makers, the more likely that a brand will separate people and companies from their internal principles. When people are unclear about the core identity of their brand the brand is weakened. This natural inclination to react quickly to market changes can easily tip into over-reaction. This can lead to loss of market share.

Consider the opportunity that recession brings. Whether an individual or a corporation, knowing who they are should guide what they should do. Confidence comes from knowing your values and sticking to them. Uncertainty brings tests that are often difficult to foresee, but organizations that commit to being aware of their identity can make it through challenging times.

It is important to note that if an organization continues to proactively market in this environment, it can gain leverage. Organizations that enter a recession with a strategic emphasis on marketing can potentially come out of a recession ahead of the game. The marketers who perceive the recession as an opportunity can capitalize on it quickly.

A recession creates a unique environment that makes aggressive marketing even more successful. As short-sighted marketers decrease their advertising, there will be less “clutter” in the short term for marketers with vision to compete with. Consumers will be easier to reach. As spending decreases and people increase the amount of time they stay home, they will increase their consumption of media such as newspapers, magazines and television.

Proactive marketing sends a message to customers that the organization is confident even during hard times. The credibility that public relations efforts adds is perfectly suited to slowing economic times. As the economy gets better, organizations will once again start actively marketing, but the ones that continued to market during economic downturns will have a competitive advantage over those that are playing catch-up.

Napoleon once said, “The role of the leader is to define your reality and give hope.” Defining your reality starts with a deep understanding of who you are and your relationship to your audience. During these times when the media is fueling the fire of fear, fear not. If you know your brand values you will continue to act and make decisions from your brand center and be less tempted to sway when the media says the sky is falling. If you find that the heart rate of your culture is racing, do a gut check and ask yourself: are you reacting to the world of hype around you, or are you acting from the best interest of your brand?

How old is your identity? How many years have you had the same brand? In a world where the career of a tv star can be measured in weeks, it’s a good idea to reassess your brand at regular intervals. I know you may be thinking, “What about brands that have been around forever, like Ford or Xerox?” Look around, even the big ones refresh their brands and logos over the years. The change might be as subtle as the width of a font or the shade of a corporate color, or it may be an extreme makeover.

What about the introduction of a new product or service, or meger with another company? These are all appropriate times to see if your brand is keeping pace with your company’s changes and current design trends.

Let’s look at how and why two companies redesigned their brand identities.

A refreshed brand identity for a recognized company
For many years, the logo for Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) revolved around a xerographic-looking image of an old Southern Gentleman. With competition coming from companies like Church’s and Popeye’s the old guard had to move to a more contemporary look. Colonel Harland Sanders shed his white suit jacket for a red cook’s apron as the company he founded unveils a worldwide redesign of its KFC restaurants and one of the world’s most recognizable icons. The company unveiled a new brand logo that includes bolder colors and a more well-defined visage of the late Kentucky Fried Chicken founder, who keeps his classic black bow tie, glasses and goatee.

Brand redesign for diferentiation
Xerox’s branding effort is highlighted by a new corporate logo, a lower-case depiction of the Xerox name in a bright red color alongside a sphere-shaped symbol sketched with lines that link to form an “X,” which the company said is meant to symbolize its connections to its customers. Ursula Burns, Xerox President believes that, “The new image is meant to reflect the needs of today’s business and to be a bit less formal, a lot more lively with links to our heritage and a nod to the future.” Will it work? I guess we’ll find out.

Don’t change just for change’s sake.
Along with the dos there are some don’ts related to redesigning your brand. Don’t refresh or redesign your brand simply because you’re tired of it. It should be a clear-headed business decision that has a purpose. Also, if your organization has been around for any time at all, you undoubtedly have built equity in your brand. Be sure to incorporate elements of your current identity into the new identity to keep from looking like an entirely different company.

Keep your brand fresh. Your business depends on it.