Art research guide: Art 100 presentation guidelines

The following are some best practices to follow for your Art 100 PowerPoint presentations.

Narrating

• Illustrate your ideas with examples, especially images, and don’t read from your slides if you are presenting to a group.

Fonts

• Limit fonts to no more than three throughout your presentation.
• Use sans-serif fonts such as Verdana, Arial and Helvetica as these display better when using projection equipment.

Font Size

•  Always use a font size of at least 16 points.
•  Use a font size of at least 20 points if you are presenting to a large room. 

Color

• Use a small set of colors consistently throughout your presentation.
• Use a high-contrast color for text.
• Use light backgrounds with dark text when using projection equipment.

Text

• Use no more than six bullet points on a slide.
• Write no more than about six words on each line of text or bullet point.
• Use headings and subheadings for new topics.
• Spell check your presentation.
• Have another person proofread your presentation.
• Use appropriate punctuation and capitalization and use them consistently.
• Use bolding to emphasize words but avoid using italics unless citing a resource.

Layout

• Use a consistent layout for all of your slides; this is easily done by creating a master slide prior to starting.

Animation

• Use animation and transitions sparingly and consistently; dissolves, blinds and fly-ins distract the audience from your message.
• The only sound your audience should hear is your voice or other audio content; turn off sound effects on any animations you choose to use.

Graphic Elements

• Provide details of art images to demonstrate the artist's process (e.g., brush strokes), when appropriate.
• Use no more than two graphic elements per slide.

• Arial font is used (20 pt. for bullet points, and 16 pt. for image caption)
• A light backgroud with dark text is used
• Only a few colors are used
• Only six bullet points are listed
• Approximately six words per bullet point are used
• A single graphic is used

Click on the file linked below for the full-size slide.