Making doodles and tracing pictures

After making a zine about how much I hate Microsoft Word, I realised that I have an equally strong disdain for PowerPoint as well. Instead of using prezi as an alternative (I find it too difficult to use), I decided I’d make some doodles using a stock picture I found on google. I then used these doodles to create a powerpoint theme, with slide templates, font selections and a colour palette.

I spent some time thinking about the visual structure of the presentation, as I wanted it to express a sort of genuine ‘metamodernism’. I wanted to move away from what comes naturally to me: postmodern tendencies, ironic detachment and cynicism. Genuine whimsy creates vulnerability and closeness, which are two things that help me contain my ego, as well as my anxieties about presenting and public speaking.

Expressing a bit of creativity using such a rigid and limited medium like MS Powerpoint felt really cathartic. I was taking some control over the processor and making it work for me, instead of bending to its binary will.

Here are the doodles, slide template and some examples slides I made. I used Adobe Illustrator on my iPad, which is quite easy to use and affordable.

I was listening to Peggy Gou’s boiler room set throughout the process: great tunes.