The Future, Xplane'd

I’d seen this video around in a few places (including Rosie’s, Fiona’s and Simon’s blogs), and I wasn’t going to re-post it here… but I now have:

It’s promoting the Economist’s Media Convergence Forum in October in NYC, and it’s a treasure trove of facts, stats and info on the things that, when you piece them altogether, help build a picture of how the world is changing. 

(Steve, in his endearingly grumpy way, points out that some of the stats might be a little shaky…)

So, why did I repost when I wasn’t going to? 

I saw that it was actually created by Xplane, the visual thinking company.  Their mission is to ‘create understanding’ by helping their clients find simple, clear ways to visualise things

I’ve got a book written by founder Dave Gray called Marks and Meanings I’m a big fan of, and generally think they’ve got a great approach to simplifying complicated things to explain them well.

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So the Xplane video above is a great example of using a mix on minimal words and illustrative visuals to make points quickly and simply.  Make one simple point at a time, and build up the story sequentially.

It’s something I try to do with my own work, and encourage a culture of at PHD.  

I guess I’m on the right track; Ted at The Conversation Group took the first half of this ‘Future of Advertising’ presentation (didn’t listen to the audio) and presented it to a University class over in California… which I guess means it must be pretty self explanatory.



So yes, I think we’ve all slept through enough presentations where people read the 50 words they’ve written on a chart off the screen. 

Let’s keep it simple.

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