Comments on: Cliché of the Week: The Water Ripple

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:38:20 +0000

Talking about keywords? how do you manage between “topics” and “tags”?

For example, I was expecting “Cliché” as a topic on your site, but it is a tag :-p

Have you a special way to manage that?

By: Doug Neff

Doug Neff — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:26:49 +0000

Awesome reference, Brian. We’re big fans of Dan Roam here at Duarte, and we’ve also used the whiteboard style for some of our presentations. I’m sure you already read his blog, but for everyone else’s benefit, check him out here: http://www.digitalroam.typepad.com/

His book is great, too: http://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/

By: Brian O'Keefe

Brian O'Keefe — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:04:19 +0000

Although not the most uplifting visual metaphor for “impact” or “influence,” I’d suggest that a bully threatening someone may catch attention.

As for my pet peeve visuals: photo after photo of office workers in various collaborative poses. A group gathered ’round a laptop. A typical business meeting. Yes, I’ve used some of these, but I’m trying to get better :)

For the most recent web-based learning for which I wrote storyboards, I was heavily influenced by Dan Roam and choose to do it entirely as “whiteboarding,” including a hand-written type of font and hand-drawn pictures. It was much more interesting than “clean” line art graphics.

By: Mauco

Mauco — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:40:21 +0000

Really nice work! I guess we’ve all made the same mistake in the past. But its time we put a stop to same.

By: Doug Neff

Doug Neff — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:13:54 +0000

Good work, Roy. That’s the first step. :)

Anyone else want to fess up?

By: Roy Jacobsen

Roy Jacobsen — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:06:12 +0000

OK, confession time: my visual cliché is the light bulb. Betcha can’t guess what that’s symbolic of!

By: John

John — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:38:49 +0000

But I work for a water utility – now what am I going to use? :)

By: Doug Neff

Doug Neff — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:31:11 +0000

Thanks for the link, Adriano. Definitely NOT cliché…

We’ll be covering overused fonts in a few weeks, but your point about Comic Sans is well-taken. We have a few designers here who would like to see it dragged out behind the barn and shot…

By: Roy Jacobsen

Roy Jacobsen — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:10:34 +0000

This is a sneaky one, because it’s a “pretty” image. The cool blue is soothing and attractive. Ooooh, and it’s ripples in water! That’s symbolic, innit?

The problem with clichés is that people are seldom aware of them. It takes thinking, thinking about each word, each phrase, and each image in the presentation. And face it, most of us are lazy when we can get away with it.

By: Adriano Sousa

Adriano Sousa — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:46:25 +0000

A very dark sweet cliché has two words in its name: Comic Sans. When in dental school, and also out of it, the main type used in presentations was Comic Sans. Can you explain this??? I mean, what kind of serious message can be spread with Comic Sans???