When scientists and other academics start creating their own figures or laying out their own documents, things tend to go wrong, and they go wrong in predictably frustrating ways, because in all those years of doing one’s PhD nobody spends a few minutes explaining the basics of graphic design to you. I've taught scientists the basics of data presentation, design, and typography at Duke University, the University of Queensland, and the National Center for Evolutionary Synthesis. I’m available to run hands-on workshops or give demonstrations in the topics below, and one-on-one consultancy or specific design jobs at an hourly rate. Contact me if you’re interested.
Text Essentials Nobody Knows
No double spaces, special characters, combining fonts, setting tabs and indents,
line and paragraph spacing, the wonders of styles.
Handout:
Exercise:
Editing Tips:
PowerPoint that Doesn’t Suck
Why PowerPoint is evil, fonts and colors, fixing templates, fill effects,
drawing diagrams, appropriate animation, tricks for running shows smoothly.
Handout:
The Truth About Eels:
Better Charts and Graphs
Three goals of info, chartjunk, conveying difference, simplifying furniture,
direct labels and captions, Excel improvement checklist.
Handout:
Exercises:
PowerPoint:
Wrangling Long Documents
Disabling AutoCorrect, section breaks, headers and footers,
styles, tables of contents, the Normal template, figures, citations, and printing.
Handout:
Scanning & Graphics Essentials
Resolution (ppi, dpi, lpi), color models and bit depth, scanning and moirés,
adjusting levels, Unsharp Mask, file types for print and web.
Handout:
PowerPoint:
