Here are some of the questions we are frequently asked
about consulting and the creation of written documents:

—   Do you create PowerPoint slides for clients?
—   Do you create page layouts?
—   PDF allows no further editing. Is this not a problem?
—   Is your consulting limited to creating materials?

 

Do you create PowerPoint slides for clients?

We indeed create slides for clients, but not with PowerPoint:
instead, we use tools we developed ourselves, which allow
a finer, more reliable control on the slides' visual structure.
We then deliver the set of slides to our clients as a PDF file.

We seldom create slides for clients out of context, however.
Slides are for getting a message across. If we are to design
effective slides, we are best involved in identifying messages,
too—and ideally in coaching speakers to use the slides well.

Do you create page layouts?

We have a strong interest in visual structure, and we definitely
create page layouts, but seldom for texts we have not written
ourselves. We believe that an effective visual structure results
from a tight integration of verbal and nonverbal components,
so we typically adapt text to layout as much as layout to text.
In other words, what we do for clients is create documents—
we seldom write a text or develop a page layout in isolation.
Here, too, what we deliver is a PDF file or a printed document.

PDF allows no further editing. Is this not a problem?

No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone
else's draft, as H.G. Wells put it. Clients can indeed be surprised
to be promised PDF files only, not the usual “.ppt” or “.doc” files.
Changes by someone else than the “architect” of the document,
however, often endanger the stability or harmony of the whole.
We go the extra mile to ensure that the documents we construct
address the desiderata of the client satisfactorily, but we think it
better not to allow changes once we have reached this objective.
In our experience, this approach is rarely an issue for our clients
(if it is, we recommend that they do not entrust the project to us).

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Is your consulting limited to creating materials?

Presentation slides, written documents, and graphical displays
are often the most tangible deliverables of our contributions,
but our consulting services are broader. We often accompany
larger initiatives, helping clients select, organize, and express
information—or, better, messages—in the most effective ways
and through the most appropriate channels. Such consulting
may involve interviewing people, facilitating decision-making,
creating (or supervising the development of) various materials,
coordinating contributions, writing scripts, coaching speakers,
all the way to helping set up rooms. We will do what is needed
to ensure that the communication initiative be most successful.