Kojo Boateng

I have just finished traveling around the planet all summer, speaking at events from Iceland to Ecuador to Rio to Barcelona to London to Mexico City to Auckland to Montreal - and places in between. What a privilege. And what made it worthwhile was meeting (and hearing presentations from) gifted design leaders like Liza Enebeis, Paula Scher, Lisa Smith, Eddie Opara, Stefan Sagmeister, Tim Goodman, Gemma O'Brien and Astrid Stavro. What made it insanely painful was sitting through talks where it quickly became clear a speaker believed that tossing one or two projects up on a screen - and then yakking endlessly about it - is “a presentation.” The difference between a story-driven talk from someone like Liza versus most designers, is the difference between lighting and a lighting bug. Thus, my fellow designers, here are Six Principles For A Pretty Damn Good Design Talk: 1. Tell a completely new story every 4 or 5 minutes - framing one overall idea or theme. If you have a twenty-minute speech, that’s five very different stories. Begin and end with your best ones. 2. A story has a clear beginning moment, a tough obstacle you overcame (in an original way) and a “wow” resolution. 3. Never be boring. If you are on an elevated stage with a spotlight, the audience is expecting you to be entertaining. Not informative. Entertaining. They are not there to hear a lecture. I once saw Frank Gehry give an hour talk on his sketching process for eight different buildings. Eight different dazzling stories. The giant room was spellbound. If Frank Gehry goes out of his way to make his lectures entertaining, so can you. 4. Rehearse. In front of your colleagues and friends. Ask them to be beyond ruthless in their criticism. Rehearse again. 5. If you can do all of these things, then accept an invitation to speak and you will knock it out of the park. 6. Again, never be boring. Be ridiculous. Absurd. But never be boring. (Yes, this rule will get you in trouble. Do not worry. Make mistakes - the audience will be with you.) – at Boston, MA