A key tenet of the Zen aesthetic is kanso (簡素) or simplicity. In the kanso concept beauty, grace, and visual elegance are achieved by elimination and omission. Says artist designer and architect Dr. Koichi Kawana, "Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means." When you examine your visuals, then, can you say that you are getting the maximum impact with a minimum of graphic elements, for example? When you take a look at Steve’s slides and Bill’s slides from 2005, how do they compare for kanso? Often, the question is not what can you add, but what can you remove, or resist adding in the first place. Always ask yourself whether the old refrain “less is more” can be applied to your particular visual.

Pixar Studios filmmaker Andrew Stanton gave a great TED talk where he stated that the key aim of any good story is that it must make the audience care. The greatest story commandment of all says Stanton is: "Make me care. Please—emotionally, intellectually, aesthetically — just make me care.” If you research the advice of famous directors and screenwriters of today and of years gone by you will find this is a common refrain: You have got to make the audience care.

We are emotional beings, like it or not. To connect and engage people—enough that they care to listen, let alone remember your message—you must first evoke some kind of emotion in them.

The TED talk below is well worth watching; the storytelling lessons in this short talk are many. In this post, I highlight some of the more salient points Stanton makes concerning story.

Pixar-in-a-Box has been offered for free since 2015, and in a world of ubiquitous generative AI, it’s more important than ever to have a deeper understanding of storytelling and visual communication. This is an amazing free resource for those willing to take the time to learn from its offerings. Subjects have included color science, animation, effects, sets & staging, character modeling, and so on. Part of the aim of this project, as stated on the Pixar-in-a-Box website is to show how "The subjects you learn in school — math, science, computer science, and humanities — are used every day to create amazing movies at Pixar."

Kamishibai is a form of visual and participatory storytelling that combines the use of hand drawn visuals with the engaging narration of a live presenter. Kami (紙) means paper and shibai (芝居 ) means play/drama. The origins of kamishibai are not clear, but its roots can be taced back to various picture storytelling traditions in Japan such as etoki and emaki scrolls and other forms of visual storytelling which date back centuries. However, the form of Kamishibai that one thinks of today developed around 1929 and was quite popular in the 30s, and 40s, all but dying out with the introduction of television later in the 1950s. Typical kamishibai consists of a presenter who stands to the right of a small wooden box or stage that holds the 12-20 cards featuring the visuals that accompany each story. This miniature stage is attached to the storyteller’s bicycle. The presenter changes the card, varying the speed of the transition to match the flow of the story he is telling. The best Kamishibai presenters do not read the story, but instead keep eyes on the audience and occasionally on the current card in the frame.

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) was one of the truly great American writers of our time. In 2006, when Vonnegut was 84, a few students at Xavier High School in New York sent letters to the the legendary author asking him to visit their class. The fact that Vonnegut actually replied shows what a thoughtful and kind man he was. Vonnegut politely declined the invitation with humor and with grace: "I don't make public appearances any more because I now resemble nothing so much as an iguana," wrote Vonnegut. However, his letter offered beautiful wisdom and advice for these young students.

Shokunin kishitsu (職人気質) translates roughly as the “craftsman spirit." The documentary, in spite of its title, is not about sushi, it's about how to be a master shokunin, how to become truly great as a master craftsman. Yes, if you like sushi—and beautiful cinematography of sushi—then you'll not be disappointed. But even if you have zero interest in sushi, you will be motivated and inspired by this film; it's a wonderful documentary. No matter your job or your dreams, there are valuable lessons in this gem of a film that will help you in your own pursuit of mastery. In this post, I highlight some of the key takeaways.

Citizen Kane (1941) is a wonderful film that is fresh even today, but are there lessons in the making of the film that we can apply more broadly to other creative arts including presentations? I believe there are. The film was innovative and used techniques in storytelling and production that were not common for the time. There are many things that made the film remarkable, such as the good use of makeup to age the actors, the physicality which Welles brought to the screen, the natural feel of the dialog achieved by allowing actors to cross-talk, the smooth transitions and continuity achieved via J-cuts, unusual camera angles, long scenes without a cut, use of subjective camera, and on and on—but here are a few below from which we can extrapolate lessons for our own presentations or speeches in all their myriad forms.

There is an old saying that goes “Once you think you have arrived, you have already started your descent.” One must never think they "have arrived." You may have heard the refrain "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." This is not bad advice necessarily. However, the spirit of kaizen suggests that there is always something to learn and ways to improve, and that it is also better to prevent problems than to fix them. So, no matter how good things may seem now, there is always room for improvement, and looking to improve every day is what personal kaizen is all about. It’s not about how far you have come or how far you have yet to go, it is only about this moment and being open to seeing the lessons around you, and possessing the capacity and willingness to learn and improve. 

Presentation and storytelling lessons from the great filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. The lessons include: Visual simplicity, use of negative space, building complexity gradually, storytelling over technical flash, use of silence, speaking with authenticity, “show don’t tell” and many more. While Kurosawa was technically brilliant, his films succeeded because they told compelling stories. His technical mastery served the narrative, not the other way around. In presentations, this means your content and narrative matter more than fancy software effects. Your message is the foundation; your technical skill and design should support it.

True learning and quality content require time, deep thinking, and effort. Presentations should be a tool for learning and reflection, not just for quick communication of ideas. I propose a digital-analog-digital approach for preparation, which integrates initial AI-assisted research with dedicated time for off-line analog thinking, reading, reflection, organization, and finally digital design.