Xplane This

After spending 14 years in the federal government (the Department of Defense to be exact), I've suffered through thousands of poorly designed Power Point presentations (several of them my own). Many of you may remember when Power Point became the ubiquitous presentation software of choice for anyone trying to sell anything to anyone. We've all endured spinning thingies, flashing text, blinding color schemes and obnoxious sound effects. And to what end? Often the presentation fails to communicate due to poor design, and we find ourselves in a room full of sleepy heads going up and down like oil pumps on the Texas plains. I wondered if anyone would ever figure out how to present information that was visually precise and helped the boss/client/whomever make an informed decision. Then I stumbled across Xplane, "an information design firm that develops visual maps and stories to make complex business issues easier to understand."

Xplane shows the power of design to communicate complex issues visually. They take hordes of ugly Power Point slides and background papers and transform the information into a visual story that gets the point across in half the time with twice the power. Check out the before and after shots. Stunning. And who said illustration is dead?

I love what they do. Why? This type of design work reshapes people's perceptions of design. It's not just window dressing—fluff to make things look pretty or cool or whatever. No, good design can be very useful. Good design can help you get your project past the "VP of NO" or the wife of client x. Yes when design is good, it serves others well.