Freshen Up Your ColorsMonday, July 20, 2009 at 12:22 PM EDT
Photo (c) sundstrom, ID849660, www.sxc.hu.
You can keep your presentations fresh by updating the colors you use on a
regular basis. While the use of color should always support the message of your
presentation, there’s no requirement that you have to use the same set
of
colors year in and year out.
Blue can still mean “business†and green can still evoke images
of growth and success, just in slightly more up-to-date shades and tints. To
find those new colors, visit Pantone’s website for their seasonal color
forecasts.
Pantone is a company
that standardizes color specifications for a wide variety of industries and
applications from printing to fashion. Several times a year they release color
forecast reports for upcoming seasons. The latest one I’ve looked at is
the Fashion
Color Report for Fall 2009.
Ten to twelve new colors are described in these short reports, and each
color’s Pantone number and CMYK equivalents are provided. Unfortunately,
PowerPoint only deals with RGB and HSL color schemes, so a bit of conversion is
required. I found a simple
one on the web created by Peter Forret and converted the CMYK values to RGB
values that PowerPoint can understand.
Here is the table
of CMYK to RGB values for the color trends listed in the Fall 2009 report.
Note that the colors in the PDF will vary depending on the monitor/projector
used. If you don’t like a particular color, try adjusting it within
PowerPoint, or use an online tool such as Adobe’s kuler to help you select another shade
(kuler can handle CMYK values and can convert them to RGB for you).
I’ve created a sample
presentation using some of the new colors. Take a look and feel free to
adapt for your own needs.
Peace,
Lee
  
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