I took back my first iPad because it didn’t support full mirroring via a projector, but I’ve given several presentations using only my iPad 2, and so far, it’s always worked like a charm. I just double-check with the venue that they have a projector with a VGA input, and I’m good to go — often making adjustments up until the last minute. I love the simplicity of Keynote on iOS and I love being able to illustrate a point by drawing onscreen with my Boxwave stylus in Adobe Ideas. Simple. Easy.

Here’s how I do it. (Drawn with Adobe Ideas — see it bigger on Flickr.)

Need a speaker for your event? See my speaking page →

Austin Kleon at PechaKucha Night Austin 07 from PechaKucha Night Austin on Vimeo.

Above is the video for my Newspaper Blackout Pecha Kucha presentation last month in Austin.

What is Pecha Kucha?

PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of “chit chat”, it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It’s a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.

It was incredibly difficult to time and plan out, and it’s probably the best presentation of my work that I’ve come up with. The audience was really amazing. Thanks to everyone who came, and thanks to Carla and Herman for inviting me.

Here are all my slides in one deck.

And here’s the 20-second time-lapse video that’s in the presentation:

At last week’s VizThink Austin (@VizThinkAustin on Twitter) my friend Sunni Brown asked me to give a variation of my Visual Thinking for Writers talk. Little did I know that Chris Haro of Mighty Pretty Media was going to be there taping, and he was kind enough to allow me to post it all online. I can’t imagine how much time it took him to edit 40 minutes worth of video, so thank you, Chris!

In the first three videos, I talk way too much about my writing background, then get on to good stuff, like how to use index cards to brainstorm ideas, using graphs to understand story structure, and the power of adding captions to pictures.

Thanks to Sunni, Chris, and the amazing group of folks who came out to listen to me chatter on! Here are some iPhone pics I took of them in action:

Y’all rock. I hope that those of you in the Austin area will come to the next Vizthink.

You can watch the videos below or in this Youtube playlist.

On my writing background

On discovering comics, visual thinking, and information design

From writer’s block to Newspaper Blackout

Linear vs. non-linear process

On index cards

On story structure and Kurt Vonnegut’s story charts

The power of captions, and putting pictures and words together