Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

— Duarte Design, one of the world’s leading agencies focused on professional and business presentations, has announced the publication of Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences (Wiley, $29.95, October 2010) a new book by CEO Nancy Duarte that demonstrates the role of fundamental elements of dramatic storytelling structure in the creation of modern presentations by businesspeople and other communicators.

As a recognized leader in the presentation design field, Mrs. Duarte’s agency has been hired to help global organizations and thought-leaders, including many high tech clients, former Vice President Al Gore, and TED.

Mrs. Duarte draws on more than 20 years in presentation design and inquiry to understand how storytelling — humanity’s most important, innate, and ancient form of complex communication — operates in modern presentations. Resonate shows readers how to leverage the same techniques used in film and literature to transform presentations into dramatic journeys, to captivate and connect with audiences, to persuade and to inspire.

In an age when slide and multimedia presentations have emerged as one of the dominant forms of communication in the world today — used in everything from product launches to documentaries — Resonate addresses the very real problem of presentation illiteracy. Almost every business deal is decided based on a presentation, yet most are boring and ineffective — potentially wasting millions of dollars spent on product development, marketing, and advertising. The techniques and teachings in Resonate are important to any presenter who seeks to move audiences to understanding and action.

“Over the years I worked on thousands of presentations but when I sought to find out what features distinguish the truly great ones I found the answers in screenwriting, Greek and Shakespearean drama, mythology, literature, and philosophy,” said Mrs. Duarte. “Powerful presentations are always stories, and people who understand the dramatic structure of the medium will be best able to reach their audiences and communicate not just information, but meaning.” 

Since 1988, Duarte Design has created over a quarter of a million presentations, working with global companies and thought-leaders to influence the perception of some of the world’s most valuable brands and many of humanity’s common causes. Duarte Design clients have included Adobe, Cisco, Food Network, Facebook, GE, Google, Al Gore, HP, Nokia, TED, Twitter,
and World Bank.

Mrs. Duarte’s 2008 book, Slide:ology—The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations, about best practices for visual communication, won the Axiom Design award.