PowerPoint Foreground Effects

An anonymous poster asked for clarification on PowerPoint foregrounds and effects. Can anyone point to some examples?

Certainly, slowly dissolving a foreground element to reveal the entire image in the background can be an effective presentation effect.

Or, you can also choose to leave what is hidden to the audience's imagination. This technique is becoming increasingly popular.

For example, suppose this picture is the image on your standard 10 x 7.5" PowerPoint slide with a white background:

Now, suppose you put the Mandala foreground in front of this image:

The slide now has a different feel. But...exactly how does it make you feel? Like you aren't seeing the whole picture? Or perhaps you might feel more focused on the subject? How can this effect help...or hinder...a presentation?

I'm also seeing quite a bit of what I call "The Twister Effect" in advertising (brochures, print ads, some TV ads, etc.) where quite a bit of the underlying image is hidden behind a series of circles. And some of the circles that would normally reveal "what lies beneath" are instead colored to match the company's corporate color or logo treatment.

With the "Twister" effect, perhaps the designer is trying to take common images in our visual landscape and turn them into icons. After all, thanks to increased computer usage, our eyes are becoming more accustomed to interpreting rounded graphic shapes as action events, icons that beg to be touched and clicked upon.

Could it be that the recent design trend toward using rounded rectangles and circles a visual cue to take the hard edges off technology, to make technology use seem more personal and touchable?

¶ 4/27/2006 03:45:00 PM