5 Ways to Enhance Your Presentation Flip Charts with Color, Shapes, Borders, and Images

There has been quite a bit of research on the impact of color, images, and other graphic additions and the effect that they have on the human brain. Unfortunately, many trainers and educators fail to consider the potential for using visual elements to stimulate brain neurons. Nor do they recognize that adding a splash of different hues to their presentation flip chart pages might actually contribute to learning. The following chart shows the emotions communicated in various colors.

COLOR	EMOTION/MESSAGE
Red	Stimulates and evokes excitement, passion, power, energy, anger, intensity. Also, it can indicate “stop,” negativity, financial trouble, or shortage.
Yellow	Indicates caution, warmth, mellowness, positive meaning, optimism, and cheerfulness. It can also stimulate thinking and visioning.
Dark Blue	Depending on the shade, you can relax, soothe, indicate maturity, and evoke trust, and tranquility or peace.
Light Blue	Cool, youthful, or masculine images can be projected.
Purple	Projects assertiveness or boldness, youthfulness, and contemporary image. Often used as a sign of royalty, richness, spirituality, or power.
Orange	It can indicate high energy or enthusiasm. Emotional and sometimes stimulates positive thinking. The organic image can result.
Brown	An earth-tone that creates a feeling of security, wholesomeness, strength, support, and a lack of pretentiousness.
Green	Can remind of nature, productivity, positive image, moving forward or “go,” comforting, growth, or financial success or prosperity. Also, can give a feeling of balance.
Gold/Silver	Illustrates prestige, status, wealth, elegance, or conservative image.
Pink	Projects a youthful, feminine, or warm image.
White	Typically used to illustrate purity, cleanliness, honesty, wholesomeness, enhance colors used, and provide visual relaxation.
Black	It represents a lack of color. It creates a sense of independence, completeness, and solidarity. Often used to indicate financial success, death, seriousness, or heaviness of the situation.

Enhance Your Presentation Flip Charts by The Creative Trainer

Take advantage of what researchers have discovered about using colors and visual elements to enhance your learning environment and aid in the acquisition and retaining of information.

Consider the following presentation flip chart tips when you design your next training or presentation visual aids.

1. Use Colored Icons or Bullets in various shapes that relate to your topic in order to visually tie to written text and the program theme. Here are some examples:

• For training on telephone skills, use small telephones or headsets;
• For customer service skills, use small smiley faces or faces with various expressions;
• For travel-related training, use cars, boats, ships, airplanes, etc.
• For EEO or legal training, use justice scales; and
• For technical skills, use small computers or other equipment.

2. Use Colored Shapes Around Text to set off the words from the surrounding material. For example, you might use clouds, stars, circles, bursting bombs, or geometric shapes drawn in various colors to highlight a concept, word, or phrase.

3. Attach Key Concepts Written on Cut Out Shapes that you then attach to the page with either tape, Velcro, or artist’s adhesive. For example, a creative training content review activity where “bright ideas” might be elicited from learners and written on light bulb cut-outs in various colors. Learners could then come up, attach their idea to a sheet of paper, and discuss their idea. Post the pages for everyone to view and note during breaks.

4. Add Borders to flip chart pages with either colored markers or colored tape. You can tie to program themes by adding images related to the topic. For example, if you are discussing selling or doing business in another country, choose images that relate to that country.

5. Add Images that are done in various colors. Cartoon characters, caricatures, simple stick figures, and similar figures are great. Go to Microsoft Word® toolbar to Insert/ Picture/Clip Art for ideas. If you cannot draw well and have an overhead projector still sitting around, you can make copies of images on transparency film, project it onto a flip chart page and trace it! You can also create a slide and project it on paper to trace.

By using these simple flip chart presentation tips when designing and developing your flip charts for learning events, you potentially increase the opportunities for learners to gain, retain, recall, and use what they learn.