much ado about a wall

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One of the things Garr Reynolds emphasized in his book "Presentation Zen" was the importance of great images in one's slide presentation. During the course of my preparation, the nursery rhyme about Humpty Dumpty sitting on the wall and falling over just kept playing over and over in my head. I immediately realized that this would become my presentation's theme; I had to get a good photo of a wall as soon as possible.

The numerous online images I had pored over neither felt like the wall photo I was looking for nor sparked an idea in my head. So, I thought, I might as well try sketching one. After all, I do have a drawing application in my tablet computer and a stylus in my bag. In case I wasn't happy with my sketch, at least I'd know what I was looking for.

Wacom's Bamboo Paper application came in handy for the sketches I needed to make. After drawing several drafts, I finally settled on a doodle of a stone wall (in side view) inspired by the firewall at Atoy's Porkchop, a restaurant chain which has a branch along the national highway in my hometown. I've never eaten there but I'm fascinated by the gray stones forming its firewall.

 

Drawing the view from the side was an idea I borrowed from the movie adaptation of Neil Gaiman's "Stardust". The rest of my artistic efforts (energy largely deflated after wall doodles) resulted in stick figures representing people. Yes, stick figures.

This wall, roughly drawn, is hardly a masterpiece; however, I was happy with it; happy enough to use it in my slide deck. Finally, I had the centerpiece of my talk!

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