The Opportunity
Automation Anywhere’s Neeti Mehta (SVP, Brand Strategy & Culture Architect and Co-Founder) was invited to speak at the Women in Data Sciences conference at Stanford University. This was part of the larger Women in Tech series. She wanted to use this event as a time to talk about the company’s growth and expansion into Japan. This was a higher-profile engagement, and the quality of the slides had to be on par. So with that, the Public Relations team at Automation Anywhere turned to me to create something fresher that would be visually more engaging and tell the story better than what was previously done by them.
Automation Anywhere’s Neeti Mehta (SVP, Brand Strategy & Culture Architect and Co-Founder) was invited to speak at the Women in Data Sciences conference at Stanford University. This was part of the larger Women in Tech series. She wanted to use this event as a time to talk about the company’s growth and expansion into Japan. This was a higher-profile engagement, and the quality of the slides had to be on par. So with that, the Public Relations team at Automation Anywhere turned to me to create something fresher that would be visually more engaging and tell the story better than what was previously done by them.
The Services
Creative and content strategy
Creative and art direction
Design: Presentation
Design (not shown): Illustration, icon, information graphics, landing pages, web banners, Zoom virtual backgrounds
Tools: Photoshop, Illustrator, PowerPoint
Creative and content strategy
Creative and art direction
Design: Presentation
Design (not shown): Illustration, icon, information graphics, landing pages, web banners, Zoom virtual backgrounds
Tools: Photoshop, Illustrator, PowerPoint
Above are example slides of how the deck looked when it was given to me. This is a typical example of Automation Anywhere’s current style and design direction of their presentations when I joined the company. You can see the before-and-after, and the value I bring as a Designer to their story-telling capabilities.
This particular keynote was a one-time engagement. So I used a lot more animation and motion effects to level it up. Click on the video above to see how Neeti Mehta's presentation flowed.
The Partnership
Working with the PR team, I wanted to use this opportunity to do things differently and push the boundaries and comfort level on the current level of presentation design, while staying on brand. Since this was a one-off event, I figured we could do things that could get the company to think and view things differently about presentations and the art of story-telling.
Working with the PR team, I wanted to use this opportunity to do things differently and push the boundaries and comfort level on the current level of presentation design, while staying on brand. Since this was a one-off event, I figured we could do things that could get the company to think and view things differently about presentations and the art of story-telling.
I was immediately inspired by the Japanese flag. And the red dot drives the concept for this deck. I wanted to use more photography and less iconography. I also wanted to create more depth and introduce textures across flat areas of color and space. And of course, definitely utilize a lot more animation and motion effects.
The Result
When I started at Automation Anywhere, I felt like I was hired on to also bring in new ideas to design and processes—basically elevate the quality of presentations and not maintain status quo. However, people are creatures of habit and naturally tend to resist change. And I had to introduce things slowly out of the gate because change seems to happen slowly at this company. I’d begin by transforming individual slides, images or series of slides—but never an entire deck. However, I figured that if this WDS presentation was too dramatically different for the rest of the higher ups, then at least it was a one-off event and it wouldn’t necessarily be seen again.
The response I received was not the case. PR and Neeti—and other stakeholders—loved the new look and direction. And ultimately this deck helped to inspire or drive other initiatives down the road, such as the all new Corporate Presentation Template that I helped lead. For me, this was a big victory after a lot of initial push back. It gives me great satisfaction knowing that I was able to influence change for the better at a rigid company like Automation Anywhere, even in the short amount of time I was there.
When I started at Automation Anywhere, I felt like I was hired on to also bring in new ideas to design and processes—basically elevate the quality of presentations and not maintain status quo. However, people are creatures of habit and naturally tend to resist change. And I had to introduce things slowly out of the gate because change seems to happen slowly at this company. I’d begin by transforming individual slides, images or series of slides—but never an entire deck. However, I figured that if this WDS presentation was too dramatically different for the rest of the higher ups, then at least it was a one-off event and it wouldn’t necessarily be seen again.
The response I received was not the case. PR and Neeti—and other stakeholders—loved the new look and direction. And ultimately this deck helped to inspire or drive other initiatives down the road, such as the all new Corporate Presentation Template that I helped lead. For me, this was a big victory after a lot of initial push back. It gives me great satisfaction knowing that I was able to influence change for the better at a rigid company like Automation Anywhere, even in the short amount of time I was there.
