A presentation is a method of giving or showing information to someone. Designers including students, graphic, industrial and environmental designers all need to present work to others.

The purposes of presentations may be to seek feedback during the design process or to present a completed design concept to a client.

The contexts for presentations can be classrooms, design studios, office boardrooms or in real life locations where the designs will live.

Presentations can be oral, written, visual, two and three-dimensional and virtual screen-based.

Presentations in Visual Communication Design can be made at different stages of the Design Process. Students may be asked to present their ideas or design concepts as part of a Critical or Reflective Design Thinking routine. In Unit 4 students are required to present designs to their class in a pitch. Presentations made at during the design process are for formative assessment including peer feedback.

Final presentations are the realisation of the Design Process. They are the end point for students and the means for them to demonstrate their understanding of a brief; its constraints including the purpose, context, functional and aesthetic considerations and the application of elements and principles of design, materials, methods and media, relevant technical and/ or stylistic conventions and technical processes. Final presentations are intended for summative assessment.

Final presentations made at junior and middle secondary school are typically single presentation drawings. A rendered isometric or logo printed on paper are example of these final presentations. As students progress though senior secondary towards VCE their final presentations will become more complex and involve multiple components. A branding presentation, for example may include logos in context, a style guide, typography and colour usage information on a single sheet. Final presentations for senior students working in the fields of industrial or environmental design may also be multi sheet presentations and include two and three-dimensional drawings, technical drawings or models. Students in Units 3 and 4 need to be aware of the correct ways to label their presentations.

Students are not required to make functional prototypes in Visual Communication Design. (VCD Study Design 2018-23, p9) This means that if they are designing a machine, they are not required to build a working device. However, students are required to communicate their design ideas effectively. A mock-up is a representation of a design. A mock-up can be a digital print of a brochure or poster, a three-dimensional print of industrial design, a printed and folded package design, large format printed plans and elevations of environmental design or a partially operational website with limited functionality and connectivity to the outside world. The purpose of a mock-up is to provide the viewer (the client or assessor) with the experience of seeing, reading, holding or using the student’s design. As such, the student is expected to use elements and apply selected principles of design, choose and apply methods, media and use or indicate materials used in the real functioning visual communication. The mock-up will also reveal the student’s application of technical, stylistic and typographic conventions and techniques to engage and maintain the interest of target audiences. Finally, when students prepare print mock-ups they will be expected to demonstrate competence in pre-press techniques including image size and file management. All of these factors demonstrate the student’s use of visual language – which is paramount in visual communication.

Presentations can be made in a variety of formats. These include oral presentations supported by visual materials, two and three-dimensional mock-ups, packages and models, brochures, posters, etc., drawings, photographs, videos and screen-based presentations including virtual walk-throughs, websites, animatics and information displays.

Below are some simplified pictures to represent a range of presentation formats for the three fields of design.