Visual Design Tips for Cover Slides #117: Challenge | Recap
Can You Judge an E-Learning Course by Its Background Image?
Need a quick way to set the stage for your course content? Try using a custom background image.
Background images are the largest object on your slide, making them one of the best ways to establish context while creating a sense of location. This works equally well for content and course cover slides.
But not all projects require custom themes or visual treatments. Most e-learning courses are built from existing templates that are modified based on the course content. That’s okay because there’s a background trick for those courses, too!
Creating Custom Backgrounds Images Using Transparency
In a recent post, Tom Kuhlmann shared a visual design tip that’s commonly used in advertising and high-end product photography.
The effect is achieved by using the same image for the focal point and background graphic. The background version is scaled beyond the slide size and transparency is dialed way up to blend the image into the background.
Here’s a before-and-after view of the effect:
Notice how the faded image fills the background without dominating the slide? This is one of the quickest ways to add richness and depth to your slide backgrounds. And that's what this week's challenge is all about!
Challenge of the Week
This week, your challenge is to create a cover screen for an e-learning course, real or fictional, using the transparent echo technique.
You can share a static image of a cover slide or add a cover screen to an existing project or challenge entry you created.
Resources and Related Challenges
- Here’s a Visual Design Tip to Make Your Slides Look Great. Learn how to create the transparent echo technique in this post from Tom.
- Show Us Your E-Learning Portfolio. This is one of the easiest challenges to complete. Just share a link to your e-learning portfolio and we’ll include your work in the challenge recap.
- Show Your E-Learning Work with Your New and Improved Member Profiles. Add your e-learning projects to your member profile pages.
Last Week’s Challenge
Before you rush off to cover this week’s challenge, take a few minutes to check out the incredible examples shared in last week’s food and beverage challenge:
Food & Beverage E-Learning RECAP #116: Challenge | Recap
Wishing you a cover-tastic week, E-Learning Heroes!
New to E-Learning Challenges?
The weekly challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos.
Published 9 years ago
Version 1.0
