A loyal and avid reader since issue 06, it is about time that I make room for a few lines on my blog for Monocle — one of the best magazines in print today.

Founded by Tyler Brûlé, who also started Wallpaper magazine, Monocle is a global affairs magazine comprising niche stories, anecdotes essays, photo montages, and more in affairs, business, culture, and design. It is a cosmopolitan mix-and-match, and its sweet layout and structuring makes it great for reading on the flight, in the bathtub or on the couch.

What continues to amaze me about Monocle is that, although highly globally oriented, Denmark somehow finds its way into each and every issue (at least how I recall it) — the peak was, as some of you may remember (correctly), when Monocle placed Copenhagen as the second most livable city in the world last summer. If nothing else, Denmark at least has a place in the Kita Koga manga series at the back of each issue where Niels Watanabe goes through life as a new James Bond.

If this sounds anything like something you like, pick it up. You won’t look back.

Charlotte, my wonderful little sister, has moved to London. While I miss her incredibly, I know she is having the time of her life, of which she will, from time to time, update us on with her blog.

On the upside is of course the excuse I now have to visit London more frequently. If you are also planning on going there, remember the London Design Festival (September 15-25), which my sister says is going to be a super cool event.

This fall, what will probably be one of the top five books on presentation design and technique you’d want in your bookshelf will be published.

Garr Reynolds (check out his website — gold waiting to be dug there!), one of my absolute favourite bloggers, is in the middle of writing the book, which will help us all make better presentations and hopefully free ourselves from the inside-the-box-thinking that far too often occurs when presentations are conceived.

I’ll try to keep you posted on when the book is out. If you have any good references for books on presentation design, give a shout.

Yesterday, SlideShare announced the winner (and runner-ups) of the World’s Best Presentation Contest. You can enjoy the magnificent visual design below–I wish all of us could make great slides like that and put an end to bullet point hell.

I try to buy as many books about presentation technique as possible given certain (and other) constraints such as money and time — and given that the book at hand looks sufficiently interesting, of course.

So, when I heard of Cliff Atkinson’s book Beyond Bullet Points, I quickly put it on my Amazon wish list, because I hate bullet points on slides — they are misused, abused and what is even worse. Finally, this September, I got around to buying it. Here is my take:

The message of the book is essential: Stop using overcrowded slides, stop being bound by the standard bullet point template and start to think. I like that. And Cliff has a very good tool kit to use, if it is difficult for you to move from bullet point slides to “simple” slides with practically no text in them.

He introduces a running Hollywood metaphor and compares the making of a presentation to the making of a movie. It is a good and useful comparison — and his introduction of two techniques, namely the story template (equivalent to filmmakers’ manuscript) and story board comes directly out of this comparison. The story template tool is the single largest takeaway from the book — and you can download it for free (Word template) here.

On the negative side, the book is extremely repetitive and in some passages very basic. And, it, especially the repetition, becomes boring at times – very boring. And for savvy presenters (and savvy Keynote/PowerPoint users), it may not be a revolutionary read, in fact it may be the contrary.

Finally, let me just share a quote from the book, which is very true, but may be obvious, but nevertheless, sometimes, someone has to state the obvious. And Cliff does it well:

You use PowerPoint well when people don’t even notice you use PowerPoint at all. The last thing you want is for someone to compliment you on your slides — that would mean that the medium called attention to itself instead of your ideas. The most important outcome of the presentation is that the audience understands the meaning you intend to communicate. When you finish the presentation, you want the audience to talk about your special ideas, not your special effects.

You can also visit Cliff’s website and his blog.

All in all, the book is good, if you have difficulty in producing text-light slides, and seem to be stuck with bullet points. If that’s the case, buy it.

Also read:

• Go Own the Room: Sincerity
• Great Presenters
• Those Who Practice Improve
• Visual Display Workshop

Finally, the illustration for the CBS Case Competition 2006 theme has been unveiled (the theme itself was unveiled at another event). I been waiting anxiously to share it with you–I think it is a genius visualisation of rethinking business. A big applause for our marketing group.