Global Project Management Narrative

Contextual Framework

In the summer of 2011 I did an internship for the telecommunications company Corning Cable Systems. One of my many tasks that summer was to help market the Global Accounts Team. They were having trouble competing against other companies to land global projects, so they needed some material to market Corning’s abilities to clients. I was asked to write six different brochures and create an all-encompassing PowerPoint for the Global Accounts Team to show before they pitched a proposal to a client. I had to strictly follow Corning Cable System’s corporate visual identity, while still making the PowerPoint interesting. I created the project from scratch and used several resources, such as colleagues, design guide websites and books, similar presentations from other Corning Cable Systems projects, etc. in order to make it as professional looking as possible. 

Rhetorical Decisions

When designing the PowerPoint I wanted to focus my efforts on organization and design. Therefore, I created the wheel visual for the five different tasks that Corning provides clients. That same wheel is featured at the top of every slide after that with the corresponding color in order to connect the viewer to the concepts. I repeated this design feature because I wanted the wheel to be easy to understand and act as a guide for the entire presentation. 

Although I wanted the presentation to flow smoothly I also wanted the visual elements to be interesting. Every corporate presentation I had seen for this company was dull and only contained bullet points. Therefore, I wanted to veer away from that as much as I could, while still allowing for the information to be readable and organized. I tried to use different shaped structures to showcase the information. On slide 4 I used a tri-fold shape in order to show the three stages of Project Management. This broke away from the boring bulleted list, but still displayed the information appropriately and accurately. Ultimately, I combined an organized a consistent page design with effective visual elements to create a professional ethos for the Global Accounts Team.

Final Thoughts

As an intern I struggled to find a balance between creating a professional and visually-intriguing presentation while still following the company’s visual rules. I found that the best process to follow  was to engage in iterative design (ie, design and then re-design). I could then look at the different options and pick the best one for my purpose. I designed every slide about 5 or 6 times to ensure that I was communicating what the Global Accounts Team needed me to communicate, while still added some interesting visual designs.