Persuading with Purpose: Strengthening Communication Through Presentation Design

On 4 June 2026, the Centre for Language and Extension Service conducted When Clients Have Bad Ideas: Persuading Through Presentation Design for students from the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Interior Design & Architecture, Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Graphic Design, and Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Fashion Marketing programmes. The interactive workshop used a realistic designer-client scenario to help students develop persuasive communication and presentation skills in an engaging and practical way.

Working as both designers and clients, students analysed challenging design briefs, created presentation slides, and defended their decisions through presentations and discussion. The activity encouraged students to organise ideas clearly, justify their viewpoints, respond to feedback, and communicate with confidence while applying principles of effective presentation design.

Students shared that the experience helped them understand the importance of supporting their ideas with clear reasoning rather than simply agreeing with every request. By transforming communication practice into a creative and interactive challenge, the workshop demonstrated how language skills can be developed through authentic problem-solving situations, preparing students for future academic, professional, and client-facing environments.