Elevate your Zoom Experience
Sooooooo… this is new and different. Life for most of us is not normal right now. If you’re lucky enough to be able to work from home you’re most likely using some sort of video conferencing (like Zoom) right now to stay in touch with your manager or co-workers. By now we’ve all seen or heard of the ups and downs and funny goof-ups that go along with learning a new technology.
One thing that may be causing stress for you is that your home might not be the ideal backdrop for a professional meeting. You don’t necessarily want your co-workers to see your faded couch, or your kids toys everywhere distracting them from the meeting. How can you fix that without spending a lot of time to clear the room or find that perfect camera angle that crops all of that out? By having your very own “virtual backdrop”. Say what? Yes! Zoom has this great feature that allows you to upload any .jpg of your choice to use in place of your real background. As long as your computer meets basic system requirements (check here) you don’t even need a green screen. It even works on I-phones (but not Samsung phones yet).
There are a few ways you can go about choosing your background. The first is to search online and find an image of your choosing (not copyrighted of course). This is not always your best bet however since the image resolution might not be great, and you run the risk of having the same background as someone else. You wouldn’t want to show up to a board meeting wearing the same dress as your boss, would you?
I can help you have a one-of-a-kind background. I create a custom room based on your style preferences, and can even include family photos, or the view out your window so it still feels like your space.
Here are a few samples:
Here is a link to my website to commission your very own background for only $39.
Lastly, you can purchase a pre-made background here. The E-Design Tribe (of which I am a member) is hosting a ZoomRoom contest. We’ve all created different backdrops that are available for purchase (only $10 each). Not only does each designer get paid for each of their designs you purchase, at the end of Friday, April 17th the designer with the most downloads of their designs gets a cash prize! I would really appreciate your support in this contest. My 3 rooms are shown here (and listed on the site with my name so they’re easy to find):
The link to see all the entries and purchase your favorites is here:
You may purchase as many as you like. Just keep in mind that each purchase is a vote for that designer in our contest.
Please share this with all your friends and co-workers and see how much nicer your meetings look!
And on a more personal note…
Although this whole shelter-at-home was a bit unexpected and unplanned for, I’m sure we can all admit that there are some silver linings, such as being able to spend more time with family members without the rush of so many activities. Or spending a bit of time on a hobby we're often too busy for.
We’ve also had time to really see how we live in our homes and if there are things we are needing to change, upgrade, or even move on from. Whether local or around the country, I look forward to working with you to elevate your home spaces in any way I can. If you have questions about how virtual design works I’d love to answer them for you.
Stay safe!