A quick guide that will help your presentations look sleeker, more professional, and visually appealing, quickly. These 5 simple tips can make a pitch deck, report, lecture, or any other presentation go from "meh" to "wow".
When graphic design clients ask to make their presentation or marketing collateral "pop", these tips often do the trick.
3. • 1 slide
• 1 idea
Memorable
Putting more than a single idea on a slid
sentences longer than around 7 words, and
audience can easily wind up getting bored and
What’s worse, they will be trying to read the
content while you are speaking. It becomes a race
between your speaking and their reading speed. Sp
the attention of the audience will result in muddled, u
understanding and the impression that your presentati
more confusing than it needed to be. Your presentation,
rather, the speaking portion of your presentation should w
to support the visuals and information on the slides, not ag
them. The role of the presentation slides is to illustrate your p
and to engage with the audience visually, leaving a strong impre
thus helping them remember the content. When a designer tries
in all of the free space available on the slide, the point they were try
to make can gets lost in the overwhelming mass of text and images. I
find that you are trying to cram in text and images, you are likely overlo
the listener While they are tryi
figure out the content and what
are saying, they will not be able to follow well or recall as much. If you know y
presentation’s subject-matter well, you should be able to explain it simply and
morably, piece by piece. The moment you find yourself trying to make space on
slide for more word is the moment where you should stop, and reconsider your pre
ation strategy, it likely needs refinement. Having too much on the slide often leads to
“group reading” effect, where the presenter reads out the slide content, which is frustra
Forgettable
Memorable
• 1 Idea
• 1 Slide
• 1 Takeaway
6. Let the photos you pick help your
color selection process.
If a photo looks nice, it’s colors
probably work well together.
By limiting the number of colors,
you are allowing yourself to find
combinations that work faster.
This lets you spend more time
experimenting.
7. Photo by Venkat Sudheer Reddy on Unsplash
on
Design
grid
slides
your
8. Photo by Venkat Sudheer Reddy on Unsplash
on
Design
grid
slides
your
16. Photo by Tony Hand on Unsplash
Full-Bleed
Photos +
Negative
Space
Full-Bleed
Photos +
Negative
Space
17. Photo by Yulia Khlebnikova on Unsplash
A “full bleed” image
goes edge-to-edge.
No frame around the
image makes the slide
look sleeker.
High resolution
images work best.
18. Photo by Yulia Khlebnikova on Unsplash
Negative space is the
area around the subject
of an image.
These blueberries are
the subject.
The rest is “negative
space”. Your text will
fit nicely here.
19. Photo by Yulia Khlebnikova on Unsplash
When the background is
too busy, the text washes
out and is hard to read.
The image and the text
can clash and look bad.
A semi-transparent shape
can create space for text.
20. 1. Less is more
2. Color discipline
3. Design on a grid
4. Keep visual balance
5. Use full bleed images
Help your audience remember,
provide a recap.
