As you are probably an entrepreneur, your presentation is very likely to contain all the right business and financial content that it needs. Your presentation though should also be beautifully designed and follow many of the principles common across all areas of design. And my guess is you didn’t go to design school.
A well-designed presentation will display professionalism, keep the audience engaged, and better convey your message. It shows you care. Nobody likes a fugly deck.
Here is the list of design areas I believe you should focus on.
Color & Contrast
Your presentation should embrace color, but also apply it wisely. Use a color wheel to select between 2 and 4 colors that create a cohesive theme. Color’s are heavily linked to emotions and psychology so consider this when applying them to your presentation.
Avoid using elements in your presentation that are all close to being the same. They should either be the same consistently or in suitable places contrastingly different. This applies to colors, sizes, typefaces, highlighting, and overlays.
Contrasts help to focus the viewer’s attention to particular elements.
Repetition & Arrangement
Repetition and arrangement create a visually appealing and consistent pitch deck.
Every element feels like it belongs and helps to build a strong narrative. Repeating elements makes crafting your pitch deck simpler and look more professional. Every element on every slide should be intentionally placed and consistently placed across the deck.
Organization & Negative Space
The organization and negative space help to create interest and engagement with your presentation. Organize your information using one of the 5 methods (Google “LATCH” structures) and ensure the most important information is the most prominent.
Negative or white space is particularly good at improving the readability of your pitch deck. If your slides are cluttered, they can be difficult to read and therefore ineffective at communicating a message.
Typography, Iconography & Photography
The fonts, icons, and photographs that you use should work together to build a consistent theme across your presentation. Select 2 fonts from different font families that both contrast and complement each other. One for headers, one for body-text. Icons should follow the same style and design pattern and have consistent levels of detail; they are cheap to by online.
Photographs are great for conveying and supporting complex ideas. Ensure the photographs follow a consistent composition and style. This can be achieved by applying a transparent overlay or filter over the images to align them.
Why
Your pitch deck needs to understand your audience, how they think and what they feel.
Ensure your presentation appeals to all human dimensions including, emotion, logic, and credibility. This is the hardest to get right. Check out my content on pitch narrative for more information here.
Harmonizing your presentation improves readability, strengthens your narrative, and increases your chance of connecting emotionally with your audience. All of which is likely to increase your chance of success.