When it comes to presentation design, it is not just about the attractive colours and adding some pictures; it is all about conveying thoughts in a direct way, attracting your audience, and organising your ideas structurally and meaningfully through visual presentation. Whether you’re preparing slides for a class project, business pitch, webinar, or conference talk, great design can make your message more memorable and impactful.
Here you will get to know how to create a presentation in order to appear professional, polished, and ensure your audience is engaged to the end.
1. Start With a Clear Structure
To begin with, you have to work based on a logical, easy-to-follow order, before you touch colours or pictures. Teams looking to accelerate the drafting process often use an AI presentation maker to generate initial slide layouts and content suggestions based on a brief or outline, which they then refine and customize to match their brand.
Here’s a simple and effective layout:
- Title – Your topic, name, and branding
- Overview– What the audience can expect
- Main Content – Organised into 3 to 5 sections
- Conclusion
- Call to Action
If you need help visualising your ideas, consider expert designers at the Decksy, a presentation design service that provides assistance and PowerPoint templates, offering inspiration to structure your slides more effectively.
2. Be Consistent with your Style
One of the simplest methods of making a presentation professional is consistency. Keep your colour palette consistent and fonts limited to one or two.
Also, ensure the icon style is uniform, spacing is predictable, and alignment is clean. It is advisable not to use incompatible fonts or colours, as it will confuse your audience and make them have a harder time understanding your message.
Got issues with colour and brand consistency? There are some colour-themed tools you can use to improve your branding.
3. Prioritise Simplicity and Minimalism
The biggest mistake beginners make is overcrowding slides. Presentation design thrives on simplicity. Follow these essential rules:
- The 6×6 Rule: Try to keep slides to a maximum of 6 lines with 6 words each. Not mandatory, but just a guideline to help you stay concise.
- Focus on One Idea per Slide: Each slide should convey one message. If you add too many ideas, your audience won’t know what to focus on.
- Embrace White Space: Empty space is not wasted space, as it improves clarity and draws attention to key elements.
It could get complicated at times, so here are some inspirations on keeping designs clean and modern.
4. Choose Readable, Professional Fonts
Typography affects both readability and the tone of your presentation. Some simple guidelines to follow are:
- Use sans-serif fonts such as Lato, Montserrat, Open Sans, and Roboto
- Keep titles between 36 and 44 points
- Keep body text at least 24 points
- Minimise italics or decorative fonts
- Keep alignment consistent
5. Use High-Quality Graphics and Icons
Visuals should enhance and not clutter your slides. Use high-quality elements such as icons, illustrations, shapes, charts, images, and infographics.
You can find royalty-free images and graphics on platforms like Pexels, Unsplash, and Freepik.
For those who want to dive deeper into visual communication, here are strong tips for delivering presentations, whether in a boardroom or during a strategic session.
6. Incorporate Visual Hierarchy
Visual hierarchy guides your audience’s eyes in the right direction.
This helps them understand which elements are most important. Use hierarchy by consistently adjusting the font size, boldness, colour contrast, spacing, and positioning.
For example, the most important text should be the largest or boldest, and supporting information should be visually smaller or lighter.
7. Use Colour Intentionally
Colours can be used to highlight key points and enhance aesthetics. A good rule of thumb is to:
- Pick one primary colour
- Add 1 or 2 secondary colours
- Use neutral colours (white, grey, black) to balance the design
Tips for effective colour use include applying contrasting colours for text and background, avoiding neon colours unless you’re designing for a creative audience, and staying within your brand palette when possible.
8. Make Charts and Data Visually Appealing
If you’re sharing numbers, turn them into visual stories. Instead of heavy tables, use alternatives like bar charts, line graphs, pictograms, icons, heatmaps, and infographics.
Also, keep your graphs simple by avoiding too many labels or colours. Most importantly, highlight the most important values using contrast or shapes.
10. Insert Animations and Transitions
Animations can enhance a presentation, but only when used with purpose.
Good uses include:
- Revealing bullet points one at a time
- Displaying steps in a sequence
- Emphasising a central message
Poor uses to avoid are:
- using a different animation for every slide
- adding unnecessary spinning, bouncing, or flashing effects
- over-using sound effects
Keep in mind that your audience should notice your content and not be distracted by movement.
10. End With a Clear, Polished Conclusion Slide
The final slide is often what your audience remembers most, so a strong conclusion slide should include a summary of key points, a powerful closing statement, a call to action, and your contact details (if relevant). You could also include a QR code linking to your website, portfolio, or downloadable file.
Final Thoughts
Good presentation design is not about flashy colours or complicated graphics; rather, it’s about clarity, simplicity, and intentional visual communication. When you use structure, strong visuals, consistent typography, and thoughtful layout design, your slides become a powerful storytelling medium that elevates your message.
Take the time to plan your content, apply the principles outlined here, and let your visuals support your narrative. With practice, you’ll be able to create killer presentations that engage audiences and make your message unforgettable.
