How to make your PowerPoint interesting – A PowerPoint designer’s perspective

As a graphic design studio, we see PowerPoint as the go-to solution for B2B, or professional audience presentations. Over the years, PowerPoint has gotten a potentially negative reputation as a cumbersome, awkward, and design deficient software solution for developing presentations. We disagree and that is the premise of this article by a PowerPoint designer in NJ titled “How to make your PowerPoint interesting.”

Every presentation regardless of the audience, the focus needs to be on the content first. This is how you make your PowerPoint interesting, engaging and even memorable to your audience. Content is not just the words, the bullets, the boxed text, and images but “HOW” do all of these pieces come together to “PRESENT” your message.

At our New Jersey graphic and web design studio, we have designed PowerPoint presentations that can range from medical communications, sales force initiatives, health literacy training, and complex scientific presentation needs. Our goal when designing a PowerPoint presentation is to deliver a fine four-course meal not a diner-caliber “Super-sized” plate of content that leaves the audience wanting it to be over after a few minutes of the presentation.

How to approach the design of a PowerPoint presentation

Here at GV CERV Communications, we first want to get a sense of where the presentation is to go, and how can the audience better understand the messaging. There are some core principles we stress to our clients even if we are not directly involved in the content development but yet are given the task of putting it creatively altogether.

Our core PowerPoint design principles:

• Less is more (this is the golden rule)
• Try to keep bullet lists short and body text to no more than 2/3 (3/4 maximum) of the space on the slide.
• Use 32 to 42 point fonts for your slide titles and 20 to 28 point fonts for your body text.
• Keep a consistency in your design, fonts, and use of colors
• Keep the background minimal where the main content resides, either by using a light color of no more than 4-6 percent of value or a ghosted image that teases into the background from the sides
• If you can break up sections with breaker slides, do it.
• Use animation and transition effects ONLY if it enhances or simplifies a complex message
• Use a PowerPoint designer and NOT a PowerPoint template. Your company, product or service deserves its uniqueness. Do not run the risk of looking like the other guy or a cookie-cutter template design that is not specific to your audience and your messaging.
• Numbers, graphs, charts, and scientific data requires its own unique approach
• Do not go font-crazy. Less is more (golden rule again)
• Use images at least every other slide if possible
• Use high-quality images. Using low-resolution images will give the impression that your content is on an amateur level and not fully matured in its final presentation. Your audience will notice this. This weakens the authority and level of professionalism your message needs to uphold.
• It may be obvious but we have to emphasize that grabbing images from another source is copyright infringement, unless you have been given permission. Don’t do it! Utilize royalty-free or stock library purchased images. There is a multitude of options available.