You have invested a lot in your latest print design project. Whether it’s your annual report, sales brochure, or catalog, what was created is more than the sum of its parts. I recommend using the design as a stepping stone to translate into powerful digital presentations.
With the emergence of online webinars and workshops, along with virtual meeting spaces, incorporating professional presentations is what will make your organization emerge as a front runner above the digital noise.
When it comes to creating a branded presentation, whether you are using PowerPoint, Keynote, or even exporting a PDF to reference in your organization’s meetings and pitches, level them up by incorporating the brand and design elements you already have at your fingertips.
When I design presentations I follow these design guidelines:
1. Design your presentation with the same content and Style
The design of your presentation matters. Choosing to fill in a generic template, translates into generic information. Your presentation should reflect your brand and showcase consistent messaging both in content and design. When my clients look to Ruzow Graphics for presentation design, I work with the inventory of professionally designed materials to reference or the most recent annual reports that I have created for them. It makes the process simply by mimicking what has already been created.
- Written Content: quotes or highlighted content in the print design can be used in the content of a slide when it connects with your presentation. Your annual report, for example, is literally your own personal company library you can quote and reference to your desire.
- Visual Elements: consistent use of lines, boxed up headers or perhaps visual graphics that are used to accent.
- Brand Colors: as your designer, I grab two to five core brand colors that for use in your template. If you do not have brand guidelines (link) I work with what we have created in the materials we are pulling from.
- Brand Fonts: whether your organization has a brand guide or not, I reference designed materials and mimic the fonts used. You need at least three levels of font choices;
- Body (a simple readable font, keep the color black or reverse depending on the background color)
- Header (normally a bold or engaging font that can have a unique color),
- Sub Header (the bold version of the basic body font, highlight with color)
2. Plan your PowerPoint slides as you’re planning your print design
Creating the outline and content strategy of the presentation can be as simple as mimicking the printed design. I ask my clients to keep in mind, digital presentations are not meant to be replications of brochures or reports but instead reference highlights of the key points. So working through the original print design, pick out the headers and subheaders and use them as the content in the presentation where their purpose is to be visual cues for you to expand on the content while you present. Attendees should be listening to you, not reading the screen.
3. Visualize your Data using the images from your branded print materials
Likely in your reports or brochures, we have created charts and various infographics that simplify your data. These graphics are perfect for use in your digital presentation.
4. Maintain more whitespace than you think you need
To reiterate, attendees should be focused on you, not reading the presentation so make sure to limit
- slide content to brief messaging and
- one to two graphics depending on the content
- bulleted lists unless the items are brief, like one to five words in length.
- the number of fonts you use in a presentation to two, and maybe a third if there is some fancy/flair use that was used
5. Engage your audience by keeping them connected with your brand
Branded slide templates should have a minimum of three themes/backgrounds to work with. One of them should be a clean white background; another can have some of the visual elements like sidebar swooshes, or unique illustrations; then one or three more options of the basic slide design that has a dark background, or vibrant colours from your organization’s brand theme.
Translate the print design and websites into digital design.
When I create your print materials and/or design your websites, I know that there will be, visual elements that can be exported or re-used
Your communications team and Ruzow Graphics have collaborated to bring together their pieces to create a compiled document that has outlined the highlights of your organization. As your designer, I have spent time and effort to create and source:
- Color palette
- Font styles
- Visual Graphics
- Infographics
- Stock and/or custom Photography
Your marketing and communications spent effort creating:
- Quotes
- Statistics
- Testimonials
- Custom content about your organization
Realize that each piece in the design is also important on its own so we can puzzle them together in unique ways.
Build your Presentation
Realize that each piece in the design is also important on its own so we can puzzle them together in unique ways.
— Mimic the header and body font styling from the report into your presentation design.
— Slot in infographics
— Use the same photography as a background image for a section page.
— Use any charts or table graphics exported from the document that you can use, or mimic the design style.
Don’t go it alone!
With all of the work that goes into presenting to an audience, in person or on Zoom, Go-To-Meeting, Google Meet, or others — be confident by having a graphic designer prepare your work to impress. Ready to design your presentation so that it impresses your audience? Let’s talk!