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Most firms have a color scheme or a style deck that you can follow. And yes you’ll typically get better with that stuff as you do more of it.
My go to’s are typically dark blue and navy fill ins with white font for tables/graphics and dark blue and navy font for bullets.
Deciding the script font is also important. Rule of thumb is to follow precedents set by your firm. My client however asked for everything to be in Century Gothic.
Op I would suggest mocking up a slide on a blank piece of paper and walking your manager through your ‘vision’. This helps mitigate churn and aligns your objectives
Think of a slide like a magazine page. Easy to read and understand while being aesthetically pleasing. The right balance of text and visuals.
Yeah, good point about us not giving TED talks. If you google Extreme Presentation Method, you can read about “ballroom” style VS “boardroom” style presentations. The former being TED talk style and the latter being a deliverable you leave behind. The difference is crucial. Most clients have little use for a leave behind of a woman with her arms outstretched in a cornfield and the caption “Dream"
Every manager/client is going to have their own preferred style...look back at older decks on the project or from your manager and see if you an get a sense for tone and visual aesthetics. Then yea just practice will get you better
Ask to clarify what that means!
When I was new, for general slide design I liked to either do a two minute whiteboard or black piece of paper drawing with the manager/sm. If it was over the phone I would try to describe what I was thinking. Ripping off ideas from their old slides also helped. If your manager is very particular then trying to emulate their work can help.
Other than that use your internal resources and rip off designs from old slides.
The biggest problem is understanding your boss’ style.
Ideally to make something look pretty, ensure consistency in font, use proper table formatting, alignment, proper headers and footers.
In addition to flaticon.com; I use thenounproject.com - it is more professional IMO
Levelup PowerPoint YouTube channel
First, you are not alone
Second, keep it simple to start of with. Consider following steps
1. For color/fonts/ themes - the usual basics - identify client format and stick to it
2. For each slide - understand what is going on. What are we trying to communicate
3. Based on what you want to communicate, look for something similar in decks given to you for inspiration
4. Copy, copy and copy
5. Customize. If you don't understand some thing, use a placeholder and keep moving
6. Do this for all slides
7. Ask your self whether the story is complete
8. If not, add placeholder - tag your questions to these placeholders
9. Don't hesitate to send WiP decks to your manager or teammates. Frequent check points are helpful
Always remember you are not expected to know all the answers and finish the whole deck. Hope this will be of some help
Slides should only support the speaker, not be the show. So agree to minimize what is even on the slides and spend more time storytelling. And talking through the vision w the client to get the stories straight. Use verbal breaks and check-ins.
Ted talks, Ads, billboards, slider articles are great inspiration.
If your client ‘gets it’ and buys in that’s not pretty, it’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
(My best decks now are 5-7 slides and very few words or graphics. But what I have is crisp, clean, and only what they need to hear. Not everything I wish I could say)
I usually ask a bunch of questions and essentially make my managers spell out for me what is in their head... usually all it takes is a few questions for me to get an understanding of what they are picturing. I try to do that, share half way through to be sure I’m getting it then go from there. At least in my experience I build up an understanding of what my manager likes then I can just recreate from there. Question I always ask is what is the voice over to this slide, what’s the point you’re trying to make with this information and how does it connect to the bigger message. At least at my firm they LOVE when you ask informed questions, cause it shows engagement and learning. I can’t read their minds and they don’t expect me to.
you're EY? look at ey discover and steal slides from other decks you think look goos
In addition to all of the above, I save slides I like when I see them to add to a “timesaver” deck for later use.
Slide cow YouTube videos
Draw out slides before making them on PPT!
Two words - Consistent formatting
I google image search for layout ideas a lot these days. Can be surprisingly helpful. (Just a few high level words describing what you'll be making goes a long way).
Go to the AppStore and request “TAS WPP 3.1.1.0” for Office 2013. Typically Calle proex and has a ton of EY approved graphics/slides
I would say, get the fonts the same Family and size, with 2 max 3 variations per slide. Normal , normal italic bold and large bold for titles.
Then make sure stuff is aligned and the colors are on palette.
Should make a big difference.
Find training decks, they're usually full of slides that are heavily reviewed / tweaked to SM / PPED standards. Great place to start
Look at old decks—number 1 thing you need to do
Talk to colleagues and get feedback
Remember horizontal and vertical logic