The Role of Graphic Designing in Enhancing a Presentation

Creating crisp, clean, and visually attractive presentations can help your business in multiple ways.

First, it can help you market your brand and attract the right people to your business. Second, as attention span diminishes, you can count on delivering a compelling and clear message that people can take home. And third, it will help enhance the retention and engagement of your audience, leading to improved brand recall value.

But how do you achieve that?

How do you draft a presentation that sure shot ticks all the boxes?

Graphic designing is one of the tools that can help you create visually appealing designs. It will elevate your presentation by incorporating aesthetics and usability in your slide deck.

The article is a guide on how to use graphic design for your presentations and the role it plays in enhancing slide decks. Read on to find out how!

How to Best Use Graphic Designing in Presentations

The following tips will equip you with the necessary know-how to create amazing presentations using graphic design.

1. The Right Software Pick

The first step would be figuring out the apt presentation software that lets you create professional slides which resonate with your brand. The software options include PowerPoint, Google Slides, Keynote, etc., each with distinct pros and cons.

For instance, PowerPoint is great for Windows users. Keynote was designed for iOS and iCloud. And Google offers Google Slides as a free, web-based software.

Find out what each tool offers and choose the one that best suits your requirements and resources.

2. Presentation Content and Style

There should be alignment between your brand’s personality and any promotional material that you create. Presentations are no different. And if done well, they can successfully convey your business’s style and identity. You can follow the following rules if the design doesn’t seem like your forte.

3. Get a Clear Idea of Your Brand Style and Identity

If your business was a person — how would it visually look?

Defining a clear identity is crucial for the success of any business. It will provide you with a benchmark to create collateral that speaks the same language. The look of your presentation will be based on your brand’s style, so get clear with that.

For instance, if you are a children’s toy brand that relies on eccentric packaging and products, creating a presentation that has a serious, business-like theme won’t make much sense from a branding outlook.

4. Create the Plan for Your Presentation

Now, you need to figure out the message you wish to convey. Work out things like — central points of the speech, information/data to be included, graphics that will suit best, etc.

Once you have figured out what each slide should convey, move on to the design part.

5. What will be the font?

That can be an easy and quick choice if you have brand fonts.

If not, fonts like Arial (for the body) are readable, stylish, and preferred. You can mix and match your titles and headlines.

Note — You can choose fonts that suit your brand style and create combinations that go well with each other.

6. The Right Color Choice

Colors are a persuasive tool that can set moods for people, impact perceptions, and influence actions.

Most brands have a defined color palette, and you can stick to that for the most part. Having said that — the tone and message of your presentation influence the color choices — so consider that as well.

For instance, you could be a tech startup launching an app related to farming. For the brand — colors like blue and gray might seem obvious, conveying dependability and professionalism. However, when it comes to food and farming, colors like green are more appropriate choices, signaling growth and prosperity.

Note — Take the help of color guides or tools like Adobe Color to figure out the best palettes according to color psychology.

7. The Power of Icons and Images

Imagine going through 2 pieces of information. One is a block of words highlighting poverty with facts and statistics. The other is a few pictures that show people in a distressed state.

Which picture will be easy to look at, take information from quickly, and remember for longer?

Incorporate high-quality, relevant pictures in your presentation to make your content more engaging. Icons are another way to represent things visually. Take the help of stock photography sites (for pictures) to elevate your information.

8. Add an Aesthetic Appeal to Your Data with Visuals

Visual elements like diagrams & charts, timelines, graphs, etc., can help deliver complex information in a more digestible format.

For instance, you can use charts to deliver numerical data. Timelines are great for showcasing plans, milestones, and events. You can use tables to show comparisons or financial data.

All the presentation software has built-in options to create catchy graphs. You can go for custom graphs to appear unique. Also, remember to incorporate brand-centric colors in your graphs for visual consistency.

9. Keep it Simplified Yet Interesting

The complex isn’t smart or intelligent. So, if you feel the urge to include a lot of information or graphics to appear more resourceful, refrain from doing that.

You want to keep your slides crisp, polished, and professional. Overcrowding your slides with information or designs will make them look cluttered, heavy, and confusing and might distract people from the important points.

Use white space appropriately to incorporate aesthetics and usability in your slides.

Use a mix of backgrounds, such as filled, plain, image-based, etc., to add variety and fun to your slides. Choose the background that best suits your information.

A Few More Tips

• Follow a consistent theme (layout, background, color, typeface) across all your slides. Using too many elements might distract your audience.
• Don’t go for more than 2–3 fonts.
• Make sure the elements are scaled to the perfect size (with a few oversized for dramatic effects).
• Use boxes and points to highlight content.
• Use essential vectors for spacing.
• Use the principle of grids and alignment to create a balanced and harmonious look for your slides.
• Use design elements like contrast and hierarchy to add emphasis, clarity, and engagement to your presentation.
• Animations and transitions will add motion and flow to your slide deck. You can use it to catch attention, reveal important information, switch between slides, or create suspense.

However, remember not to overdo it by adding complex effects, as it might confuse people and make you look unprofessional.

• Review and rehearse your presentation as much as you can. It will help you check for and rectify errors or inconsistencies in design and content.

In A Nutshell

Proper use of graphic design in your presentations can really up your game. It can lead to greater brand visibility, higher conversion rates, and enhanced user experience.

It’s not easy to take care of all design elements, and that’s where the assistance of a graphic designer is handy while crafting presentations.

A professional designer knows how to make the best use of colors, texts, graphics, background, etc., to create designs that will get your point across in the best possible way.

You can also consider using pre-designed PowerPoint templates. These templates are designed by expert designers and feature visual coherence, creativity, and professionalism.

In case you wish to go ahead yourself, the above-mentioned tips are a guide to help you navigate the elements of designing as effectively as possible.

Keep them in mind, and you will surely deliver an aesthetically appealing and usable presentation that keeps your audience engaged throughout.