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PowerPoint Template Do’s And Don’ts

PowerPoint Template Do’s And Don’ts

Published on
May 22, 2016

What is a PowerPoint template?

Much like your website or brochures, PowerPoint presentations are typically the first piece of information you are providing prospects or partners. And, much like your website, these presentations need significant investment if you wish to impress your audience. The good news is, you probably own a license of PowerPoint and therefore feel empowered to create a compelling piece of marketing yourself. And, unless you are a design firm, this in only partly true. You see owning a software does not make you proficient in its use. Not that you can’t handle the software, but you could probably use a little help.

PowerPoint designers like ourselves offer both custom presentations or custom templates. The latter is a PowerPoint file which will help create high-end presentations on your own time. They will help you keep your company’s look and feel consistent in every presentation.

The PowerPoint template will be the framework to each and every one of your presentations and will help you create all the types of slides you may need. Here is a list of do’s and don’ts to look into when creating a PowerPoint template.

What are the Do’s?

  • Ensure that the template look and feel incorporates your brand identity guidelines. (fonts, colors, use of logos and images)
  • Make sure the template matches the rest of your marketing collateral. (website, brochure, advertising)
  • While respecting your guidelines, ensure that there is a good contrast between the text and the background. If your dominant color is dark, try to use light fonts and vice versa. Chances are, if your guideline were professionally designed, this had been taken care of by the designer in the first place. This is very important, as you will be presenting this on projectors and screens, which don’t necessarily have the best contrast settings.
  • Make sure the font size is big enough to be read from the back of a room when projected.
  • Try your template on an existing presentation. The template should have a master slide for each type of slide you currently use. We recommend a minimum of 8 master slides, but you may need many more than that.
  • Make sure your template includes media placeholders, which will minimize your margin of error when importing visuals.

What are the Don’ts?

  • The don’ts start with the list above, make sure your brand guidelines are respected, fonts are used correctly, your logo is displayed in a proper manner. Make sure your template looks compelling, but is also readable on a screen, from the back of a room.
  • Avoid templates that have ready built visuals, such as photos and graphics, instead request visual placeholders so that you can customize the images and videos in your slides.
  • Some presentation designers offer templates that only have one master slide. They may have done a stellar job at designing the slide, if you have to build the content yourself this will not be of much help to you. Make sure you have a master slide for each content slide you currently work with.
  • Make sure master slides are consistent and that titles, content and logos are aligned throughout the masters.

Custom vs. generic PowerPoint templates

There you have it, a few tips on creating PowerPoint templates. There is much room for interpretation because each project will be different, but overall make sure the slide match your company image, are consistent and easy to use. If you don’t have the budget for a custom template, there are some stock PowerPoint templates out there, however, these are unlikely to match your full identity, while being simple to use.

If you have the budget for it, we recommend getting a fully customized presentation. A customized presentation, not only has a template adapted to your brand, but all of the assets are built specifically for your brand as well. This is the most powerful visual asset you will have, whatever the event you are presenting for.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Working with Stinson: The Presentation Agency

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What exactly do presentation agencies do?

We provide all the help you may need to design presentations that achieve your goals. This can include content consulting, presentation slide design, custom icons and illustrations, and presentation handouts—ultimately, our team of PowerPoint designers and consultants develop a comprehensive presentation solution that meets your specific needs.

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Why do companies work with presentation agencies?

Consider how much time you (or your team) spend making PowerPoint presentations for meetings. Think about the back and forth over which fonts, colors, icons, and images to use. Is it okay to use bullet points? Did you use the right brand colors? Does the slide look too crowded and busy? Or does it look too plain? How do you create the look and feel that you're picturing? After the design is done, do you have enough time to practice presenting?

As presentation experts, it is our second nature to understand your goals and work with you to create the professional PowerPoint deck that you envisioned. You can learn more about our 3-phase process here.

By leaving the presentation design to an agency like Stinson, you save yourself the time and worry over the look, feel, and progression of your presentation—we make your PowerPoint presentation-ready so that you can focus on the presentation delivery.

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Which presentation design service will I need?

As a presentation company, we offer every service you may need to develop your you may need to develop your PowerPoint—however, it's tough to say exactly which services of ours would benefit you the most without having chatted about your company, industry, and presentation uses.

We've generalized the scenarios that we regularly see and help our clients with. If your situation is similar to any of the below, then rest assured that our presentation experts have proven success in developing solutions.

  • You have an upcoming presentation with investors or clients. You feel your slide deck looks outdated or dull, and you don't know how to help it. You're also not sure if the content in your presentation conveys your value. View our case study where our presentation development and content consulting services helped our client achieve their investor funding goals.
  • Your company has regular internal department presentations. Everyone works on their respective slides, which are then combined into one presentation deck. The resulting PowerPoint does not have a cohesive look and somehow, there are five new shades of your corporate colors. We can help you identify your common slide layouts and design easy-to-use custom PowerPoint templates so your team members can create seamless, unified slides.
  • Your company has a great PowerPoint template that strongly reflects your branding, but your team tends to include too much text and irrelevant images on their slides. During the presentation, key messages are lost. We offer presentation training for exactly this—we'll train your team to create better slides more efficiently.

Expectations when working with us

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How does partnering with a PowerPoint designer work?

Once you contact us, we'll meet with you and ask for as much context as possible regarding the project: what materials you already have, who is presenting, who is the audience, and so on—this is our Discover phase. From there, we move onto Develop and Design where we start defining the narrative and visual characteristics of your new presentation. For more details, please read our process.

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How long do projects take?

Our standard turnaround for presentation development is 2–4 weeks; for custom presentation templates, our typical turnaround is 3–6 weeks. We know this is a wide range, but due to the collaborative nature of our presentation design process (i.e. asking for and incorporating your feedback), our turnaround time also relies on your responsiveness and availability. We do offer a rush service if your timelines are short.

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How much does a presentation design cost?

We price on a project-by-project basis, involving a number of key factors outlined in our pricing model. However, we do require a minimum project cost of $1,500.

We often see companies that do not have budget allocations for presentation design and are hesitant to make the initial investment. We understand—at first, it can be difficult to see the value and difference a well-designed, practical presentation can make. For our clients that started in this situation, we worked on a smaller pilot test project; when they saw the positive ROI of the presentation, they were able to secure larger budgets and found more presentations that needed our help.

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What are the final files that I will receive?

All of our final PowerPoint (or other presentation software) deliverables are shared with you in its native, editable file format. We are also able to provide a PDF or video version of your presentation if you would like.

Any presentation collateral we design for your project is shared as a ready-to-print PDF, unless if you specify a different preference.

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Have you worked with other clients in my industry? Can you share related samples?

Our list of clients spans a wide range of industries, some of which we hadn't known of prior to the client's project. Since our approach involves familiarizing ourselves with the client's business and industry, we've become a team of jacks-of-all-trades for industry knowledge.

We're able to share blinded, industry-specific samples of presentations that our clients have consented to. Contact us if you're interested!

Technology

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Aside from PowerPoint, do you work in Google Slides? Keynote? Prezi?

Yes! While we prefer designing PowerPoint presentations due to its robust features that let us create advanced designs, we've created custom presentation designs in Google Slides and Keynote at our clients' request.

We generally do not design presentations in Prezi since it does not support the level of design customization that we need for our clients. Instead, we use PowerPoint to create the same animations and layouts that are characteristic of Prezi presentations—you can view examples in our portfolio.

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Will we run into issues if we use Mac and/or Windows PC?

There are some differences in functionality between PowerPoint for Mac and PowerPoint for Windows—but these are not for your concern! We use both Mac and Windows computers at Stinson, so we're able to ensure cross-device compatibility with every PowerPoint presentation we design. During our initial call with you, we'll ask you for these tech specs so that we know to bear them in mind when working on your project.

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Does it matter which version of PowerPoint we use?

Yes; the latest versions of PowerPoint have new functions and features that earlier versions of PowerPoint cannot load. We'll take note of your tech setup to ensure that our presentations for you run as intended.

Designing with branding

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How are you able to design with our company's brand?

If you have any brand guidelines, we ask you to provide them early on in the process so that we can familiarize ourselves not only with your logos, colors, and fonts, but the overarching brand tone. Our collaborative process includes rounds of revision for you to provide your feedback on the presentation design.

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Are you able to design within our very strict corporate brand guidelines?

Absolutely! Many of our clients are companies with well-established brand identities. We do our due diligence to maintain the integrity of their branding when designing their presentations and collateral.

Strict brand guidelines do not necessarily restrict the possibility of creating a sophisticated PowerPoint; our presentation designers thoughtfully use photos, animations, and other visuals to build the story.

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We don't have concrete branding yet or we're in the process of updating our brand. Can you work without defined brand elements?

Yes! When we work with clients who are still ironing out the details of their branding, we ask them to provide us any materials they have already and to share their design inspirations. From there, we lay out moodboards of different tones and styles to see which resonates the most with what our client has in mind.

Security

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We have highly sensitive information. Will my data remain confidential?

Absolutely—we respect the proprietary nature of businesses, and enforce a strict confidentiality policy company-wide. From the first point of contact with you, we assume a non-disclosure agreement (NDA); we are happy to sign your company's NDA as well.

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Where do you store my files and data?

All of our files are stored securely in an industry-leading content server. The server exceeds regulatory standards and encrypts each file using AES 256-bit encryption in diverse locations.

Additionally, the Stinson team works completely in-house, so your files will not cross borders.

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How secure is my data?

We take data security seriously. We enforce numerous internal policies and procedures to ensure that Stinson continues to meet compliance and security standards for data protection, including multi-factor authentication for all company accounts and access restrictions.

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