Your slides are not just a tool to deliver your message, they are also a reflection of your brand identity. How do you design slides that match your brand and create a consistent and memorable impression on your audience? Here are some tips to help you align your slide design with your brand values, personality, and style.
Before you start designing your slides, you need to have a clear understanding of what your brand stands for, what it offers, and how it wants to be perceived. Your brand is not just a logo, a color scheme, or a slogan, it is a story that communicates your purpose, vision, and values. You can use a brand identity framework, such as the Brand Identity Prism, to define the different aspects of your brand, such as its culture, personality, voice, image, and relationship with your audience.
It is also helpful to keep in your mind who you want to reach and how. Choosing the design is quite like making a puzzle. You need to make all the pieces stick together, your brand, your values, your target audience and how you want to be perceived and remembered.
To create slides that align with your brand's essence, focus on a cohesive design approach. Incorporate elements beyond colours and logos, aiming for an elegant and evocative feel that resonates with your brand identity. Prioritize consistency in fonts, imagery, and infographics, ensuring they convey the desired emotions and message. Craft layouts that reflect your brand's sophistication and values, creating a visually compelling narrative. Maintain a harmonious colour palette and typography while infusing unique brand elements. By carefully curating every slide, you'll leave a lasting impression that reflects your brand's essence and engages your audience effectively
Designing the slides that match your brand is a crucial part of marketing yourself as a recognized brand. Many factors are considered while you create your slide i.e. brand elements, choosing a color palette that aligns with your brand logo, guidelines, typography and fonts, Imagery, graphics etc. But the most important thing is understanding your brand, its significance, positioning in society, and in what ways it can connect to its target customers. Also, making a crisp and to-the-point presentation has a long retention period in your reader's mind. It enhances your message and leaves a lasting impression on your audience. Consistency is key to maintaining a strong and recognizable brand identity.
In addition to understanding your brand's core values and story, it's crucial to evoke emotions in your slide design. Emotions shape perceptions and decisions. By intertwining your brand's narrative with your presentation's aesthetics, you create a memorable experience that deeply resonates with your audience. Aim for more than just informative slides; strive for presentations that emotionally connect and reinforce brand loyalty.
Slides design is one of the “must” have corporate collaterals, the same as business card, letterhead and envelope design. First of all the company must have its Corporate Identity (CI) sorted out. The CI is the guidelines, or a bible for the company’s branding for the purpose of advertising, marketing, etc. Inside the CI you would expect to find: - Logo guidelines with its conception storyline and all its details such as border spacing requirements, color, fonts, inverted version, rules of logo use on various background color, wide horizontal version, tall vertical version, square version, etc. The more complicated the logo, the more details would be included. - Presentation slide design, usually will take a lot of elements from the logo.
One of the most important elements of your slide design is the color palette. Colors can evoke emotions, convey meanings, and create contrast and harmony. You want to choose colors that match your brand identity, as well as the tone and mood of your presentation. You can use your logo or website as a starting point, and then use a color wheel or a tool like Adobe Color to find complementary or analogous colors. You can also use color psychology to select colors that fit your message and audience. For example, blue can suggest trust, professionalism, and calmness, while red can suggest passion, urgency, and action.
When choosing colors for your slide design, also factor in the cultural connotations of those colors. They can vary widely across different societies; for instance, while white represents purity in the West, it's linked to mourning in many Eastern cultures. Being aware of these nuances prevents misunderstandings, especially when addressing diverse or global audiences.
The colours in your presentation is probably one of the most powerful elements you can use, alongside font and images. ? Make sure the colours are clearly visible especially when you presenting to large audience. I have seen enough presentations where information fades away due to lack of contrast ?? ??Tip: Consider using dark background like dark blue. It can be more pleasing on the eye
It's important to keep an accessibility lens in mind when choosing colours. Certain colours can be hard for some people to interpret such as red/blue for people with color blindness, and leaning towards combinations with higher contrast can be a more practical and inclusive choice.
I second this! Repeating the theme colour (usually one) will give a long lasting image to the viewers when reading the slides ??
And where do we find company's psychology i.e. tell overall behaviour of the company? Nowhere else, yet it is surely repels in "#Mission and #Vision" #Statement.
Another key element of your slide design is the typography. Fonts can express personality, mood, and hierarchy. You want to select fonts that match your brand identity, as well as the readability and clarity of your text. You can use your logo or website as a reference, and then use a tool like Google Fonts or Font Pair to find compatible fonts. You can also use font categories to guide your choice. For example, serif fonts can suggest tradition, elegance, and authority, while sans serif fonts can suggest modernity, simplicity, and friendliness.
Incorporating typography effectively in your slide design isn't just about aesthetics; it's a powerful communication tool. The right font choices can amplify your message and engage your audience more effectively. Consistency in font usage across slides ensures a cohesive and professional look, helping to maintain viewers' attention.
Cuando se trata de tipografía, es importante utilizar las que estén dentro del manual de tu marca, ya que esto mantendrá la coherencia frente al público. Si no tienes una tipografía definida, recuerda la importancia de elegir una tipografía contundente para los títulos, que siempre sea legible. Además, asegúrate de no excederte en más de tres líneas para transmitir una idea. Para ilustrar esto, pongamos un ejemplo: si quieres expresar la idea de que el mar es azul, bonito y pacífico cuando estás allí, podríamos resumir todo en:"Respira mar y paz". Este titular dará paso a una explicación de tu parte. La contundencia del texto y la tipografía clara permitirán que los observadores puedan imaginar lo que representa y así no distraerse leyendo.
Typography and the weight of said typography can also be a powerful tool in communicating the tone of a message. Using typography in a bold setting can communicate importance or emphasis, while indenting some text can communicate differences or the point you are trying to make.
Images can enhance your slide design by adding visual interest, supporting your message, and creating an emotional connection with your audience. You want to use images that match your brand identity, as well as the quality and relevance of your content. You can use your own photos or videos, or find free or paid stock images from sources like Unsplash or Shutterstock. You can also use filters, overlays, or frames to adjust the colors, brightness, or contrast of your images to fit your brand style.
Utilizing images thoughtfully ensures your slides aren't just informative but also engaging. Remember, every image should have a purpose. Avoid overloading with visuals just for the sake of it. A well-chosen image can simplify complex information, while an irrelevant one can distract.
Using the right imagery can also communicate a wider message without the need to overwhelm the slide with text. Consider using imagery to compliment your text, rather than trying to communicate your message solely through words.
I found standardizing brand imagery using AI image generation tools more successful in some of our recent works. We created a "Brand Prompt" to enable this. While the evolving AI capabilities may necessitate occasional revisions to these prompts, our current approach has proven effective for smaller brands in maintaining a consistent visual style.
The more people will resonate with the story the image is telling , the more people will feel connected to the brand.The image should create strong emotion in the favour of the brand.
Images are usually points of the presentations that user most remember, so you can take advantage of this, using your images not only to join the main content, also, to give information breaks using only the image in a slide to start giving some context of the information that is about to show.
Your logo is the most recognizable symbol of your brand identity. You want to apply your logo to your slide design in a way that is consistent, visible, and unobtrusive. You can use your logo as a watermark, a footer, or a corner element on your slides, depending on the size and shape of your logo and the layout of your slides. You can also use your logo as a background element, a transition effect, or a slide divider, as long as it does not distract from your main content.
Placing your logo thoughtfully into your slide design not only amplifies brand consistency but also subtly reinforces brand recall among your audience. Ensure that its placement complements the flow of your presentation rather than overshadowing the content.
In addition to applying your logo you can consider using your brand values as a footer for your slides. This reinforces not just who you are through your logo, but also what you stand for.
Tu marca en las presentaciones: 1. Utilizar únicamente el símbolo de tu marca. Para lograr esto, es importante contar con una marca optimizada para diversos tama?os y formatos. 2. Evitar sobrecargar la presentación con logotipos, ya que esto podría resultar repetitivo y aburrido para la audiencia. Recuerda que otros elementos, como los colores y los gráficos, pueden hacer que tu marca sea visible sin necesidad de incluir el logotipo o símbolo en cada diapositiva. 3. En caso de ser necesario agregar el logotipo completo en las presentaciones, asegúrate de que sea lo más discreto posible para no interrumpir la visualización de la presentación y hacer el proceso más agradable para el espectador.
Finally, you want to follow your brand guidelines to ensure that your slide design is coherent, uniform, and professional. Your brand guidelines are a set of rules and standards that define how to use your brand elements, such as your logo, colors, fonts, images, and tone of voice. You can create your own brand guidelines, or use a template or a tool like Canva or Slidebean to help you. Your brand guidelines will help you maintain your brand identity across different platforms, channels, and formats, and create a lasting impression on your audience.
Think of your brand guidelines as your brand's DNA. Ensure every touchpoint with your audience is unmistakably 'you', fostering trust and consistency in all your communications.
Following branding guidelines in both internal and client-facing presentations not only creates consistent, recognizable outputs for your customers/stakeholders, but it also allows you to leverage the previous design work of your organization which removes much of the heavy lifting around consideration of design elements (such as color, icons, or fonts) and allows you to focus the majority of your energy on the message you want the slide to convey.
Try to use the brand voice, if your brand doesn't have a clear voice tone, a one that follow the brand ideas and use it in all your slides and future presentations, make it yours!!
Here are a few more things you could do: 1. Make it coherent : A. You could Create some design elements that are unique to your slides (for instance a pattern or a splash that is inline with brand guidelines) and make them running across all slides - giving your full presentation a coherent look. B. You could have different parts of what you are saying in different sizes (keeping font same) to vary the emphasis on the different parts. But make sure you choose 3-4 different sizes and stick with them only. 2. Think about the flow A. The reader should understand your story well. not just the structure of the entire presentation but also how elements flow in each slide is very important. Look at how the eyes move to decide if it works.
Slides content should be short and appealing to the eyes of the person reading it as these help to motivate the reader to go on till the end of the information on the presentation.
It is important to consider all factors together when you create content for a brand. The logo, the brand identity, the color scheme, the font and the content that you want to convey - everything has to be aligned to what the brand stands for. It has to be uniform across all communication, and most importantly, if it is digital, it has to be CONCISE. People have very less attention span in today's times, and would like to grasp most information in the least amount of time, so making sure that your word is carried accurately yet succinctly makes you stand out well.
Make it pleasant and digestible to the eye not cramping a lot of elements and choosing your content wisely Review for shorter and more impactful ways of conveying ideas. Watch for design elements that may be shocking and distracting to the brain and block the reception to your main ideas. Be intentional with your goal. Make sure not to use restrictive language that may apply only to certain segments of the audience you are trying to reach.
Slides should also be understandable outside of the connotation of a presentation. Make sure to include all relevant information in the slides and pair it with some notes if necessary. This ensures that your slides are complete and can be referenced to in posterity to their presentation.