Presentation design that carries the argument without you
Most decks are fixed with structure, not styling. We settle the argument and its order first, then make it look like it came from your organisation.
What is presentation design?
Presentation Design is the structuring and production of a deck: the narrative order, the argument on each slide, the evidence supporting it, and a reusable template system your team can extend. It suits Australian teams presenting to investors, boards, procurement panels or customers, where the deck is often read without the presenter in the room.
Get a fixed written quote- Typical timeline
- 1 to 4 weeks
- What drives cost
- Slide count, how much narrative work is needed as opposed to styling existing content, the number of custom charts.
- Best for
- Investor raises, board reporting, sales pitches and tender presentations
- You own
- The editable template and every slide, in the software you present in
- Built with
- PowerPoint or Google Slides masters, real layouts, chart systems
Your handover
The narrative is decided before any slide is made
A deck is an argument in a particular order, and most weak decks are weak because the order was never chosen. They open with a company history nobody asked for, present a market size that proves nothing about you, and arrive at the request in the final two minutes when attention has gone. We start by writing the one sentence you want the audience to repeat afterwards, then work out the smallest set of claims that make that sentence believable, then order those claims so each one earns the next.
- 01Written narrative outline agreed before design
- 02Assertion headline for every slide
- 03Designed deck built in your presenting software
- 04Master template with real layouts and placeholders
- 05Chart and table system with a defined palette
- 06Appendix structured for likely questions
- Slide library of reusable standard slides
- Rehearsal session with the presenter
- Short guide for adding slides without breaking the system
Different decks carry different arguments and the order is not interchangeable
Different decks carry different arguments and the order is not interchangeable. An investor wants to know why this, why now and why you, and they are assessing risk rather than admiring the product. A board wants the decision required, the options, the recommendation and the risks, in that order, with everything else in an appendix. A sales deck has to be about the buyer's problem for far longer than the presenter finds comfortable. A tender presentation is scored against published criteria, so the structure should follow those criteria rather than your preferred story.
Different decks carry different arguments and the order is not interchangeable.
Assertion headlines and one idea per slide
The single highest value change to most decks is rewriting every slide title. A title that says Market Overview is a filing label. A title that says Two thirds of our pipeline now comes from referral is an argument, and the rest of the slide becomes evidence for it. Read the titles in sequence and you should have the whole case without the body content. If the sequence of titles does not hold together, the deck does not hold together, and no amount of design will hide it.
The corollary is one idea per slide
The corollary is one idea per slide. A slide carrying three points splits into three, or two of them go in the appendix. This makes for more slides, which alarms people until they present it, because a deck of clear single point slides moves faster than a deck of dense ones. The appendix is the pressure valve: everything the presenter might be asked but does not need to say goes there, which is what lets the main sequence stay short without leaving anyone underprepared.
How the engagement runs
How a deck project runs
We work on the structure in a document before anyone opens presentation software, because arguing about the order of slides while they are being designed is the most expensive way to have that conversation. A written outline with one line per slide can be reordered in minutes. The same reorder in a designed deck is a day.
- 01Stage 1Agree the one sentence the audience should repeat, and who the audience actually is
- 02Stage 2Draft the argument as a written outline, one line per slide, and settle the order
- 03Stage 3Rewrite every slide title as an assertion, then read the titles in sequence as a test
- 04Stage 4Identify the evidence each assertion needs, and what has to move to the appendix
- 05Build the templateTheme colours, layouts, typography and the chart system
- 06Stage 6Produce the slides, with charts built from your real data
- 07Stage 7Rehearse it with the presenter and cut what does not survive being said aloud
- 08Stage 8Hand over the editable file, the template and a short guide to adding slides
Two decisions on your side that keep the project moving
Rehearsal is part of the work, not an optional extra. Presenting the deck aloud reveals the slides that need a bridge, the ones the presenter keeps apologising for, and the ones that can be deleted. We usually cut ten to fifteen per cent of slides in that session, and the remaining deck is stronger for it.
The template system your team runs afterwards
A deck designed as a set of individual slides decays within a month, because the next person duplicates a slide, drags a text box and types over it. Fonts substitute, alignment drifts, and by the quarter's end there are four blues. The fix is to build a real template rather than a nice looking file: theme colours mapped correctly so the palette appears in the colour picker, a proper set of layouts with placeholders rather than free floating text boxes, and typography set at master level so text inherits it instead of being formatted by hand.
Font choice needs a practical decision here
Font choice needs a practical decision here. If a licensed typeface is not installed on every machine that will open the file, including the client laptop it gets emailed to, it will substitute and the layout will shift. We either use a font that is reliably available, embed where the format supports it, or specify a deliberate fallback. We also confirm which environment you present in, because a PowerPoint file rebuilt in Google Slides loses formatting, and building natively in the tool you use avoids a conversion nobody enjoys. Where a wider identity exists, this template inherits from the identity system.
Layouts, not blank slides
A defined set of layouts covering title, section divider, single statement, two column, full bleed image, chart, table, quote and closing request. Each with placeholders so new slides start correct rather than empty.
A slide library
Pre built slides your team reuses: the standard company overview, the team page, the pricing structure, the case for change. Assembling a deck becomes selection rather than creation.
Locked and unlocked elements
Logos, footers and page numbering set at master level so they cannot be nudged, with content areas left free. Consistency stops depending on whether the last editor was careful.
Data slides that survive a board's questions
Charts in decks fail for consistent reasons: too many series, a legend that forces the eye to travel, a title describing the data rather than the finding, and colours that mean nothing in particular. We design a chart system instead, with a limited palette where each colour has an assigned meaning, direct labelling in place of legends where it fits, and a title that states the conclusion. If a chart needs a paragraph of explanation, it is the wrong chart.
The other half is credibility
The other half is credibility. Every figure needs a source and a date in a consistent position, and the numbers must reconcile with the financial pack, because a board member who finds one discrepancy will discount the rest of the deck. Colour must survive being printed in mono, since board papers still get printed. And where the data is genuinely live and updated monthly, the sensible answer may not be a slide at all but a live dashboard in Power BI that the deck references, rather than numbers manually retyped each cycle.
When you should not pay for presentation design
If the argument is not settled, design will not settle it. A deck that gets rebuilt three times because the strategy keeps moving costs more than doing the thinking first. If your team cannot state in one sentence what the audience should do afterwards, that sentence is the missing piece, and it may be a positioning question rather than a presentation one.
The rest of the answer
There are also occasions when a deck is the wrong format entirely. If the material will be read alone rather than presented, a written document usually communicates better and respects the reader's time, which points to a properly laid out document. If it is a detailed technical specification, it is a specification and forcing it into slides makes it worse. And for a routine internal update, a well built template and half an hour of your own time is the right answer, not a design project. We would rather set you up with the template and let your team run it.
How we scope it
Four ways to scope your Presentation Design project
We do not publish package prices, because the same brief can be a short build or a long one. These are the shapes the work usually takes. Tell us which one sounds like you and you will get a fixed written quote that spells out exactly what it covers.
Presentation Core
The essentials, done properly, not a template
Fixed written quote, agreed before work starts
- Written narrative outline agreed before design
- Assertion headline for every slide
- Designed deck built in your presenting software
Full identity
A complete identity your team can apply without us
Fixed written quote, agreed before work starts
- Everything in Presentation Core
- Master template with real layouts and placeholders
- Chart and table system with a defined palette
- Appendix structured for likely questions
Brand system
A system that holds up across products and campaigns
Fixed written quote, agreed before work starts
- Everything in Full identity
- Slide library of reusable standard slides
- Rehearsal session with the presenter
- Short guide for adding slides without breaking the system
Brand care
Applying and extending it as the business grows
Rolling monthly, quoted in writing
- New assets and applications as they come up
- The system extended rather than reinvented
- Files and source artwork kept in order and in your name
- Rolling, cancel with 30 days notice
These are shapes, not menus. Most quotes end up somewhere between two of them, and we will say so when the honest answer is the smallest one. Describe the problem and we will tell you which it is.
Questions buyers usually ask
Frequently asked questions
Working with us
Can you write the content, or do we supply it?
Either. Most clients supply the raw material and we shape the argument and the slide titles, which is where the largest improvement comes from. If you need the language written from scratch, we bring copywriting into the scope. What we will not do is design around content nobody has decided on, because that produces a deck that is rebuilt at the first review.
Will our team be able to add slides without wrecking it?
That is what the template is for. New slides start from a defined layout with placeholders, theme colours appear in the picker so nobody types a hex code, and fixed elements sit at master level where they cannot be nudged. We include a short guide and, for larger teams, a walkthrough. Finance teams preparing board packs in financial services usually take that session.
Detail and edge cases
How long does a deck take?
Usually 1 to 4 weeks. A focused investor or sales deck of twenty slides with content largely ready can be done in about a week. Longer when the narrative needs real work, when data has to be gathered from several sources, or when a template system is being built alongside. Urgent turnarounds are possible and we will tell you what gets compromised.
What drives the cost of presentation design?
Slide count, how much narrative work is needed as opposed to styling existing content, the number of custom charts, whether a reusable template is in scope, and how many review rounds the approval chain requires. A one-off deck differs from a template system your whole organisation will use. We scope both separately and quote in writing.
Do we get an editable file we can actually use?
Yes, native and editable in the software you present in, with the template installed properly rather than styling applied slide by slide. We do not deliver decks as flattened images, which some studios do to keep the design intact. That protects the design and makes the file useless to you, which is the wrong trade.
We present in Google Slides, not PowerPoint. Is that a problem?
No, but tell us up front. We build natively in the tool you use, because converting between them loses some formatting and breaks master layouts. Google Slides has fewer typographic and animation options, so we design within them rather than building something that degrades on conversion. If you need both, we build one properly and adapt the other deliberately.
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Get a fixed written quote for your deck
Tell us who the audience is and what you need them to do afterwards. We reply within one business day with a structure and a fixed written quote.