Presentation Design for a Major Brand – Perspectives and Reflections on the Overall Approach
We are one of the few agencies that offer comprehensive services in the field of presentation design; in short, we can create a presentation from scratch, managing the development of the narrative arc, the content, and the design. We use a variety of elements to help us build impactful presentations—the “big idea” (the main idea), “the shift” (the change we aim to bring about), “story bits” (elements we use to build arguments for the ideas that support the change), and so on.
I had the opportunity to actively participate in developing a presentation for a global organization in the electronics and home appliances sector, with a history spanning more than a century. To maintain confidentiality, we cannot disclose the exact name of this organization, but we can use a symbolic name to represent it—let’s call it “the blue organization.”
The presentation was meticulously crafted within a specific business unit and was intended for a major internal event. Our contribution focused primarily on graphic design, which was a vital component in this context. However, it is important to emphasize that graphic design is only one part of the overall effort. Indeed, the key lies in the ability to create and convey a coherent story (narrative arc)—that narrative arc that captures and holds the audience’s attention.
Although graphic design is crucial, it merely complements and highlights the main message. An impressive graphic design, while visually appealing, cannot make up for the lack of a compelling story. The audience will gradually lose interest if we fail to capture their attention through a well-crafted story. Thus, we understand that the success of a presentation stems from the subtle balance between the narrative content and the visual medium through which it is presented.
All global organizations have extensive style guides and, inevitably, a great many templates and restrictions when it comes to presentation design. They are absolutely necessary, but the balance between standardization and freedom of expression is important. Excessive standardization will limit creativity, both in storytelling and in design. Too much freedom leads to chaos, and inevitably, situations will arise where the presentation can no longer be associated with the brand. What is the optimal balance? There is no one-size-fits-all rule; it depends on each organization and can only be determined after a thorough analysis.
Presentation Design—A Concrete Example
In the case of the “blue organization,” there is a style guide for presentation design—one that is quite well-tailored to its specific needs, with enough restrictions to prevent presentations from deviating from the brand’s visual identity, yet permissive enough in certain aspects to allow room for creativity. I appreciated that, in addition to a series of templates and clear rules, there’s also a vast collection of aspirational photos featuring people in various poses. There’s effectively a complete set of elements that you can easily and quickly combine to convey the message.
We redesigned a series of slides to make them more dynamic and to draw more attention through their design. We also worked to organize the information where there was a lot of it, to make it easier to understand and use.
Our contribution was modest, given the comprehensive presentation system that the “blue organization” had developed, but we believe we were actually able to reinvent certain design-flexible areas allowed by the style guide.
