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Who is the presentation for? (Hint; it’s not you!)
Often when designing the look and feel of the graphic approach for a presentation, the presentation is designed graphically to appease the decision maker, or a creative director, or worse a person in the small organization who is “creative”. The creative director should be managing the brand and making certain the brand is expanded properly into the PowerPoint presentation deck. This begs the question “Who is the presentation for?”
This is exactly where the visual effects of most presentations are misinterpreted, even when using a professional graphic source or presentation company. The creative director or creative “helper” starts thinking about what would look good using their obvious sense of style. What they are failing to interpret is the style of the audience.
Assume for a moment that the creative person has a great sense of flowing visuals, they helped with your web site reviews, selection of office art, and always seem to be the best dressed in the office; however the audience that you are presenting to is C-level, no nonsense. This audience typically wants clean, straight forward, honest and non-superfluous design elements. Is this the style of your “creative” person?
Audience, audience, audience. This is the key to designing a presentation that will connect and persuasively engage your audience. Without realizing your audience type and what they expect, disaster can await even a professionally prepared presentation.
