Best Presentation Designers

What a good presentation design package includes

Presentation gigs are usually priced by the number of slides. Check that the package states:

• Number of slides to be designed.
• Software: PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides.
• Template: whether a reusable master template is included.
• Charts and diagrams rebuilt from your data, editable in the file.
• Icons and images, and their licenses.
• Animations, if you want them.
• Revisions, delivery time and file formats, including PDF.

How to brief a presentation designer

1. The final content: your current deck or a document with text for each slide.
2. The audience and setting: investors, clients, a conference screen or a document read on a laptop.
3. The one message the audience should remember.
4. Brand files: logo, colors, fonts and style guide.
5. Data for charts, in a spreadsheet.
6. Decks you like, with notes on why.
7. Your deadline, including time for your own rehearsal.

Decide whether the deck will be presented or sent. A deck for a live talk needs fewer words and bigger visuals; a deck sent by email needs to make sense without you. Trying to do both on the same slides usually does neither well.

Open the final file on the computer you will present from, days before the meeting. Check fonts, videos, links and the display size, so nothing surprises you on the day.

What drives the price

• number of slides
• custom template versus designing on your existing one
• charts, diagrams and custom illustrations
• animations and transitions
• writing or restructuring the content
• rush delivery before an event

Red flags

• Charts delivered as images, so you cannot change the numbers.
• A deck built in a tool you do not use, with no editable version.
• Unusual fonts with no plan for the presenting computer.
• Images with no license information.
• A portfolio of pretty single slides but no complete decks.

If you are preparing an investor or bank pitch, our business plan guide covers the document behind it. For a consistent look across all materials, see our brand style guides page.

Ask for a short style note with the finished deck: which layout to use for which kind of slide, the font sizes for headings and body text, and the colors for charts. With it, anyone on your team can add new slides that match the design, and the deck will still look consistent months later when the numbers change and new sections are needed for the next meeting.

Quick pre-order checklist

• My content is final and I know the one message.
• The deck will be made in the software I present with.
• Charts will be editable, and I have sent the data.
• Fonts and images will work and are licensed.
• I will test the file on my presenting computer.