Instructions on how to make a presentation if you are not a designer

A presentation is about to be delivered, and you have a blank sheet of paper in front of you? Don't even know where to start and how to finish? Well, lucky you! This article is a real lifesaver for beginners. 

Below you will instantly find all the necessary tips and within 15 minutes you will competently get to work. And yes, it doesn’t matter who you are: a manager, a school teacher or a speaker - you will succeed. 

Good luck!

Everything ingenious was invented before you - use it for your health

Beauty, like humor, is a subjective concept. Often everything ingenious turns out to be outrageously simple. Remember the world-famous Apple presentation, which was once delivered by the legendary Steve Jobs? So, there was basically no design there. 

Black background and white text. And, of course, photos of Apple devices.

But then the whole world watched this performance with bated breath. And this presentation was recognized as almost a style icon.  

Although it looked rather modest, see for yourself

That's all true. One slide should contain no more than a couple of main sentences of text. People are lazy to read! Jobs, when creating that presentation, generally limited himself to one line per slide. 

And conquered the world!

Conclusion #1: Don’t make up space. The presentation can be beautiful, but at the same time simple and strict. To confirm this conclusion, here are a bunch of examples of such presentations: pinterest.ru

Everyone's secret secret successful presentations  

Want to create an explosive presentation and capture your audience's attention? Then, right at the start, determine the purpose and type of presentation, think about where it will be shown (street or room), on a small screen or through a projector. This is important! 

For example, there is a colossal and fundamental difference between projects for presentation and sending for independent study: 

1. The presentation for the speech should contain a minimum of text. You will already use as many words as you need.) It’s better to focus on the visual. 
2. The presentation for distribution will require more text. After all, at the moment of studying you will not be next to the reader. Therefore, you need to chew everything so that even a first-grader can understand it!) 

Takeaway #2: Never start designing a presentation until you understand its main goals.

Choose minimalism - you can't go wrong

Focus on current trends. They lead to simplicity and minimalism. As strange as it may sound, the simpler the better!

It’s not for nothing that great designs and logos of most world brands are created using this principle: Windows, leading car manufacturers, etc. 

Judge for yourself

Are you sure? Nothing extra. Excessive detail would kill the masterpiece.  

Even if you are not Musk, but an air conditioning specialist providing installation and maintenance services for climate control equipment, there is no need to clutter the slide with apartment interiors. Your task is to show your work - installation and maintenance of the air conditioner. 

This will be the most competent design. 

By the way, Europeans are more professional about advertising. They make it clearer and more transparent. For example, somewhere in Prague, the entrance to a flower shop is usually decorated with a laconic sign and a flower pot with a fresh bouquet. 

Examples of European streets - everything is beautiful and laconic. Signs, advertising, etc. look very simple and are not noticeable      

In our country, the absence of a weighty banner, painted like a Tula samovar, is considered bad form. But because of this, you won’t immediately understand what they sell here. Either cosmetics or toys 18+). 

An image of some bright, ridiculous signs in Russia or another CIS country looks something like this

Don't repeat these mistakes! Feel free to use good examples of ready-made presentations as a basis. You can choose a good and inexpensive presentation template on special websites: here creativemarket.com  or here www.shutterstock.com

You can also always order an individual presentation template from our company in the section “Presentations”.

Conclusion #3: Professional design does not catch the eye. It is perceived somewhere at the level of the senses.

Color combination for dummies

Let's leave dull lectures about the basics of composition and color to professors and nerds. And let's get straight to the point.  

There is no need to turn the slide into the palette of a crazy abstractionist. Use a maximum of 3 colors. Ideal combination: two colors from the same row, plus a third - contrasting. 

For example: black-white and red. Primitive? But 100% harmonious!

Table of successful color combinations, choose!

And at the sight of such woeful combinations, somewhere a noble designer is quietly crying.

Yes, by the way! Pay attention to the flags of the countries. You will not find more than 3 colors on any of them. Do you think it's a coincidence?

This suggests...

Conclusion No. 4: Maybe, of course, every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits, but this story has nothing to do with a real designer!

Fonts are not as scary as you thought

There should be a maximum of two fonts. One for the main text, the second for additional text. In this case, an additional one may be required to emphasize or, conversely, to veil the text. 

Size matters

As for the size of fonts, the kitchen is governed by such a concept as typography. Ideally, there are precise mathematical calculations in pixels. But...

In practice, it all comes down to perception by eye. The font size of the main idea (heading) should be approximately 3-5 times larger than the rest of the text.

This is what the title should be. And for the main text this size is enough

Where is the main idea here? You won't understand anything

That's all you need to know about sizing.

Which font to choose

You can have a blast at the headlines. But only if they are very large and readable. You can even add monograms if you really want. 

And for regular text, a square, sans-serif font is suitable:

• Arial;
• Tahoma;
• Verdana.

By the way, be careful! Some pseudo experts recommend fonts:

• Helvetica;
• Open Sans;
• Roboto.

Such advice is not entirely correct and here’s why. These are non-standard fonts - they need to be downloaded. And not only to the designer, but also to each recipient to whom the presentation will be sent. Otherwise, it will “float”.  

There was a funny incident in our company. The client decided with us order a presentation. It was a big project of a thousand pages. And he insisted that we use a non-standard font. After it turned out that not all employees could open it, they asked to change the font to Arial. The whole thousand pages. We warned you!)

The choice of font directly depends on the purpose and format of the presentation. If we are talking about printing a presentation from a pdf format, use any fonts, since pdf displays all fonts correctly. If you send or demonstrate a presentation in Power Point format, then use standard Windows fonts, since not all computers have designer fonts installed and the entire layout will float.

You can download them from Google Fonts - this is an excellent library where you will find many grotesque fonts available fonts.google.com 

And to be completely honest, designers have no such thing as a super good font or a crap one. Even well-presented Times New Roman, known to every schoolchild, can become an excellent font. 

Conclusion #5: Again, goal first, font second.

How to choose a photo

It is believed that stock photos do not evoke any mood. Artificial productions do not enhance perception.   

But in general, if there is no way to find anything better, this is acceptable and will not worsen the situation. It's better than nothing. 

There are much more serious mistakes. 

When choosing a visual, do not rely only on your own feelings. First of all, you need to consider the preferences of your target audience. For example, mature women do not perceive elements that make school graduates jump in delight:

• pink monograms;
• hearts;
• cats.

Conclusion No. 6: You must be at least a little marketer and understand the psychology of people. It depends on whether people will read the material or not.

How much text should be on a slide?

Of course, you can’t stuff your slides with a sheet of text. You need to leave "air". Slides need to breathe. Notice how this we do. In any presentation, the rule works flawlessly: brevity is the sister of talent. Minimum words - maximum meaning. 

Therefore, no water.

Only on business. 

Like here

There should be enough space for design. 

If you have voluminous content, you need to break it up. For example, you need to describe 5 types of products in a presentation. 

Under no circumstances try to compact them into one slide. Better make 5 slides with different products. And the photo is clearly visible and you can post text about each one. 

Let's do this

Where is the main idea here? You won't understand anything

Conclusion #7: Leave room for “air”, don’t let your presentation suffocate!)

Don't be stereotyped. Point - provocation :)

The psychology of color is a well-worn topic. It is generally accepted that each color has its own mood. And period. 

From every iron they shout to us that red is danger. Guys, then who will explain why tomatoes are so dangerous? What about strawberries? And what about Santa Claus, after all?

This is how patterns are born. Green is grass. Red is blood. Pink is for girls...

In fact, any color can be presented as needed, despite all the marketers and psychologists in the world. Stereotypes are breaking!

By the way, about pink. Once, at a performance by the brutal band Rammstein, the lead singer came on stage in a pink fur coat. And he looked very tough at the same time. 

Till, you're terrible even in pink!

Conclusion No. 8: competent presentation will crush any templates and stereotypes, go for it! 

Somewhere in this place, according to Runet traditions, there should have been an item with a long list of online services from the TOP search results, with detailed instructions on when to press which button. But we'll skip it. We believe that you can Google it yourself. 

But seriously, you can create a good presentation in regular PowerPoint, Canva, or a simple free version of Photoshop. 

Let's sum it up?

So,

• Less text, the main thing is to convey the mood. What you talk about should be visible. If this is a presentation about zebras, let there be a picture of a zebra next to it to enhance perception. 

Great picture, great addition to the story! Test!)

What's here? My thoughts - my horses, zebras or... people, what were we talking about??

• One slide - one general message plus a picture on the topic. 
• The text is on the left (because we read from left to right), and the picture is on the right. 
• Only fat (the most important). 
• Two or three colors
• Minimum photos. One photo is enough for one meaning.

A fairly strong slide can be made like this:

Well, now it’s time to translate the knowledge gained here into a design masterpiece! We believe that you will succeed! And if you need help, contact Veonix, (here) contacts for quick communication with us). 

Sergey Lukin, leading designer at Veonix.