Slides for Consulting purposes

Most our clients are consultants, and for that reason there are a few points we must take into consideration, for us to be able to deliver materials that go according to these clients' needs.

These points are no secret, but they are:
Harmony
Content and/or shapes with enough breathing/white space, meaning that we should aim for a considerable amount of white space
Simple style, to the point
Too many font sizes can also affect the harmony of a slide
Same for colors, 1-2 tones is the ideal
Alignment of text, top-left alignment, etc.
Consistency
Slide Frame, consistent throughout the deck
Elements in the same position from slide to slide
Most of the time, the slide is built in a way by the client in order to convey a specific message/meaning, we must ensure that we don't change this meaning, the layout should transmit the message to the point
Structure
People normally read from left to right, top to bottom, so the content should be structured in a way that follows this
Easy to edit if the clients need to apply changes by themselves
Read and understand the slide content/title before designing it, that way you'll get to know it's needs better
Font size
As a general rule, aim for 1 font size per slide instead of multiple, ideally 1 font size for the whole deck (when we're speaking about body content), depending on the client guidelines
Font size should always be readable, aim for a font size of 12-14pt as standard, minimum size 10 (can differ depending on the slide size). Smaller font sizes are more inclined to be used for printing purposes, and bigger font sizes for digital circumstances like PDFs and presentations
Content/text always come first, so avoid drastically reducing the font size of a slide in order to accommodate a visual structure since this tones down the key message/data in favor of the visuals. Good rule of thumb is to not have the font size of the output be smaller than the input slides.
Don't use too many extras
The overusage of icons, elements, illustrations and so on, normally adds an extra layer of noise that does not help the slide readability

Keep in mind that these are mere standards, and it does not mean they should be applied to 100% of the situations. There are some cases where these cannot be applied, but for the great majority these can/should be on your mind!

Good and bad examples of slides for Consulting purposes

We have developed a file for you that further explains this topic and showcases good and bad examples for points mentioned in the section above.

Please download the file via this link, open in PowerPoint and view in presentation mode.

Updated on: 24/11/2022