The most important thing in creating slides is avoiding confusion. If you succeeded in creating simple, clear slides, you can add another layer that will enlarge the impact of your slides. Here you find three tricks.
- The big picture. If you want to go for full impact, go full screen. Think about television. You will hardly ever see a frame in a white background. Images are cut off by the sides of the screen. If you use a white or a black background, this is much easier. Online tons of images with a black or white background circulate. On a white or black background they appear as if they are full screen.
- Rule of thirds. In the middle is boring and feels off balance. Just off the centre appears more in balance and interesting. This is because of the rule of thirds. Our eyes are automatically drawn towards the intersections of the lines that divide the slide in three equal parts. Putting important elements (eyes, perspective lines, buildings, texts) on these crossings gives a balanced feel.
- Some pictures have a direction. This can be the result of a person or animal facing a certain direction or the composition of the image. This is called a vector. When you combine a picture of a guinea pig with text in a way it appears as if the guinea pig is looking at the text, your audience will inescapably look at the text. This could be applied on for example your title slide or slides on which you stress the societal impact.
Further reading
Designing slides is an art in itself. A skill you develop over the years by doing it over and over again. If you do not have the skills yet, it might be more efficient to ask for help. Therefore slide design is a service we made integral part of our coaching trajectory.
However, if you want to further develop your slide design skills, the book Presentation Zen Design by Garr Reynolds provides a good starting point.

Exercise: create your slides
Translate your storyboard into a slide deck. Think about:
- Create a corporate identity
- Apply it consistently
- Create impact
If you want our design team to design your slides, send an email to info@visservisible.com.