It’s time for you to put together a presentation that seals the deal. So, where do you start? If you’ve got content at the ready, design is all that’s left to tackle. You can put together a presentation to wow your prospects or investors with a bit of good design sense. Don’t have any of your own? Whether you’re using PowerPoint, Keynote, or any other design software, you can apply these 10 presentation design tips to ensure you get your message across in style.

1.Don’t Settle For Stock

Stock slides are for uninspired, droning presentations. They’ve been overused to death and what’s worse is that they tell an audience you’ve got better things to do than make the visual experience of your presentation as pleasant as possible. Don’t have the software chops for elegant design? Go with simplicity, use your company colors, and ensure any graphics you include support the ideas you are presenting, rather than distract from them. Be sure to have include matching icons or easy to interpret infographics that support your content.

2.Less Is More

When it comes to verbiage, less is more. Don’t expect your audience to digest a slide with more than 6 lines of text. Too much information on a slide will detract from your message. You don’t want your audience reading while you are trying to explain key details.

3.Bollocks To Bullet Points

Don’t rely on bullet points to convey important details. They are okay to introduce a list, but don’t expect an audience to remember them. Instead, break up bullet points into succinct slides with a bit of backing information. This will help the information stick.

4.Find The Right Font

The font you use in your presentation can make or break it just as easily as any other design faux pas. Make sure your font is legible and clean when it comes to body text, though you can get creative with heading.

5.Readable text

Whether you’re presenting within the confines of conference room or in an expansive convention center, your text needs to be readable by every audience member. While you might be designing your presentation on a home or office computer, it needs to be presented to the farthest person in the back of the room.

6.Contrast Corrects Clashes

Maybe you’ve got a perfect background image along with a great font, but the colors clash a bit too much. One way to make sure your presentation text pops is to utilize contrast effectively. For example, while white text on a grey image may make it very difficult to read, throwing up a black box behind the text and changing the opacity of it can both make text legible and allow your exceptional image to be appreciated.

7.Simple Color Scheme

One color is too bland. Too many colors is too busy. The presentation’s color scheme needs to be varied enough to remain interesting, but not so much that it becomes a distraction. There are plenty of free complimentary color tools out there for you to use

8.One Image to Rule Them All

Rather than packing as many images as you can into a single slide, no matter how apt they may be, a single large, high-quality image that speaks to your topic will add a visual compliment to your slide without being too busy.

9.Elicit emotion

Facts and statistics in presentations all great for perspective and back up your talking points. However, complimenting important statistics with a relevant image can make an even greater impact.

10.Go Easy On Cheesy Transitions

Transitions are easy to throw into the mix and may lull you into a false sense of your presentation feeling more dynamic. However, don’t rely on them as a crutch to prop up a weak presentation. Let the information do the convincing and keep distracting effects to a minimum.