Today, I was reviewing a colleague’s PowerPoint presentation. The first thing I noticed was his company’s logo was on every single slide. After a few slides, I found myself getting annoyed.
I know it is standard practice to put a logo on every page, especially in the corporate world. However, I would suggest that you avoid this practice. Here’s why:
- People know who you are. They are not going to forget the company you represent—especially if you have something meaningful to say. They don’t need to be reminded on every slide. This is especially true for internal presentations.
- People resist repetitive advertising. With a logo on every slide, your presentation feels like an infomercial for your brand. This builds in a subtle resistance to your presentation and, ultimately, to you. Is this the outcome you want?
- Logos take up valuable real estate. Everything that is not directly related to the one point you are trying to make on your slide competes for the audience’s attention. According to French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
Instead of placing your logo on every page, you should use “bumper slides” with your logo on the first and last slide only. Other than that, it should almost never appear.
Case in point? Steve Jobs. He is arguably one of the best presenters on the planet. He does not put the Apple logo on every slide. Instead, he uses bumper slides. He is a true minimalist. As a result, he maximizes the impact of every slide.
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This may seem like a simple thing, but I find the overuse of fonts in a presentation distracting. I love discovering different fonts because of my graphics background (ancient though it may be). But if the font used overtakes the message, the message can appear forced, as if the presenter is “trying” too hard. Stick to one (or two at most) font and its variations (bold, italic) and keep it simple.
Mike,
Sadly, some people not only put their logo on every slide, but they also animate the darn thing so it moves or rotates, or, even worse, “bounces” on every page.
Great point on logos, they are too busy 98% of the time.
One of my additional presentation annoyances is when you look at the properties of a presentation, and you can tell that it has been copied from another company.
Jerell Klaver
“Eye chart” slides. Slides with too many words and too small a font. If you have to say that much on a slide it would be better off on a handout.
Great point about the company logos.
However, I do prefer photos to tell the story. Fantastic photography, much as you often use on your own blog, can be much more enlightening than just slide after slide of words… words… words…
You know that quote about a picture being worth 1000 something or other?
Good points, Mike. We’ve been guilty of the logo-banner thing ourselves.
Other annoyances:
- Dramatic/busy color schemes
- Over-animation
- Too wordy, too much detail
- Use of the same old biz buzzwords and platitudes
PP has gotten so overused and abused I rarely use it. When I do, I keep it simple.
@Iris: I totally agree about photos. I have many presentations where most of the slides are photos with often just a headline. This is where Nancy Duarte’s book, Slide:ology, is must reading.
This is great Michael.
And so true.
I’m annoyed by different color fonts used in the body of copy – headlines and pull quotes notwithstanding.
I’ll take the contrarian view. Often, people print a slide deck and keep only one or two pages. Small, elegant reminders on each page can be a handy reference in this common scenario.
@Paul: The best solution for this, in my view, is produce the slides for display and a “slideument” for handouts. The latter can have more detail and be used as a reference document.
This may be more of a presentation pet peeve, but…
I can read! If you are going to spend the time to put together a presentation, don’t read it word for word! One of you becomes unnecessary!
There’s nothing quite like the “presentation” where the presenter simply reads, more or less verbatim, the contents of the slides.
@Brian: I totally agree. Presenters too often make their slides their talking points. These go in the “presenter notes” section. It’s much more effective to put one word, a short headline, or a stand-alone graphic on the slide and then deliver your talking points while the side is displayed. This is where Steve Jobs is such a good role model.
This is timely and helpful advice as we refine our webinar and workshop presentations. We’re incorporating many of the design techniques and information processing strategies developed by Duarte Design. It’s important, though, to not forget that subtle tweaks (like removing a superfluous and visually annoying logo) can impact a presentation dramatically Thanks for the tip, Michael.
People who let the slides do the presentation instead of using the slides as part of their presentation.
Last minute changes to the presentation. Imagine being the one who has to print 30 copies of a presentation. Half an hour before the meeting, the presenter sends an updated version … Yes, computers make it easy to make updates, but that doesn’t mean that it should be updated at the last minute! Especially if it’s a small wording change. If a number changed, the presenter can certainly say, “I just received an update, and this number is now this.”
Sound. Okay, sound’s cute the first time, but after the second and third time, it gets really old.
Silly clipart. I don’t know why, but people gravitate straight to the most tacky clipart there is and put it in a blank space on the slide. Resist the urge. Use a photo instead!
I would ask myself why are you so fixated on the logo instead of focusing on the message you are investing your time to review? When we see the symbol of the Cross what are we looking at? The logo or what the message is in front of us?
Being a creative soul, I love the artistic potential of PowerPoint. However, I became frustrated with PowerPoint distractions and began keeping track of things that bugged me, then blogged about it.
Creating a PowerPoint: The ABC’s
“If anything can go wrong, it will.”—Murphy’s Law
Want to use PowerPoint when you speak? Keep in mind that any mechanical device has the potential to go haywire—distracting you and your audience. Avoid planning your talk around your PowerPoint presentation. When creating your PowerPoint, use the following tips to add value to your speech.
* Anecdotes/Acronyms: Don’t overload your audience with data dump—facts, bullets or information. Tell engaging, relevant stories to support each point. List and spell out all acronyms on the last slide.
* Bullets: Use no more than four or five bullets per slide.
* Contrast: Use high contrast text and graphics. The more contrast between the background and type, the more your words pop, for example dark or black lettering stands out against a light background. Cool colors work best for backgrounds. Warm colors are best for text.
* Design: Avoid clutter. Leave white space around text and graphics.
* Editing: Check grammar and spelling.
* Font: The room and size of the audience may vary. Legibility is important. Use Arial, Gill Sans, Universal, or Times New Roman. Use 32-50 points for title slides, 24-32 points for the title, 20-32 points for the heading and bulleted lists, and 18-point for the text. No one past the first few rows can read type smaller than 18 points. Avoid capitalizing words, it reduces readability and comprehension.
* Graphs/Graphics: Complex graphs or graphics are difficult to see in the back row. Divide information over several slides. Limit pie charts to 4-6 slices. Limit vertical bar charts to 4-8 contrasting bars. Limit horizontal bar charts to four bars.
* Handout: Create a takeaway handout providing detailed facts, graphs and acronyms. For note taking, print out your PowerPoint presentation.
* Italicized Fonts: Don’t use. They are hard to read.
* Join: Connect the PowerPoint with your talk. However, make sure your talk can stand alone without the PowerPoint.
* Kiss: Keep it simple stupid does not mean stupid. Nothing is as easy as it looks. Constructing a well-presented talk and PowerPoint requires planning and work.
* Lines: Limit text to six lines or less.
* Metaphors: Use a powerful word picture that your audience will remember.
* Needs: What are your audience’s felt needs? What three points do you want your audience to remember? Keep main points logical, simple and clear.
* Organization: Begin with a summary slide stating your three main points.
* Pictures: Use pictures to illustrate your point. The best slides have no text. Include high-resolution stock photos or your own digital pictures to help the audience emotionally connect to your story. Don’t use cartoonish clip art.
* Quotations: Keep quotes short.
* Red Type: Never use it. Red type is illegible when projected.
* Simplicity: Eliminate every nonessential phrase, word or element.
* Text: Not artistic? Use one number, percentage or memorable, key word that is ten characters or less. Make it large—as in HUGE text that takes up the entire slide.
* Verify: Check your facts to make sure they are accurate. Include the source.
* Wordiness: Use key words and phrases only. Limit words to six to eight words per line.
* X: Cross out or delete extraneous or detailed information. Use key ideas on each slide. Be clear and concise. Too much text lessens legibility.
* Yadda-Yadda: PowerPoint is not a teleprompter. Don’t read the PowerPoint slide word for word. Spend 45 seconds to 5 minutes per slide to reinforce your points. Plan your talk to correspond with—not repeat—the information on the slides.
* Zombie Proofing: The mind only tolerates what the derrière can bear.
@Scoti: Fantastic suggestions. The only thing I would add is ditch PowerPoint altogether and use Apple Keynote. The right tool won’t make a bad speech good, but I have found it easier to use with more impactful results.
Here are a few things that bother me or hamper my assimilation with getting the “message”:
- Too much content on the slide
- When the presenter reads the slide to me – I can see the slide & read it – I’m looking for the other “nuggets” that aren’t there.
- Bad design (trying to do too much)
- Some corporate templates
That’s about it – others have covered some of the other main things. Good design + good content = I’m going to remember what you were presenting.
This feels like an in-house kind of question, but I can’t resist putting in my two cents. If I were excited, energized and engaged by the content of a presentation, I probably wouldn’t even notice the logo, except perhaps subliminally. Put another way, if “the emperor” (the presentation) “has no clothes” (compelling content), the wagon he rides around in (the template) may be more conspicuous than it should be.
I got my degree from the University of Phoenix, where there is a heavy emphasis on giving presentations as a team. As a result, I got to be a pretty decent presenter and gained a serious annoyance for amateurs.
Shortly after finishing my degree, the company I worked for at the time brought in an HR representative to give us a presentation on some new benefit or policy change. All I remember from that presentation is that she broke every possible rule of presenting and giving a presentation. Her slides were black text on a dark blue background. Each slide could have been an independent Word document in itself. She read word for word, but hadn’t even taken the time to familiarize herself with the material so her reading was stilted and horrible.
Even if your slides are terrible, at least practice the presentation. I’m no artist when it comes to making slides, but one rule I always follow is to practice my presentations. If I have time, I’ll record myself and listen back to take notes on how I sounded, how I can better emphasize words, etc.
Specifically, annoyed by the animation:
1) Mutliple ways to bring your information in
2) Too many words on your slides.
I will read slide:ology. I am always looking to improve the presentation skills.
I like photos, but I prefer them to be actual photos rather than clipart, if feasible.
I don’t appreciate seeing the presenter’s desktop on the screen before beginning the presentation. I don’t need to watch you navigate your mouse or see what silly shortcuts are on your screen.
Great post, Mike. I created several hundred PP shows for lawyers at my old job; they insisted putting page after page of testimony on each slide.
Of course, these were the same people who told me my own presentation was “too entertaining.” Because, you see, if it’s interesting “they won’t think it’s important.” I rest my case.
Steve Jobs might not put his logo on every slide, but Apple doesn’t forget to put that little white Apple on everything else!
Now, if only TV stations would stop putting their logos in the lower right corner of the screen.
Couldn’t agree more. Always been fascinated by this practice. You never see people put their logo on every page of a sales kit or brochure, yet they do so on their powerpoint.
But then, that is the problem with PowerPoints. In essence they are a digital brochure that you get to walk an audience through but while companies will spend thousands of dollars on professionally crafted sales materials they leave designing a PowerPoint up to anyone with a laptop.
Thanks for the excellent reminder.
What surprises me the most is the amount of business professionals that still fail to understand the first law of PowerPoint: never, ever put your entire presentation on every slide. Bullet points exist for a reason, and that is to summarize, not to give a thorough explanation. They are visual cues for both the audience and the presenter. Yet some professionals continue to treat PowerPoint as their own personal narrative on their topic of choice. Nothing is more disappointing than paying hundreds of dollars for a conference and finding that the presenter just reads from a predescribed PowerPoint.
Hi
I would like consultancy companies to make a note of this point. Many consultancies have a template which forces the presenter to put client and company logo on each slide. They should as you rightly said 'free some real estate' and let the audience breathe.
Too many presenters have never taken a course on presentation skills, so they talk to the screen, read the slides directly, jiggle their change, etc. Sometimes their content is fine–it's knowing what to do with it that irks me. I'm in the sciences, so oftentimes slides show data in a visual form. The data can speak for itself if you let it. Show the data, but explain how you derived it, what it means, and what you'll do with it.