PowerPoint is often used when making a presentation. I have sat through hundreds of presentations at symposiums, meetings, forums and conferences and I see the same template themes come up. I asked myself why people choose to use the standard templates offered by Microsoft and why wouldn’t they try to be a little more creative? Is it due to lack of time, training or courage?
Designing your own template does take some extra time from your busy day however the benefits of your own design far outweigh the cost of time and sweat equity.
Using the standard PPT templates offered by Microsoft sends a clear message to your audience that you really do not care enough to put a little effort into your presentation for them. More and more audience participants are becoming insulted with the use of standard templates by the presenter. So I suggest that you bite the bullet and learn to do your own templates.
My friend Vivek Singh from India recently wrote a blog on how to create your own templates. There is some good information there for people who are newbies to template creation.
One other benefit of creating your own template is that it gives you the opportunity to develop your own brand. I am not suggesting your plaster your logo in the corner of each slide. I do suggest that you use your corporate colours to your advantage. If you have a good image on your website, you can incorporate that somewhere into the intro slide or final slide. Create your own brand by creating your own templates. Microsoft has enough branding so stay away from their stock templates. If you need to present at a technical forum where commercialized presentations are frowned upon and not allowed, use your corporate colours in the template design. Sometimes you can use parts of your logo in a way that reminds people of the company but is not an “in-your-face” form of advertising.
To get a good match on the corporate colours from a website to the PPT template, I use a software program called Colourificator. It is free to download and you can quickly match the colours from a logo from your website and transfer it to your PPT slide templates. Colour can go a long way to help in branding your presentations.
Do you make your own PPT templates? If you don’t, then why?
Hang in there, this is going to be a journey.
Tags: corporate branding, Corporate Presentations, persuade, PowerPoint, presentations, Templates
Tags: corporate branding, Corporate Presentations, persuade, PowerPoint, presentations, Templates
April 7th, 2009 at 5:44 am
Very good MJ. I like creating my own templates and when I see a non-standard template in a presentation I tend to be more impressed. If people are willing to spend time creating their own template then I always feel they will have put a lot of effort into their presentation. I tend to use a simple process when creating my own template. I start by looking at the Microsoft standards ones, either in the product or in the on-line the gallery site. When I see a look that I like, I then tweak it with my own product colors, remove/add a line, add a shadow to a shape, insert an additional shape, position my logo etc. Very quickly you can have a new customized template to wow you audience.
April 7th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I appreciate the article, I’m planning to give a presentation in a couple weeks for my company. We just recently upgraded our presentation equipment to Vista Systems. I’ve discovered all the different ways I can utilize the Spyder processor to create a unique presentation. Using your tips for my slides should help to make my speech a success, too.
April 8th, 2009 at 5:35 am
Great suggestion Peter. Why re-invent the wheel? There are some templates that do grab my attention and I will then try to create something similar but with my added touch. Very good point. This will help out our other readers. Thanks for the contribution - have a great week!
April 8th, 2009 at 5:39 am
Hi Jessica,
I am happy that it helped you out a bit. Best of luck with your presentations.
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:32 am
I always love this kind of subject in the world of branding.
I never use the standard Powerpoint layout presentation provided by Microsoft. Seen them all but I always in search for originality.
As I agreed with the article and all whom leave comments. Having your own layout based on your company look and feel, colors, shapes, letter types, and with the company logo (in short called the company house style) is the basic thing to present your presentation about and for your company and what the company offered or do. It’s a complete branding of your company, extended of your business-card, and the face of the company.
Be different….
July 5th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Hi Marcel,
Thanks for the input. It is so important to promote your brand when ever you can with your corporate colours, font and style. Just a few minutes can make a real difference.