Presentation design: what to know

What the job involves, what changes the price, and what to ask a pro.

What presentation design is

A presentation designer turns your content into polished slides with consistent layouts, charts, icons and images that help an audience follow your message. People hire a designer when a deck matters, such as for investors, clients, a conference or a board, and the slides need to look clear and professional.

Signs you need it

  • You have an important pitch or sales presentation and your slides look cluttered or inconsistent
  • Your charts are hard to read, and the audience cannot tell what the numbers mean
  • You are presenting to investors, lenders or a board and need a deck that looks prepared
  • Your team has several decks that look different, and you need one consistent template
  • You have a long report to present and need the key points turned into a clear slide story

What the pro does

  • Review your content, the audience and the points you need the slides to make
  • Organize the content into a slide order that tells a clear story
  • Choose a layout system, the colors, the fonts and the chart styles for the deck
  • Design each slide with a single message, clear visuals and enough space around the text
  • Build charts and diagrams from your data, checking that each one shows what it should
  • Deliver the editable file, a PDF version and a template your team can use for future decks

What changes the price

Every job is different, so we do not publish prices. These are the things that move the quote up or down.

  • The number of slides and how much new layout work each one needs
  • Whether the designer rewrites or organizes your content, or only designs it
  • How many charts, diagrams and custom graphics the deck requires
  • Whether the designer must build a template you can reuse
  • How many rounds of review are included, and how many people give feedback
  • How quickly the deck is needed before the presentation date

What a written quote should spell out

  • The number of slides and the number of custom charts or diagrams included
  • Whether a reusable template is included and what it covers
  • The number of review rounds and how feedback is collected
  • Who supplies the data, images and fonts, and who holds the licenses
  • The file formats delivered, including editable and PDF versions

Questions to ask before you hire

  • Can you show me decks you designed for presentations like mine?
  • Will you keep the deck editable so my team can update it?
  • Can you check my data in the charts and tell me if a chart is misleading?
  • Which fonts will you use, and will they be installed on the presentation computer?
  • How many review rounds are included, and when is my final approval needed?
  • Will you build a template I can reuse for future presentations?

Red flags

  • Delivers only a PDF with no editable slides
  • Changes your numbers or claims without telling you
  • Uses fonts or images without a license for the presentation setting
  • Promises that the deck will win funding or a contract

What you can do yourself

You can keep slides simple by using one message per slide, one chart for each point and a single font family from your presentation software's template. Hire a presentation designer when the stakes are high, when the deck must follow a brand, or when you need charts and diagrams built from complicated data.

Licenses and permits

No license is usually required for presentation design. Ask instead for samples of decks you have designed, references and a written statement of the rights to the templates and images; check with your state or local business licensing office if the designer operates as a registered business.

Presentation design questions

Will the fonts work on the computer I present from?

Only if they are installed there or embedded in the file. Ask the designer to use common fonts or to embed them, and test the file on the presenting computer before the event.

Can the designer change my data?

They should not change your numbers. A good designer will flag a chart that looks misleading and ask you to confirm the data before the deck is finished.

Should I send a PDF or the editable file?

Send both if you can. The PDF protects the layout when it is shared, and the editable file lets you update the deck later.

Pro reviewers

Pros who offer presentation design remotely can improve this guide, like Wikipedia. We check every edit before it goes live. Every approved edit is credited in the edit history and on the pro's profile.

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