How to Design Clean, Simple Pitch Decks
Your pitch deck skills suck. That’s why you just googled “how to make clean, simple pitch decks,” or something to that effect. No need to be ashamed! You’ve come to the right place. I’m going to show you four key principles that will have you nailing your deck design every time.
But wait…who am I? Just a guy who has created hundreds of pitch decks, and has won hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of projects with them. Ok, that was a hollow flex, but they say to increase credibility whenever possible. Onward to the principles: how to make clean, simple pitch decks.
(Side note–I’ll trade you my winning pitch deck template for your email address. It’s free and it works. Keynote and Google Slides compatible, with tested copywriting prompts that win. Just click here.)
Negative Space is Your Friend
The quickest way to tell the difference between an amateur brand and a professional brand is how much negative space they use. When Apple flashes their logo at the end of an ad, it doesn’t take up 70% of the screen. It doesn’t even take up 25% of the screen. It takes up about 7% of the screen. Check out a few screen grabs from their recent AirPods ad. Negative space galore.
There are two reasons behind this. First, a small logo is a show of confidence. Apple is confident that people know who they are. They don’t need to blow up their logo like a novelty check to get people to remember. And second, negative space brings focus to an object. If a logo or a text block is close to the edge of a screen, the theory is that the viewer’s eye could be distracted by things offscreen. But if the object is small, in the center of the page, surrounded by negative space, they’re fully immersed in the media.
When you’re designing your pitch decks, make sure there is a lot of negative space around the main focus of the page. Make sure there is margin on the edges so that text is immersed in the deck. And make sure the logo is small. It’s a subtle flex that goes a long way with brands.
Copy + Paste is Your Friend
Amateur pitch decks have inconsistent alignment. On one page, the text is right next to the edge, and on the next page, it’s miles away from the edge. Pitch decks are PDFs, and people scroll down on their phones when they read them. If text and images are misaligned, your pitch deck will look like it was designed by a high schooler giving a science presentation. No matter if you are a high schooler who just gave a science presentation. The key is to not look like one.
To avoid alignment issues, use copy and paste. Design one page that works for you, and then copy the entire page. Then, without moving the images or text boxes, replace the copy and pictures with new ones. Just like that, you’ll have a uniform, clean, aligned pitch deck that confidently says “pro.” Even before the brand reads it.
Choose Fonts + Type Well
Another cardinal sin of pitch deck design is poor use of fonts and type. Fonts should always be clear and readable, and typographical hierarchy should always be consistent.
Most pitch decks only need two fonts: a headline font and a body text font. When you’re choosing a headline font, pick something that fits the vibe of the brand. When you’re picking a body text font, choose a classic: Helvetica, Avenir, Times, etc. You might think these fonts are boring. That’s because they are. But would you rather have your work and ideas speak for you? Or the goofy body text font you chose? Because you can only pick one.
There should be a strong distinction between your headline type and your body text type. A rule of thumb is that headlines should be bold, all caps, and double the size of your body text. If you want to increase the kerning (the space between the letters) for your headline, go ahead. Body text should be a regular weight, with a regular kerning, and regular caps. The goal for this text is that it’s readable. Stick to these rules and you can’t go wrong.
Make Text Readable On Top of Images
Now for the final mistake that amateurs make with their pitch decks: unreadable text on top of images. This is the worst of them all; you can have everything else perfect with your pitch, and then ruin it because your text is unreadable on top of an image.
Here’s the rule that will save you here: decide if you want to show text or an image. You can’t do both at the same time. If you want the image to speak, give the it its own page, or set it on half the page next to the text. If you want the text to speak, put it on its own plain background. When text is set on an image, and neither gives way to the other, confusion ensues.
The only time you should set text on top of an image is to give the background a little bit of a colorful vibe. But if you want to showcase the image clearly, then give it its own page or its own section. If you are setting text on top of an image, make the image very dark. I do this by using a black background and lowing the opacity on the image to about 10%.
There you have it. If you can use negative space, keep consistent alignment, choose clean fonts, and make sure text is always readable, you’ll have a professional pitch deck. If you want to skip all the hard work, then I’ll make you a trade. Give me your email address and I’ll give you my Photo + Video Pitch Deck Template. It has a clean design and copy prompts that help creatives win pitches. Check it out here.
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