What Should You Look For In A Presentation Designer’s Portfolio?
A presentation designer’s portfolio is usually a key part of the decision-making process when you’re deciding on presentation design services - but it shouldn’t be the only one. Slides might look beautiful, but they need to do a lot more than just be appealing.
If you’re looking for a PowerPoint investor deck, for example, you’ll also want to know that your designer understands narrative, financial charts, market sizing, competitive positioning, and what an investor needs to believe.
Any specialist presentation brief will cover far more than just creating something that looks good. Yes, your finished presentation should absolutely look great – but you should also know what else the slides in a designer’s portfolio are telling you.
A presentation designer’s portfolio is a snapshot of what is possible
Firstly, it’s important to understand that a lot of professional presentation designs will be under non-disclosure agreements (NDA). Presentations often contain sensitive data and confidential information. This means that a lot of portfolios will only show a limited type or style of presentations. They might not be particularly representative of the majority of the work a designer does, or show their full range.
I’ve been a presentation designer for nearly 15 years but I only have four examples of my work on my website. It’s just a tiny fraction of the projects that I’ve worked on and are in the public domain (primarily events). Around 99% of my work is under NDA so I can’t show it on my website.
So, if you don’t see the sort of presentation you are looking for in a designer’s portfolio, it doesn’t mean they don’t or can’t do what you’re looking for.
What can you learn from presentation design portfolios online?
There are some things you can look for within portfolio presentation examples on a designer’s website. Bear in mind that presentation designers should be working within a client’s brand guidelines, which will impact how their designs look. This also means that visual differences between projects can be small – but can hide a larger skills gap. From them, though, you should be able to gauge:
How adaptable the designer is
A designer should be adapting to their clients and their needs, not making every presentation into their signature look. Each presentation will be created for a particular client, brand, audience, and objective.
How they handle imagery, typography, content, and visualise information
Is a presentation telling a story, presenting the information in a way that’s easy to understand, and so on? Or has the designer been given a lot of words and data they have just put into a presentation format?
What to look for in presentation design examples
When you’re looking at presentations, you’ll want to see how a designer has developed the slides. It’s easy to show someone great-looking individual slides, but you’ll want to ensure you can see a sequence, section, or skeleton of a deck. That shows you how a story has been built, how one slide leads into the next, where consistency is held, and where it’s deliberately broken.
What you can check for:
Structure or skeleton: can you see more than just highlights?
Storytelling: does the sequence create a narrative?
Hierarchy: is it obvious what the audience should focus on first?
Problem solving: does information look like it has been transformed into a format that makes sense, or just made to ‘look good’?
Brand personality: does it feel considered and specific or just generic?
Variety of clients: a range of clients is preferable, but not always possible due to NDAs, so don’t write off a designer purely on this.
What you should look out for:
All projects look the same: it shouldn’t just look like logos could be interchangeable.
All decks have the same format or template: this suggests a designer doesn’t have much range or confidence in their design skills.
Information that isn’t clearly organised: the designer should create a narrative and display data in meaningful ways.
Generic or AI-seeming design: this suggests a designer is either depending on AI or doesn’t have much range.
No brand personality: even ‘boring’ corporate decks should have their own personality.
Comparing the online portfolios of presentation designers
This can be difficult to do, particularly when you are comparing skilled designers with others who may be equally skilled. Don’t discount a designer just because they have examples you don’t personally like. You need to separate your personal taste in colour or style, for example, from whether a presentation is actually effective for the audience it is designed for.
Remember that just because you can’t see an exact example of what you need by a particular designer, it doesn’t mean they don’t have any examples you could see, or that they haven’t done that type of work before.
What a presentation designer’s portfolio alone can’t tell you
It’s fine to form some sort of judgment before you even speak to a designer. After all, portfolios are displayed to show you what you can expect. However, as we’ve discussed, they only tell part of the story. And how much you understand of it will also depend on how skilled you are at recognising a good presentation design from a bad one.
There will be some you’ll immediately want to disregard, for various reasons. But once you have a shortlist, it’s a good idea to book a call.
You can ask for more information and to see more relevant examples. Often a designer will be able to show you something on a call that isn’t part of their online portfolio. They may have presentations they’ve removed identifiable information from, like logos and data, that they wouldn’t necessarily want to display as part of their portfolio.
You can ask questions – and the designer should be asking you questions too. They should ask for more in-depth information on your brief so they can advise and quote properly.
My process with sharing portfolio examples and giving quotes
The portfolio examples on my website should give you an idea of what I do and how I do it, but we will need to have a conversation too. This is for your benefit as well as mine. When I understand exactly what you need I can show you more relevant examples to give you a much clearer idea of what you should expect. I can also provide an accurate quote.
I sometimes create sample slides for potential clients at a small cost if they are not sure how they want to proceed. Alternatively, if you decide to go ahead, sample slides will be produced as part of the initial stages of your project. Once I get feedback on them I can create a first draft.
Are you looking for a PowerPoint presentation designer?
Hi, I’m Sarah and I’m skilled and experienced in PowerPoint presentation design. Why not take a look at my portfolio on my services page? I’d be happy to talk through anything you see there – and anything you don’t. I’m sure I’ll have an example of what you need if you just ask!
Please get in touch to book a call and find out how I can help.