When thinking about designing a new slideshow there are several things to keep in mind, one of them is the color pallet you will use. Colors have the ability of conveying feelings just by looking at them. Choose which colors you are going to combine in your presentation very carefully, you don’t want to open with a set of vivid colors when presenting a topic about problems in developing countries, for example. Reflect on your topic, what your feelings are towards it, what emotion you want the audience to keep; and choose the colors you will use accordingly.

Choose 3 or 4 colors and use them consistently throughout the slideshow. One of the biggest problems with slideshows which show many pictures is that the color pallet is not consistent, the audience gets distracted and the presentation doesn’t have a sense of unity. You can choose to use the corporate colors or colors that symbolize your industry for the background and any graphics you might display; and if you are going to introduce any pictures, make sure they also use those colors. Usually slideshow creation software has combinations of colors built into them; check them out to empower your message.

Graphs are another area in which the use of the right colors is also very important. Use your main color on whatever it is you want the audience to focus on and keep the rest in a secondary color that doesn’t stand out as much, that way you will ensure that they are paying attention at what you want to spotlight. Why show something like this?

When you can show it much better this way.

Until next time,

Byron Stanford for Project Presentation.