Transforming average into awesome: Tips for powerful presentation makeovers

By Kevin Lerner
Executive Director of The Presentation Team

I recently attended a seminar given by a well-known and world-class motivational speaker. He spoke passionately and professionally, skillfully connecting with his audience. The polished performance was marred however, by a PowerPoint presentation that looked so cheap and amatuerish that it seriously weakened his overall delivery.

Sadly, this speaker is just one of millions around the world who suffer from a pathetic PowerPoint presentation. But with a little creativity and ambition, it's easy to transform average into awesome. Here are some tips, based on real samples, for powerful presentation makeovers.

After: A subtitle summarizes the key message of the slide, and the table data has been reworked into three graphical icons. The graphics were created from a scanned franchise agreement cover and saved as a PNG file (for transparency). Each year's information is introduced individually with a spiral animation on a mouse-click.

After: In Adobe Photoshop, we scanned one letter of testimonial at high resolution and placed it angled against a custom template . We then cut out a section (the quote) of the letter and placed it ontop of the testimonial letter for maximum legibility. For maximum impact, each item was saved as a transparent PNG file and brought in independently in a build. The process was repeated for the second letter, shown on the next page.

Before: An ordinary table appears complicated by border lines and bland colors.

This original template had been dominated by a bulky top bar with company logos, and an unnecessary left-side navigation bar.

After: The elimination of border lines reduces the clutter of the table; contrasting colors now delineate the various rows.

Our new template maintained the Hawthorne brand image and featured a gracefully arcing montage on the left side in place of red menu buttons. We reclaimed some screen space by moving the two logos to the bottom and reducing their size. The top of the template was now freed up for a flat yellow title block area.

Before: Three main bullet points dominate the screen and take
the presenter over five minutes to discuss. Yawn.

After: The same five minutes of discussion is split over three distinct pages, each with its own relevant graphic, larger type, and greater breathing space.

The bullets have been converted to full text blocks and supplemented with graphics for maximum graphical impact.

Before: In addition to the use of the overused and unprofessional "screen-beans", this presentation's financial content was made even more boring by a dreary template

After: It's okay to break away from the template! As long as the fonts and overall look remain consistent, audiences often stay more engaged with full screen graphics. In this case, an actual photo has replaced the old flat version, and kicks off the presentation with something new and exciting.