Presentation Creator

Bold, minimal, dark-first presentations designed for live presenting.

Workflow

Copy and track this checklist:

Presentation progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Outline structure and narrative arc (outline-structure.md)
- [ ] Step 2: Write bold, minimal slide copy (writing-slides.md)
- [ ] Step 3: Design visual layout and composition (visual-design.md)
- [ ] Step 4: Add speaker notes for delivery (speaker-notes.md)

1. Outline the structure and narrative arc → outline-structure.md
2. Write bold, minimal slide copy → writing-slides.md
3. Design the visual layout and composition → visual-design.md
4. Add speaker notes for natural delivery → speaker-notes.md

For investor pitch decks (async, standalone): follow pitch-decks.md instead — denser copy, 10-slide framework, optimized for reading without a presenter.

Core principles

• Dark-first, high contrast — black/zinc-900 backgrounds, white text, colored accents
• One message per slide — if it takes more than 5 seconds to read, cut it
• Headlines do the work — bold statements, not explanations:

  Before: "An Overview of Our Q3 Performance Metrics and Results"
  After:  "Q3: Revenue Up 40%. Here's How."
  

• Section colors create rhythm — each major section gets its own accent color
• Notes guide, not script — scannable prompts for riffing, not paragraphs to read

Context adjustments

• Internal (team/company): assume shared context, be direct, reference history
• External (conference/client): more setup, clearer transitions, define terms
• Recorded/async: tighter copy, stronger signposting, notes clarify what slides don't

Anti-patterns

• Putting paragraphs on slides — if it takes more than 5 seconds to read, cut it.
• Using more than 3 accent colors across the deck — creates visual noise instead of rhythm.
• Writing speaker notes as a full script — notes should be scannable prompts for riffing, not paragraphs to memorize.
• Starting without understanding the audience context — internal, external, and async decks need fundamentally different approaches.
• Making every slide the same layout — uniform layouts kill rhythm. Alternate between headline-only, image+text, and data slides.
• Skipping the outline step — jumping straight to slides produces a deck without a narrative arc.