9 creative presentation ideas to spark your imagination
A beautifully designed deck makes your idea stand out, whether you’re pitching to investors, winning over new customers, or presenting an idea to coworkers. But when faced with a blank slide, it can be hard to know where to start. That’s why we teamed up with Dribbble to run a playoff competition and crowdsource great slide deck designs. We invited designers from all over the world to create a short presentation and selected winning entries that demonstrated an eye-catching design, a coherent brand, and an innovative way of presenting information.
Check out the nine standout design below to spark ideas for how to present your best work. The first three presentations included here were selected for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes. The next six were all on the list of top entries and are presented in no particular order. We’ve also included professionally designed presentation templates to give you a head-start in creating your next slide deck.
1. Deck Hacks, by Emile the Illustrator
This deck is a master class in using simplicity to turn heads, with a thoughtful color palette and font choices that lend a retro vibe. The creative animations guide the audience through the deck — especially on slide three, where we’re offered a helping hand to continue to the next slide.
Inspired by his winning presentation design, we teamed up with Emile to bring the Helping Hands sticker pack to Pitch. Looking for even more ways to build a deck with personality? This template from designer Meg Lewis is a great place to start.
2. Dusty Orchid, by Joanna Gonzalez
Business documents need to be dry and corporate, right? Not quite! This deck showcases its brand values and engages viewers through a distinctive, otherworldly slide design. Dusty Orchid feels like a journey to a distant planet — and makes you want to dive into its lapping waters.
Experiment with design styles that transport people to another place, like this Brutalist template, to see how arresting fonts and bold shapes can make simple ideas feel fresh and contemporary.
3. Scooter Company Pitch Deck, by Harsh Shah
What’s the best inspiration for your pitch deck? Your product. This pitch deck mirrors the design elements of the imaginary product featured — a scooter. Contrasting colors, fonts similar to those featured on the scooters themselves, and a punchy use of photography make this design feel totally authentic to the brand.
See how Yac’s product is reflected in their Series A pitch deck template, and adapt the template to your own brand.
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Color is a clever way to guide your audience through your ideas — it signposts each theme to streamline your message and make it memorable. This deck shows how to cover every element of your pitch clearly and succinctly. The dotted background and templated footer reinforce branding.
Adapt a well-structured design like this business proposal template with your own brand colors to win over prospects with a clear flow of ideas.
Working Hard or Hardly Living, by Molly Koenig
Speaking of color, sometimes clashing colors just belong together — like lime green and fuschia. In combination with gray tones, clever data visualization, and consistent photo treatments, the color contrast creates a distinctive look that's both retro and relevant.
This template from designer Melissa Zeta works similar magic with chartreuse and beachy aerial photography.
Voice of a Woman’s Heart, by Amisha
When your product is visually gorgeous, your design needs to put it front and center. This deck keeps everything but the product shots in black and white, and builds the brand through fonts, photo treatments, and subtle rectangle details.
Add your brand or product imagery to this minimalist template to create a deck that’s powerful in its simplicity.
Application Deck, by REISS
This deck demonstrates all of the 4 key tips for great deck design. Each slide has just the right amount of information for optimal readability, and slide 15 is a perfect example of the “rule of 3” in action. The product is the focus, and simple visual elements like the wave motif add interest.
Want to feature your mobile app? Demonstrate how your product works with this template.
Case Study, by Druhin Tarafder
This deck takes cues from scrapbooking techniques. It contrasts personal, organic elements like black-and-white photos and mismatched fonts with more formal elements like the grid lines of a notebook, a traditional “up and to the right” line graph, and the window of a web browser.
Create a similar scrapbook vibe with this 1984 template, featuring web browser windows and typewriter fonts.
Hyperbeast, by Emir Kenar
The colors in this deck were seared into our retinas, in the best possible way. The rave-inspired imagery and tie-dye effects blend seamlessly with best practices like consistent headers and footers. The scannable barcode at the bottom-right fits with the overall theme — and could also be used for practical purposes, such as to link to the brand’s website or social pages.
For your next presentation, take it back to the ’90s with this retro template from designer Emiland de Cubber.
6 tips for creating presentation designs that impress
The winning Dribbble competition entries prove that great presentation design can draw on any visual style — but often follows consistent design principles. Whether you’re a professional designer, a startup founder, or a marketer at an established brand, you can add pop to your (and your teams’) presentations by considering the presentation design elements below.
1. Jump-start your deck with AI
Ever wondered how much time you’ve wasted staring at a blank slide? Pitch’s AI presentation generator can help when the spark’s not sparking. It’s the fastest way to create new decks on any topic. Just enter a prompt, select a color palette and font, and voilà — blank slides are magically filled with relevant content. You can then edit and adapt your draft with your team until you’re happy with the result.
2. Find on-brand fonts
Fonts can be as evocative as imagery, so think carefully about which ones you choose. Instead of going with defaults like Arial, test custom fonts — and notice how different spacings and weights subtly change the character of your slides. Once you’ve selected a font that fits, you can add your custom font to your deck with Pitch so every slide is on-brand.
3. Create consistency
Consistency is key to building a powerful brand. Everyone notices that one slide with the misaligned page number, off-center image, or pixelated logo. Clutter can also undermine what you're trying to communicate. Luckily it’s easy to demonstrate your attention to detail by using professionally designed templates. You could also create a template from a deck you'd like to keep reusing to ensure that future decks are consistent in their structure and style.
4. Set signposting elements
People intuitively look for visual hierarchy. Using the right signposting can guide your audience through your narrative. Headers, footers, color-coded sections, and section breaks make your slides easier to follow — and more memorable.
5. Be selective with supporting visuals
The right picture is worth a thousand words. Choose visuals that simplify your narrative, reinforce your brand, and are easy to interpret. For instance, if you’re adding data visualization elements, just show the information that's truly necessary, and choose a style that fits your branding.
6. Add contrast and movement
Designs are most powerful when they feel fun and dynamic. Eye-catching design is about contrasts, so test out various colors, fonts, and textures. If you need color inspiration for your brand, play around with Adobe’s color tool, which also includes accessibility templates. Movement also makes your slides stand out. Try adding GIFs, animations, videos, and even stickers to keep your audience engaged.
Putting it all together
Presentations offer you a chance to combine words, images, animations, colors, and fonts to tell your unique story — and achieve your business goals. We hope you’ve been inspired by the creativity of these nine very talented designers, who all crafted their decks in Pitch.
For more inspiration, head to the dedicated Dribbble playoff collection on our presentation gallery, or get started on your own deck by signing up for a free Pitch account. You can also visit the designers' Dribbble profiles by following the links on their names above.
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