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)- Outline the structure and narrative arc → outline-structure.md
- Write bold, minimal slide copy → writing-slides.md
- Design the visual layout and composition → visual-design.md
- 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.