All posts tagged: powerpoint
presentation template for design-related topics

Design and construction PowerPoint template

0 May 14, 2014 Standard

Exactly one month ago today I uploaded a sparse-white industrial-themed PowerPoint template that featured some nuts and bolts as the primary image on the cover slide. I was satisfied with the way that it turned out, but you might find it interesting to know that it was actually a redo of a template that I created earlier (and wasn’t totally happy with). Anyway, I decided that I might as well upload that other template as an alternative – perhaps you might like it better!

The layout of this template is nearly identical to the other one, right down to the exact same table and bullet point slides. The difference is all in the cover slide with that thick gray horizontal banner cutting through the middle. It was that element that I wasn’t so sure about in the beginning, mostly because it’s the kind of thing I’ve been doing for years – and I felt sort of guilty for doing it yet again. But the fact of the matter is that I think it works well to create a lot of contrast between the background and the nuts and bolts rendering.

Design-related presentations are very common (I’ve certainly given my fair share of them) and my hope is that this template is generic enough to use for all sorts of design topics. I personally think it would be just as useful for an architecture firm as it would be for an app builder – after all, the act of design and construction requires assembly of parts whether they are physical or digital. The chrome nuts and bolts are simply a metaphor in this case.

So which one do you like better? I almost hate to admit it, but I’m feeling that I like this darker version more…

Click here to download it!

LinkedIn PPT theme

LinkedIn theme for PowerPoint

0 May 13, 2014 Standard

A long time ago I created some 3d LinkedIn logo illustrations for my royalty-free stock image collection, and I was happy to see how people used some of them. I saw these illustrations on business cards, websites, presentation templates, – and even a t-shirt! Unfortunately, the presentation templates I saw were very simple and I always thought about making some of my own. This is the first one.

The cover slide features a slightly modified version of one of my most popular LinkedIn logo illustrations. It consists of a pile of 3d LinkedIn app icons arranged in no particular order, placed over top of a two-tone blue background. The right side of the slide is very image-heavy but the left is kept clean and open for your title text. Speaking of title text, I should mention that I know that I always seem to provide the same phrase over and over again for all my templates (“Your Cool Presentation Title Should Go in This Space”) so apologies if you are sick of that by now. I’ll try to change it up in the future… 😉

The rest of the template uses a color scheme that plays off the vivid blues in the LinkedIn logo, which makes the whole thing seem dark, but still vibrant and colorful. And if you feel that there is too much blue here, adding orange accents here and there will brighten up the template a lot while still staying true to the brand. I know that many of my templates are very monochromatic, and some people don’t like that – so feel free to experiment and make it your own!

I think there is a lot you could do with template, especially considering how hot social media topics are at the moment. Even though this template only features one brand, I believe it’s still fully relevant for any topic related to social networking in general. Like it? You can download it here.

full screen green nature scene powerpoint template

Green nature scene PowerPoint template

0 April 24, 2014 Standard

Several weeks ago I uploaded a PowerPoint template that I called “grassy morning sunrise”. The cover slide photo (and general color scheme of the deck) was based on a photo I took while on a morning walk through our neighborhood a while back, and overall, I liked the way it turned out.

But there was something about it that was bugging me, and it took me a little while to put my finger on what exactly it was. I liked the colors and the light quite a bit. The typography seemed to work ok. The accent colors of the interior slides seemed to be working as well. But…that frosted transparent panel on the cover was something I wasn’t quite sure about. At first I liked it, and then I started to think that it was unnecessary and somewhat distracting. The background photo of the bright green grass and the trees was visually rich, and I was starting to think that I made a mistake by masking it with that frosted overlay.

These kinds of things eat at me until I make them right. I knew I could do a better job with that template, so I rolled up my sleeves and made another attempt with a version that didn’t include that transparent panel on the cover slide. I also chose not to crop the photo as tightly as I did in the original version, as I thought that the sidewalk on the left side of the image helped the composition quite a bit. The interior slides are mostly the same – only a few minor color changes were necessary.

So what do you think? Is this one better than the other? I tend to think it is, but I’m curious if anyone else has an opinion!

Click here to download this template in .zip format.

industrial design theme for PowerPoint

Industrial design template for PowerPoint

0 April 14, 2014 Standard

I’ve been creating royalty-free stock illustrations for a long time now, and I’m constantly looking through my archives trying to figure out how to keep all that content fresh and viable as the years pass and styles change. There are parts of my portfolio that are really starting to show it’s age, but on the other hand there are plenty of illustrations that I think will be very useful for many years to come.

Case in point: my “nuts and bolts” illustrations. I’ve lost count of the number of 3d renderings that I’ve created which feature these simple objects, but they are just so darn versatile and conceptual in nature that it’s hard not to incorporate them into whatever I’m doing as much as I can. And that leads me to this free PowerPoint template with an industrial design theme.

If you’re familiar with my work, you’ll instantly recognize the chrome nuts and bolts that are the predominate element on the cover slide. I placed them over top of the same generic blueprint drawing that I used for my recent design and engineering Keynote templates, and then placed the title text to the left. I was originally thinking about creating some sort of dark background texture for this slide, but ultimately decided that the sterile clean look of the white backdrop was the way to go.

The interior slides of this three-page presentation deck contain the same bullet-text page and sample table that I’ve used in some of my other templates, but if you’re feeling creative, you might experiment with reusing that same image from the cover slide as a background for these interior pages. Make sure you reduce the opacity of it though – almost watermark-like so that it doesn’t compete visually with your content.

Click here to download it!

presentation template for sales

Retail sales PowerPoint Template

0 April 12, 2014 Standard

Sales topics and PowerPoint presentations go together like peanut butter and jelly, so it’s no surprise that I tend to fall back on this theme pretty often. The problem is that it’s not so easy to create generic enough designs that are useful to many, so it’s usually a slow process to create something practical for those of you out there who are doing the sales grind.

For this free template, I decided to go really simple and use a lot of bright color to create interest. I started out by creating a vivid blue background texture for the cover slide, and then I experimented by placing a variety of objects over top of it just to see what would happen. Long story short, I really like the way that this bright red SALE tag popped of the background in a huge way. Yes, it’s bright and contrasty – but not too loud and obnoxious.

The interior slides are a bit less contrasty, but I decided to carry over some of that vivid blue into the sample table. I realize that some people don’t like dark background colors for tables, so if it’s not really your thing you can mix and match elements from any other of my other PowerPoint templates to find the combination that you like.

It will also help if your logo is red! I do recommend, however, that you use an all-white version of your company logo on the cover page and a gray version on the interior slides. Anything else (besides) red might clash with this theme. Go get it!

foggy hillside theme for powerpoint

Foggy hillside PowerPoint template

0 April 12, 2014 Standard

The photo on the cover slide of this three-page PowerPoint template was one that I shot several weeks ago as I was taking a break during a long morning bike ride. This is the time of year in San Diego where thick fog is common in the early mornings and late evenings, and I love the way it seems to hug the hills and mountains around here. Mix in a little sun, and the result is usually breathtaking.

To be honest, I didn’t think much of this photo at all after I took it, and I came extremely close to deleting it shortly thereafter. The problem was that there wasn’t very much detail in the photo, and there wasn’t a clear subject. I was too composed to be considered an abstract texture, so I had no idea what I could use it for.

After thinking about it for a bit, I realized that it might make a nice backdrop for a presentation template. The dark area of the hillside would be a good place to overlay text, while the light top section would be a good place for a logo. With that in mind, I dropped it into PowerPoint to see what I could do.

The end result was something that I ended up liking quite a bit. I did find that the texure in the hillside was a bit distracting with light typography over top, so I blurred out the image a bit to make the fonts more legible. Much better.

The elements on the interior slides use colors that are complimentary to that cover page image, and I think the overall template is something that would work well for environmental-type presentations – or any topic that has a “zen” vibe to it.

You can download the .pptx file (compressed in .zip format) by clicking here.

free 3-page powerpoint template

Airport train theme for PowerPoint

2 Comments April 11, 2014 Standard

Just as I mentioned in my post about the grassy morning sunrise PowerPoint template, I’m starting to integrate my own photography into my work as much as I can. It’s not always possible for my 3d renderings or airliner art, but presentation templates are the perfect scenario for incorporating these photos.

Here’s my latest attempt. The photo on the cover slide just so happens to be the interior of the inter-terminal train that runs back and forth inside the McNamara terminal at Metro Airport in Detroit (DTW). I shot it a few months back I when I travelled to Detroit to see the 2014 North American International Auto Show, and I thought an image like that might be useful for something in the future – and the fact that I’m writing about it now makes me feel good that I made the effort to take the shot. I’m always thinking ahead like this – it’s not like I’m forcing myself to do it or anything…it’s just that the designer in me can’t help but to look at everything with an designers eye when I’m out and about doing everyday things. It felt a little bit stupid to take the photo then, but it just goes to show you how even the seemingly little things can be very useful at a later date.

This fully editable PowerPoint template features three slides: the cover slide, an example table slide, and of course a generic bullet-point page. I envision this template to be used for travel and tourism type presentations, and if you just so happen to work at DTW, you’ve hit the gold mine! This is the template for you.

Please note that the font I’m using for this one is Helvetica Nueue, but you could use pretty much any ultra-thin font to achieve the same look.

Please click here to download this .pptx file in .zip format.

free grassy morning sunrise powerpoint template

Grassy morning sunrise PowerPoint template

0 April 9, 2014 Standard

Although my primary creative interest lies solidly on the digital illustration side of things, I admit that I’ve always been a bit of a shutterbug. I have a deep appreciation for good photography, but I felt like I didn’t have the patience to do it myself – it takes a lot of effort to take really good pictures! Because of that, my camera never really came out of the bag unless I was traveling or doing out of the ordinary things.

That all changed when I got my first smartphone back in the summer of 2009. The quality of the camera in that iPhone 3GS wasn’t all that great, but having a camera with me wherever I went totally blew my mind (and greatly expanded my creative horizons). I found myself taking pictures of ordinary things that I never even considered in my pre-smartphone days, and as a result, I quickly started to build up a pretty nice collection of artistic photos to integrate into my work.

This PowerPoint template is a perfect example. It’s pretty rare for me to integrate photography into my stock digital assets, but I’ve decided to flex my creative muscles a bit and start utilizing growing photo collection. Those of you who have been following my work since the beginning will understand how radical of a departure this is for me!

Anyway – the cover slide of this presentation template is a photo that I took several weeks ago during an early-morning walk through the neighborhood. I thought it would be a perfect image for a presentation about the environment or any other type of “green” topic, and I gave it a little extra design spice by overlaying a frosted white transparent card over top. I think that a really thin 1-pixel line drawing of your company logo or icon would look really cool over top of that, so please feel free to experiment with this and make it your own.

You can download this template (for free, of course) by clicking here.

Another smart watch PowerPoint template

0 October 7, 2013 Standard
smart watch powerpoint template

A fully editable smart watch PowerPoint template

I recently posted a free PowerPoint template featuring a generic silver smart watch that I designed, and to be honest, I was never really happy with the way that one turned out. It’s hard to put my finger on what exactly I didn’t like about it, but it’s overall simplicity might have been screwing with me. Although I’m usually the type of designer who believes that less truly is more, I don’t feel that template fit into that category. Instead, it just looked unfinished to me.

So with that in mind, I changed things up a little. This PowerPoint template is visually strong, with the cover slide featuring the smart watch contained inside a horizontal banner which extends the entire width of the slide. The cool part about this is that it’s positioned with the idea in mind that you could map your own UI onto the screen, which will then act as the focal point. If you’re a UI or UX designer who is designing a killer smart phone app, this is your presentation template.

I purposely decided to keep the color in this template to a minimum, with only a few subtle hits of blue in the details. I’d recommend changing this blue color to match the primary color in your logo – it will go a long way in helping to make this template uniquely yours.

Commercial aviation PowerPoint template

0 September 11, 2013 Standard
Commercial aviation PowerPoint template

Commercial aviation PowerPoint template featuring an all white Boeing 737

As you can probably tell by now, I’m a big fan of keeping presentation templates simple. Content should be king, and the graphics in the template should be totally secondary and non-obtrusive. Of course that’s with the assumption that your content is really good – I’ve actually had clients ask me to design a template for them that was visually powerful for the sole purpose of taking the attention off the (poor) content. Seriously. It happens.

This commercial aviation PowerPoint template is a perfect example of the “light and simple” types of templates I prefer to build. The cover slide features a side-profile view of a Boeing 737-800 airliner (which came directly from my aircraft illustration collection), hovering above a clean white background and directly in front of a dark gray graphic. There’s a slight watermark image of a world map on it, which gives the template some international flair – but it would be easy to cover up in PowerPoint or Photoshop if you don’t want it.

For the interior slides, I decided to keep things really (really) simple. I debated whether or not I wanted to include an aircraft graphic of some sort, but I really feel that these pages don’t need it. But you could easily add one on your own if you want to add a bit more to this theme.

Speaking of customization, the great thing about this template is that you can put your own livery (or company logo) on the 737 on the cover slide and make this template totally yours!