Tips and Tricks #16: Color palettes: the pulse of good presentations

Hi Everyone!

As you all probably know, color affects everything we see, perceive, and experience. These subtle visual influences are called the color psychology. The fields of advertising and marketing often use colors to influence our moods positively, emotions, and even memory.

How much of importance do you think the color scheme and effects should be given in presentations? Should color psychology be considered in business at all?

In business presentations, colors can be of vital importance to capture the audience's attention. An ideal presentation is one that engages the audience and helps them remember the information presented. Proper use of shades, tones, and color combinations can help your ideas reach the consumers fast and effective.

For example, the combinations of red and yellow—like in the McDonald's logo—can trigger food cravings in you.

You can use complementary colors, simple graphic elements, and contrasting backgrounds for a pleasant look, but sometimes the use of multiple and countless color combinations can be overwhelming. Luckily, we are here to help you pick your requirements from the Show's numerous color choices and customized presentation themes.

Here are a few suggestions for deciding on a color when designing your slides:

1. One of the basic steps while designing your slides is to use the right contrasts. For dark backgrounds use light shades or bright accent colors for texts. Moreover, for light or neutral backgrounds use dark shades or bold accent colors for texts. This type of high contrast can help your audience read your text and process your graphics more easily.

Example: Show's "Breezy" theme uses bright contrast text against a neutral background.

2. Adding graphics or patterns as backgrounds to slides works wonders in drawing people's attention—but only as long as they do not dominate the contents in the slide. Graphics should be clean and functional, while the background patterns or textures should be very subtle and light to favor the clear reading of the slide's content. The Show's Evolutionary theme, as seen in the example, uses subtle, complementary background patterns that add attraction but not distraction from the text.

Example: Show's "Evolutionary" theme uses white or pastel text against a dark slide background.

Example: In Show's "Origami" theme, the simple, bright "folded paper" graphic behind the title text highlights and frames the presentation title to give it more weight and emphasis.

3. For important titles, logos, and graphics, consider using the embossing or drop- shadow effect. This makes the element look more raised or apart from the background. However, use this effect sparingly and only when you need an extra emphasis as it can appear distracting and unprofessional.

Example: The shadow effect that the Show provides for graphics helps you give your slides a visual depth which otherwise would be a simple slide background.

4. When it comes to using plain black and white designs, be mindful of the effect, since this can often look too stark and unfinished, or even unappealing and unprofessional. If you decide to use a black and white look, apply subtle gradients or simple graphics to add more life to your slides.

Example: This presentation theme from Show, "Monochrome," uses a black and white color palette and clean, abstract graphics to help emphasize the slide's text.

5. Once you have decided on a color scheme, be sure to stick on to that throughout your slide decks. Mixing and matching colors like the rainbow will look chaotic and likely distract your audience.

Design choices can greatly influence the moods and emotions of the audience. A good presentation design can engage the audience well and help them carry the ideas with them. So, use colors intelligently and productively.

We hope you found this article interesting and useful. Have questions or feedback to share? Feel free to comment below. We're looking forward to serving you.

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