Everything you do or say during a presentation has an effect on the audience. Nothing can be taken for granted. Starting with the TITLE SLIDE.
If your title slide is uninviting, amateur-looking, or cheesy, your presentation is going downhill even before you open your mouth.
Yum! Can't wait to sit through this one.
What's that crap at the top? Who is the presenter? What pre-schooler did the logo?
There’s really no excuse for a bad title slide. Because a good title slide is easy to do, a no-brainer, if you know a few basic rules.
Safe-Harbor Title Slide Design
Here are some basic, no-fault rules for a clean, serviceable title slide. With examples.
1) Prominent Logo
Put your logo, full size, centered, dominating the top half of the slide. Use a high-res logo that looks great when blown up. (Beware of aliasing, “jaggies” in the graphic image.)
If you don’t have a good logo, make a temporary one out of an interesting font and a single color other than black.
A good strong logo predicts a good strong presentation.
2) Presenter’s name, clearly legible
Put the name of the person making the presentation–probably you, the CEO–in readable font (minimum 28 pt), under the logo. The name has to be legible by everybody in the audience. If not, you’re taking the risk of remaining anonymous during your whole presentation. And people spelling your name wrong.
How many ways can you misspell "Onne" is you don't see it in print?
3) Contact info, just in case
Put at least one item of contact information under the presenters name. Website URL, or email, maybe a phone number. Use a smaller font than the name, 14pt to 24pt. This contact info does NOT have to be legible for the whole audience. It’s simply a good policy to include contact info because sooner or later the slide deck will be copied and handed around. You want people down the line to be able to contact you easily, just in case.
Variations and Options
There are a few other things you can add. In moderation, and with an eye always on good visual design and slide layout.
Optional: Positioning statement
If you have a tag line, or positioning statement you know is effective, add it under your logo. Or if you can capture the essence of your product or the problem you solve in a short phrase, try that. Short! (It’s actually much harder than it looks to come up with a good tag line.) If you have any doubt, leave it out.
Positioning statement done right.
Optional: Amount of investment capital sought
You’ll hear different opinions about whether you should put the amount of money you’re raising on the title slide. I think it’s a good idea when presenting at ventures fairs, especially, because it helps the investors audience know if you’re in their sweet spot, dollar wise, and if so, they’ll pay more attention.
You know immediately what they do and how much money they need.
Don’t Include
Title slide abuses to avoid:
Don’t include date or place
Don’t display the date. Or the name of the event or group where you’re presenting. You’re not telling the audience anything they don’t already know. “Presentation prepared for [name of fat cat investors]” doesn’t impress anybody either.
I cringe whenever I see the title slide declare “Investor Presentation” or worse, “Presentation.” Ouch!
Exception: it’s okay to put your code for the version and date and occasion, to help you with version control, in tiny mouse print at the bottom of the title slide. But make it so small it’s obviously not intended for the audience. E.g. “AVF-03-22-09, ver 7″ in 6pt type.
No long text
No long sentences and never paragraphs on the title slide.
The example slide above from ExploTrack above is pushing the limit on how many words you can use. That one works because it’s so well written.
Don’t include “Confidential” if you don’t have to
If you have to say “Confidential” on your title slide, keep it small. And leave it off all other slides. I suppose it serves as legal notice that the information contained herein shouldn’t be shared (or what?). If your lawyer insists, do it. But I doubt it has ever made a difference.
I do know that sophisticated, experienced entrepreneurs I’ve seen don’t have slides that say “confidential.” And it’s one more piece of slide junk to contribute to clutter.
No Gratuitous Graphics
Save the photos and images for later slides. Any images on the title slide will distract from your logo, which should be center stage, the star of the show.
There are exceptions. The slide from MicroMRI above works because the image captures the essence of what the company does. It’s also an image the company incorporates in all their branding. Still, I think it would be a stronger title slide without it.
Are we to remember this company for it's jars?
Beware bad design
Heed the tenets of good design. Spacing, proportion, positioning, consistency.
And color. Below is a perfectly good title slide that suffers from clashing colors.
Example of too many yuchy colors.
Title Slide in Action
How to craft a great opening is a topic for another post. But suffice it to say it’s good form to start with a well-calculated grabber and terse overview–all with the title slide on the screen.
In the same way, the title slide can do double duty as the backdrop for your close, giving a nice symmetry to your presentation.
Hello, Goodbye
Here’s a time-saving, face-saving trick. A good title slide not only makes a good first impression, it can make a good last impression too.
After you get your title slide just right, make an exact copy and put it at the very end of the presentation. (Be sure to trash the slide that says “Thank you” and shred the one that says “Questions?”)
The term for slides used in this way, at the front and back, is “bumper slides.”
When the audience sees the return of the title slide, it’s a suave signal that you’ve reached the end of your slide deck. It’s the finishing flourish of the slide show. With the title slide up you launch into your final remarks (a memorable statement, summary, or call to action). It once again reinforces your logo and company name, and gives the audience a second chance to get your name right.
If Q&A follows immediately, the image everybody is staring at during the Q&A is your logo and name.
Tasty. Inviting. I like these guys already.