The Most Powerful Slide, And Anyone Can Create It

Just today a client expressed disappointment because a slide's design failed to "Wow" him. Last week someone else felt that my design department didn't earn their keep because a template was "too simple." ("We have to blow people away with this pitch," she insisted...) 

Both of these people shared a desire first and foremost for a presentation that was visually "impactful," strong and full of "Wow" factor. What they didn't care about was whether their presentations were EFFECTIVE.

Perhaps I'll save my feelings about those awful heavily layered and Photoshopped background templates for another day (even though I'm guilty of having designed hundreds of them in my day), but regardless of what your template looks like or how many bullets you're jamming onto a slide, there still remains hope for every presenter to create without any design skill at all The Most Powerful Slide Possible...THE BLACK SLIDE...

Stay with me here.

Remember when you were sleeping in biology class and the teacher suddenly slapped the table with a ruler? Got your attention, didn't he? I bet you paid attention to whatever it was he said right at that moment (and for at least a minute after).

A black slide in the middle of a series of slides filled with imagery and charts and text has this same effect.

It's different, and it's eye-catching, but it doesn't bring attention to itself. It brings attention to YOU and to your story at that moment.

Here are just a few ways you can make use of a black slide in your next presentation:

• Bring attention to a prop in your hands
• Give focus to someone in the room who has something to add
• Show printed boards, a mocked up advertisement, poster or marketing item
• Throw focus to your audience and ask them a question (audience participation)
• Make sure everyone really pays attention to your big statement
• Make the moment about YOU and not your slides

A black slide doesn't have to be an earthquake moment. I designed a pitch once in which 8 people tag-teamed different sections for an hour. One presenter showed a series of web designs and videos, but at the end of her section, simply requested a black slide so she could wrap up her part and say thank you to the audience personally. It was such a nice rhythmic break to the whole hour that I still remember that 20 seconds more than any part of the rest of the pitch.

And the best part of it all is that you don't even need to create a slide for this...

You can easily toss a black slide into your series of slides, but you can also just hit the "B" on the keyboard at any time to bring up a black screen. Hit it again to return to your presentation. (Works in Keynote as well.)

• "W" brings up a white screen.
• "H" shows your next slide if it is hidden.

And don't forget, you can always type in a slide number and hit "enter" to jump to that slide number.