When used properly, color can set the mood, declare a sense of urgency, and create focal points. It’s a very crucial element in any presentation template, but it is often overlooked and sometimes abused. What colors should you use? What colors should not be used together? What colors are hip? Is it possible to use too many colors?
The answers to these questions are highly subjective, but there are some basic guidelines that every template designer should consider when it comes to color selection. The most important is simplicity! In other words, keep your color scheme light and clean when you are starting out and have a lot of doubts about what you are doing. It’s a lot easier to make an attractive presentation template using minimal color than it is to create one that uses many colors.
See how much cleaner a presentation slide can be with minimal color?
With that in mind, here are some other helpful guidelines and suggestions:
Think of your audience when you are choosing your color scheme
It doesn’t matter if you think green and pink is the hottest color combo ever. The question is: what will be attractive to your audience? Of course it’s impossible to pick a color scheme that everyone will like, but it should be fairly easy to identify what would be appropriate. A presentation template built for the accounting department of a large corporation probably shouldn’t be dark and vivid with bright colors such as reds and yellows. These colors are often associated with “error” or “problem” messages, which obviously isn’t the type of theme you should be going for. In addition, dark templates are very moody and don’t fit well with conservative business-specific topics. In that case, keep things light with soothing/positive colors such as blues and greens. And how about a little gray?
Using gray as a foundation color
Gray could quite possibly be the best (useful +visually pleasing) color out there, and it’s a shame that most non-designers don’t see it that way. It’s unfortunate that general society considers the color gray as a “dull” color, most commonly associated with drab feelings and boring subjects. We disagree.
As professional designers, we are here to tell you that using a little gray in your presentations can actually be a good thing. You see, gray is a neutral color, meaning that it goes with pretty much anything. It’s best used as a “base” color, meaning that you should use it in secondary areas such as backgrounds and footers, thus providing a foundation from which to build your design. Images look much more vivid over a gray background (as opposed to white), which is a great way to bring the content to the forefront of your presentation layout. Remember: your content – not the template – should be the most important part of your presentation, and the proper use of gray backgrounds can help you achieve that.
Of course, too much gray can be a bad thing. Using an abundance of gray without some brighter colors or contrasts somewhere will make your presentation look dull. It’s best to experiment a bit, and look at other examples that use gray as a base color. Don’t be afraid of gray. It can be very useful when applied appropriately. Here are several examples:
Be careful not to use too much gray in your template. Increase the contrast and color if everything is looking a bit too dull.
Since color is such a subjective topic, we recommend that you do a little research before picking a color palette for your presentation template. Have a goal in mind when you begin, and stick to it! And a little inspiration is good too – we recommend www.colorlovers.com for examples of thousands of fresh color palettes.