Design examples
13
min read
You sit down, coffee in hand, ready to create a breakthrough presentation. But then the big moment comes... and all you see are blank stares, stifled yawns, and the quiet despair of attendees wishing they were anywhere else.
In fact, 46% of people can’t sit through a presentation without losing focus. That’s nearly half of the audience, mentally checking out mid-talk unless you give them a reason to stay. Not the most comforting stat, we know.
Of course, there are ways to grab attention (that’s what we’re here for). But keeping it is another major challenge you need to deal with (we’ve got ideas for that too).
Here, we’ve gathered 25 creative presentation ideas, so you can see exactly how they work in action. We’ll also break down what’s hot in 2025 and what still makes audiences tune out.
Let’s just say: boredom isn’t invited.
The research shows that even with moderately interesting content, attention spans drop to almost zero after just 9 minutes and 59 seconds. That gives you a tight window to make the story stick.
If you want to get it right from the start, here are 10 unique presentation ideas from which to take inspiration.
There’s no need to split your story across 25 separate slides. You can map it out as one continuous visual storytelling. These can include product roadmaps, project timelines, or case studies that unfold like a storyboard.
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Take this presentation deck, for example. It keeps the narrative flowing using large imagery and elegant visual pacing that feels more like a scroll. It invites the audience to follow along, not just flip through.
If your team tends to talk too much, Pecha Kucha can be a lifesaver. Its uniqueness lies in the format: 20 slides, 20 seconds each. That’s it. It forces clarity, focus, and rhythm, being especially useful for intros, overviews, and culture decks.
Such a case is powerfully demonstrated by the slideshow idea above. The visuals take center stage, supported by light, unobtrusive text, and smooth animations. Viewers stay engaged, anticipating what’s coming next with each slide.
Adding a visual motif — a repeated color, shape, or pattern — ties your presentation together. It gives the audience a sense of rhythm, continuity, and purpose, without you needing to say a word.
That’s exactly the approach we used in TodayMade. For one of our client projects, we placed the logo consistently across every slide, adapting its gradient based on the background color. Circular shapes help the deck stay cohesive.
To avoid the “wait, how much did we cover?” moment, consider adding an index slide or a subtle navigation bar. It helps ground the audience and shows them exactly where they are in the flow of your story.
You can see this idea nicely executed in Aerolab’s presentation. Right from the start, they introduce the main sections and number them clearly. As the slides progress, those numbers help guide the viewer.
A well-placed pause can do wonders for presentation, and that’s exactly what transition slides are for. They act as visual breathers, breaking your content into clear chapters and giving listeners a moment to reset.
This music festival partnership deck stands out among cool slideshow ideas. With full-bleed visuals and minimal text, the transition slides shift the tone and reset the audience’s attention before moving on to the next section.
Don’t force yourself to present data in a spreadsheet during presentation preparation. It’s dry, static, and let’s be honest, a guaranteed attention killer. But with a little creativity, numbers can lead your story, not slow it down.
When looking for creative ways to make a presentation for Kaluto, we used bold type and color blocking to highlight key figures. Through the deck, the numbers stood out, contextualized, and anchored the narrative visually.
Humor (used sparingly and smartly) can humanize your message and build an emotional connection with the audience. And trust us, people always remember the slide that made them smile.
We use this trick quite often in our internal presentations. In the example above, memes don’t steal the spotlight. More so, they give viewers one more reason to keep watching (and laugh a little along the way).
If you’re showcasing an app, a platform, or even a physical product, giving it the spotlight is a smart move. Mockups allow your audience to clearly see how the experience looks and feels.
This Genova deck does a great job. It integrates product previews in clean layouts that are modern, informative, and brand-aligned. Rather than distracting from the message, these mockups support it.
Not all project presentation ideas need to be “corporate clean.” For something unique, style slides around a distinct theme — comic-book, retro, or brutalist UX. It’s a bold move that can be the exact thing that sets your message apart.
See this minimal deck example. The presentation template channels a retro vibe while staying sharp and readable. It even hints at a ’90s aesthetic, cleverly blending all the elements into one cohesive look.
Instead of repeating the same structure on every slide, mix it up. Center-aligned one moment, split-grid the next, then a full-bleed quote. This subtle variation keeps eyes moving and minds alert.
This doesn’t mean reinventing every slide from scratch. As shown in the deck example above, even small shifts in alignment, contrast, or typography can keep slides dynamic and your story fresh.
Once you’ve mapped out everything you want to say, don’t forget about the people you’re saying it to. Your audience is the main character, and their attention is something you have to earn.
One of the most effective ways to do that is by adding a layer of interactivity. And the five creative ideas for a presentation below will show you that.
Engaging with listeners can transform a passive presentation into an interactive experience. For this, incorporate live polls or reaction sliders that allow attendees to participate and provide instant feedback.
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You don’t need to include them on every slide. In fact, overusing interactive elements can become distracting or even annoying. We recommend adding 2–4 polls to maintain the focus on your key message.
To keep your audience from zoning out, try asking them how they’re feeling. Adding emojis or quick input fields to a slide can bring a burst of energy that re-engages even the yawners in the back.
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These creative slideshow ideas work especially well when you’re discussing a meaningful topic and want to get a quick pulse from listeners. Keep the slide with a single question and see how it draws the eye and sparks curiosity.
Earlier in the article, we already touched on using stats. And if you want to make data work better, you can animate it. Let viewers engage with the numbers directly, exploring metrics or categories that interest them most.
The goal here is to make your chart slides clickable. Throw in a splash of color, animate a chart that climbs upward, and just watch how people start paying attention. Be sure, they will.
Closing the presentation with “thanks for your attention” is… fine. But you can go a step further by giving your audience a chance to react. Add buttons like “Like” or “Dislike” at the end of the deck.
It’s a small touch, but it invites feedback without pressure, and people are surprisingly willing to click. Even a quick reaction gives you insights into how your presentation landed. That feedback can help shape the next one.
Make your presentation a two-way street by embedding a Q&A section directly into it. This allows attendees to ask questions in real-time and also shows you’re open to hearing what really matters to them.
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We noted that anonymous questions are one of the best creative ideas for presentation, motivating people to speak up. You’ll often get more questions — and better ones — simply because your audience is more comfortable asking.
Sometimes, all it takes is a small visual shift to completely change the perception of a presentation.
A touch of animation or a layout that finally lets your content breathe can turn an average deck into one that actually gets remembered. For this, you need a bit of creativity from the next innovative presentation ideas.
Geometric shapes, lines, and graphics bring the right accents to your presentation. With their help, it’s possible to break up content, guide the viewer’s attention, and add that bit of visual intrigue you didn’t know you were missing.
This approach is showcased in Nebulla’s presentation. It uses curves, outlines, and graphic design to build flow throughout the slides. The design acts as a part of the visual flow and helps tell the story just as much as the words do.
When used at the right moment, video can give a presentation an instant energy boost. You might choose to implement a record with a walkthrough of the product or service, or even just stock footage to elevate visuals.
The Hiimee presentation is a nice example. The background video blends with the content, bringing a sense of life that static slides simply can’t offer. Plus, it creates
a much clearer feel for the product.
Layering text over images, gradients, or semi-transparent shapes gives your content depth. It’s a smart way to add hierarchy and draw attention to key words, while avoiding loud fonts or animations.
The deck in the example above relies on bold text with layered effects. This presentation plays with font sizes, weights, and letter spacing, using each variation intentionally. The result is a layout that pulls the viewer in at first glance.
Illustrations make complex ideas easier to grasp and give the presentation a personality of its own. You can even create visuals tailored exactly to your story, with no need to spend hours searching for the “perfect” stock image.
At the forefront of visual presentation ideas, this one includes charming character illustrations. Paired with soft colors, they set the branding tone immediately. All of it comes down to a friendly experience at each slide.
Just like in the previous presentation example, pops of color can be a strategic move. When placed well, they help break visual monotony and draw attention exactly where you want it.
See how great this fashion pitch deck uses bold orange accents to punch up the slides. It grabs the eye to key points, but never distracts from the core message. Visuals are styled in the same tone, creating a charming aesthetic.
You’ve probably heard it before, but it’s worth repeating: white space isn’t wasted space. Giving content room to breathe adds clarity, creates a sense of calm, and helps your key messages stand out with more impact.
This pitch deck for Saga demonstrates just how powerful simplicity can be. Here, you can see the minimal usage of text, generous padding, and open layouts that let each slide speak for itself.
Sometimes, fewer words make a louder impact. And that’s exactly what can capture your audience’s attention. A strong visual paired with one powerful phrase can say more than a paragraph ever could.
In this example, the presentation keeps things visual and minimal. There are short text lines paired with one funny image per slide. The information displayed is quick to absorb and hard to forget.
If you’re sharing a presentation asynchronously, scroll-style storytelling can create a controlled journey. You can build a smooth narrative that flows naturally from one slide to the next, with no extra context needed.
This approach is beautifully demonstrated in the presentation above. The designer takes it even further by letting visuals carry over from slide to slide, making you want to watch it through to the end.
You can go dramatic with animation — if your topic calls for it — or keep things subtle and clean. A gentle fade, a floating icon, or a sliding shape can guide the viewer’s eyes and keep things fresh.
This Neuera pitch deck takes the subtle route. Animated objects, mostly placed in headers, blend seamlessly into the presentation’s visual style. They add just enough motion to catch the eye without pulling focus from the message.
To add depth and dimension, you can hire a designer for 3D graphics. They’re not the easiest to create, but when done right, they make a powerful visual impact that instantly grabs attention. Just be mindful not to overdo it.
This presentation example showcases 3D design at its best. A detailed model of the shoe takes center stage, smoothly transitioning across slides. Its form is precise, and the multi-angle view helps the audience better understand the product.
When you’re the one presenting and you’ve spent days (or even weeks) designing the deck, it’s tough to watch the energy in the room slowly fade. It’s not exactly the response you hoped for.
Such situations happen way more often than you think.
Most of the time, the problem is that a large percentage of creative presentations fall into the same predictable traps. And even a great story can get lost behind clunky slides, dense text, or a format that simply doesn’t click.
If you want to avoid that fate, take a look at what usually goes wrong:
When slides are packed with paragraphs, your audience has two choices:
listen or read ahead (they’ll do neither).
The truth is that dense walls of text overwhelm the brain. Lack of clear flow buries the core message under clutter.
Instead, use slides to support your story, not tell it all at once. Keep key points short, visual, and easy to digest at a glance.
If your slides are just a random pile of facts with no structure, your audience won’t know what to take away or remember.
Even your internal visual decks need a clear narrative arc to guide people smoothly through the information.
Rather than going blindly, set a beginning, a middle, and a reason to care at the end. It’s the same idea you’d apply when writing a great blog.
Most presentations treat the audience like passengers on a slow train, allowing everyone to sit back, zone out, and get to the point eventually.
But people aren’t passive listeners — they want to interact, react, and participate. If they don’t get the chance, they’ll end up scrolling their phones.
A better approach is to build in moments for interaction, like questions, a poll, a clickable choice, or a shift in tone that pulls listeners back in.
We’ve all seen them — the default blue PowerPoint background, the copy-paste bullet points, the sterile stock images of people high-fiving.
When your slides look like everyone else’s, your message fades. Even creative PowerPoint ideas fall flat when wrapped in outdated formats.
To fix this, use custom visuals, surprising formats, and small shifts in color or typography to stand out from slide one.
Recognizing that today’s tools are smarter than ever, you can’t help but use them.
Different platforms combine interactivity, AI, collaboration, and marketing design tips to help you move faster and still deliver high-quality results. Here are a few top picks that are changing the game:
→ Gamma
This tool doesn’t require design knowledge to create stunning results. You can use AI to turn cool presentation ideas or existing text into structured decks, drop in embeds, FAQ sections, and build layouts that adapt to different screen sizes.
→ Tome
Tome is a smart choice for sales and marketing teams (great for email campaigns too). You can get started with a template and ask AI to personalize the presentation to fit your brand’s visual identity. Everything is done within seconds.
→ Pitch AI
This platform lets you choose from 100+ fully customizable templates, take advantage of AI, or create presentations from scratch. And since it’s made for teams, you can collaborate live, in Figma-style, to build faster.
→ Beautiful.ai
A long-time player that’s still going strong. You can write a prompt, and Beautiful.ai will take care of the design rules — auto-aligning, formatting, and animating your content with minimal effort.
Teams are moving away from single-platform setups, opting for creative ways to do a presentation and combining the best parts of several tools. Here’s what that might look like in practice:
Step 1: Prompt ideas in ChatGPT.
Step 2: Auto-generate a layout in one of the AI tools.
Step 3: Polish visuals in Canva or Figma.
Step 4: Record a voiceover in Loom.
This kind of workflow saves time, avoids creative bottlenecks, and gives every team member a role, even if they’re not a designer or content expert.
It also provides you more control over tone and pace, which is key when your deck has to work across multiple formats (live call, async link, PDF export).
The funny thing about standout presentations is that they rarely start with slides. They begin with a spark — an idea, a question, a shift in the room you want to create. Slides just happen to be the vessel.
So instead of chasing a perfect template or obsessing over one “right” format, focus on what you want your audience to feel, do, or remember when it’s over. Everything else — the design, the layout, the tools — just helps you get there.
And if that sounds like a lot to juggle, don’t worry. Our whole team at TodayMade is doing this stuff every day, obsessing over how ideas become visual and how visuals become unforgettable. And whenever you need a helping hand, drop us a line.
