10.2 Design principles for people who are not designers
Your slides look deliberate.
Before:09. PowerPoint — CoreUnlocks:13. Portfolio & Certification
Alignment, proximity, contrast and repetition are the four principles that make slides look deliberate, and this topic applies them along with type sizes readable from the back, at most two typefaces, and a palette of three colours plus a neutral. It sits after the slide master because principles need the master to be applied consistently. The common confusion is responding to an overfull slide by shrinking the text; the honest fix is cutting content, and white space is doing work, not wasting it.
Work through these
Alignment, proximity, contrast, repetition
Four principles cover most of what makes a slide look considered: things line up, related things sit together, important things stand out, and choices repeat. None of them requires taste.
Type size for the back of the room; two typefaces at most
Type has to be readable from the back of the room, which is larger than most people choose, and two typefaces are plenty. Both are constraints rather than preferences.
White space, and cutting content rather than shrinking it
Empty space is what makes the content readable, and the correct response to a crowded slide is removing content rather than shrinking it. This is the hardest habit in the topic.
A palette of three colours plus a neutral
Three colours and a neutral is enough for any deck, and choosing them in advance removes a decision from every slide. A palette is a constraint that speeds you up.
Practice file
- pp-02-master-rebuild.pptx
The same content stripped to an outline, for rebuilding on a proper slide master.
Opens in PowerPoint. Every name, number and address in these files is made up. No account needed to download.
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Links last checked 29 Aug 2026.
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