Power of Watercolor Visuals in Slide Design

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By Peter Zvirinsky

Do you want to give a fresh look to your slides? Do you want them to stand out from the crowd?

Then you should consider adding watercolor elements such as stripes or arrows. These are great to express uniqueness and creativity.

Such an aquarelle painting style is one of the new emerging trends in graphic design. We see such effects also in business presentation design. Maybe it’s even the new successor of today’s ever-present flat design look? Time alone will tell. Yet, this is definitely a style you should consider if you want to stand out from the crowd.

For a start, here is a slide I made using a watercolor shape.

You can use the watercolor elements in various ways, to make an entire presentation theme. Or you can use a single watercolor stripe inside your classic formal style. Such single stripes can be an unusual underline of a keyword or a quote, which everybody will notice. Adding such elements works wonders, especially if you have a series of text-heavy and monotonous slides. You can make a strong visual break in the form of an atypical transition slide with such watercolor stripes.

Watercolor shapes can similarly also replace:

• Slide title background
• Bullet points
• Headlines of text fields or the whole text area placeholder

To see an example of the whole presentation made using only watercolor elements, check my SlideShare deck with 7 Tips for Stress-free Conference Presentations.

Notice how watercolor goes nicely together with a white icon on the top of the background. It creates interesting, subtle illustrations, underlining the message but not overdoing it.

Where can you get such watercolor pictures? If you have time, you can probably paint it yourself on paper and scan it. The last time I was doing it with our designer, we had great fun, especially as we did it together with kids :).

We have uploaded our set of Watercolor shapes in this slide deck.

Also, take a look at my Pinterest board where I collect samples of various watercolor designs used in a business environment.

    Peter Zvirinsky is co-founder of infoDiagram. Peter is a big fan of simple visual communication and is especially passionate about using diagrams instead of text. Prior to starting his own business, he had been a trainer and head of marketing in a data analytics consultancy. There he learned the importance of explaining complex things by simple infographic diagrams.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.