79 "Ah, it was the presentation with the tiny people in it, wasn't it?"

Is what clients ideally say when discussing your pitch long after you've left the building. Okay, far-fetched, but that is what I am aiming for with the illustrations and presentation templates I make.

It's quite hard to look at a standard corporate template and feel a surge of emotional clarity. Most pitch decks look like they were generated by an algorithm that feeds exclusively on spreadsheets and sadness. Which is ok if the data is also processed by another algorithm, but very often it's the personal human touch that delivers the client.

I designed this particular template specifically for the investment, fund management, and corporate sectors because data doesn't always have to be visually numbing.

If you are an art director, creative director, or a fund manager tired of the usual presentation tropes, here is what these tiny humans and clean layouts can actually do for your business:

They anchor the memory: People often forget numbers; they remember the visual rhythm of a deck. It gives your team a tangible shorthand ("the deck with the red circles and mini people").

They humanize complex data: The minimalist scale keeps the focus on your metrics while making the overall narrative feel approachable, not clinical.

They save your design budget: You can grab this kind of template directly from my portfolio at Adobe Stock if you just need a quick, elevated starting point.

However, if you need something completely bespoke:

I often collaborate with agencies, creative directors, and corporate teams to turn complex financial narratives into something people actually might remember. If you have a specific, high-stakes pitch that requires custom data visualization, infographics, or an entirely unique aesthetic tailored to your brand, you can contact me directly here.

(Alternatively, if you want to see more of what I do, I’ve left a link to my website in the first comment.)

#PresentationDesign #DataVisualization #PitchDeck #InvestmentBanking #PrivateEquity #CreativeDirection #InfographicDesign #AdobeStock 

78 Designing Information: Less Decoration, More Discipline

Despite the industry declaring minimalism dead every other year, it’s been a staple since the Romans got fed up with Egyptian hieroglyphs. Minimalism will always have a place, and with the current tidal wave of visual garbage, the stability and calm of a clean layout are more of a necessity than a trend.

I originally built this company history timeline template for the usual suspects: presentations and websites. There is no fluffy design and nothing spins or animates, it is just a clean, ruthless presentation of relevant data.

When I design minimal infographics, these are the constraints I force upon myself:

• Order and Allowances: Keep the text, images, and icons in a layout that doesn't induce panic. When making a template, I have zero control over how much copy a user will try to shove into it, so I have to design with generous allowances. But when doing custom work, the goal is to make a specific, awkward word count look completely intentional.

• A Hostile Palette: This is easy for me, as I rarely use more than two colors anyway. The trick here is using black and white photos. Full-color images scream for attention and distract the viewer from the actual information—which, presumably, someone paid good money to have read.

• Forced Visual Guidance: This is crucial if you actually want people to read the timeline. The thin red lines aren't just decorative; they trap the eye. They force the viewer to digest the year, the image, the subheading, and the text as a single unit before letting them move on.

  
  

Templates are fine for a quick fix. But if you are an art director or an agency holding a brief that requires making sense of a company's history without putting the board to sleep (something I regularly navigate for clients like ACCA)an off-the-shelf layout only goes so far.

If you need custom data visualization that actually respects the viewer's time, I am available for commissions.

77 From Single Illustration to a Scalable Visual System

Introduction

Most of my illustrations are designed to work on their own. They communicate an idea, they look good, and they sit nicely on a page. But in real-world business use, that’s rarely enough.

The problem with standalone visuals

When you’re working on a report, a presentation, or any kind of structured content, you don’t need just one image. You need something that works across multiple pages. Something consistent. Something that doesn’t fall apart after the first use.

Starting with a simple idea

This example is based on one of the most common themes in business: growth. Not the most exciting topic on its own - but exactly the kind of concept that appears everywhere.

So the goal wasn’t to reinvent the idea. It was to make it clear, flexible, and usable.

Making it usable: the template

To show how this works in practice, I designed a full InDesign report template around the illustration.

Not just something to look at, but something you can actually open and use. You can swap the illustration for another one and keep the overall structure intact, which makes it much easier to create multiple documents without starting from scratch every time.

Two ways to use it

This template is available on Adobe Stock. Some people use it as it is, others come to me when they need something more tailored to their content.

In both cases, the idea stays the same: create visuals that don’t just exist on their own, but work as part of a system.

If you’re working on a report, presentation, or similar content and want visuals that are consistent from start to finish, feel free to reach out.