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Elevating Executive Communications

Role
Designer • Content • Administration • Motion Design • Brand Integration

Scope
Executive Presentation Strategy, Powerpoint Design System Development • Executive-Level Slide Architecture • Custom Iconography & Visual Assets • Brand Integration & Visual Consistency • UX & Accessibility • Animation & Transition Framework • Data Visualization & Information Design • Organizational Enablement • Template Governance & Scalability

Timeline
10 Weeks

Overview

Designing a Scalable Presentation System for Smith + Howard

When accounting and advisory firms communicate with clients, investors, board members, and internal leadership, every presentation becomes an extension of the firm’s reputation. The challenge wasn’t simply creating attractive slides—it was designing a presentation framework that hundreds of professionals could confidently use while maintaining a consistent executive-level brand experience.

For Smith + Howard, I developed a fully customized Microsoft PowerPoint presentation system that transformed the organization’s presentations from individually assembled decks into a cohesive visual communication platform. The result was a flexible toolkit that balanced sophistication with simplicity, allowing anyone—from partners to marketing teams—to produce polished presentations without requiring design expertise.

Accounting firms produce an enormous variety of presentations.

Executive briefings.

Client proposals.

Audit reports.

Tax planning workshops.

Conference speaking engagements.

Internal strategy meetings.

Recruiting presentations.

Each audience requires different content, yet every presentation should immediately feel like it comes from the same organization.

The existing approach relied on employees creating slides independently, resulting in inconsistent typography, colors, layouts, iconography, and graphics. As the organization continued growing and expanding its advisory services, maintaining brand consistency became increasingly difficult. The merger of BPS into Smith + Howard further highlighted the need for unified communication standards across offices and teams.

The objective became clear:

Create an executive-quality PowerPoint system that anyone in the company could use.

Rather than beginning with slide designs, I started by analyzing how presentations were actually being used throughout the organization.

Patterns quickly emerged.

Most presentations shared similar information despite serving different purposes:

  • Financial metrics
  • Service overviews
  • Process diagrams
  • Timeline visualizations
  • Organizational charts
  • Industry statistics
  • Client success stories
  • Team introductions

Instead of designing individual decks, I focused on building reusable visual components that could be assembled into virtually any presentation.

The goal wasn’t to make PowerPoint prettier.

It was to create a communication system.

The presentation template was approached like a digital product rather than a single document.

Every element was intentionally designed for repeatability.

Flexible Master Layouts

Rather than offering only a handful of generic slide types, I developed a comprehensive library of master layouts that could accommodate nearly any communication need.

These included:

  • Executive title slides
  • Agenda layouts
  • Section dividers
  • Data-heavy content pages
  • Multi-column comparisons
  • Quote layouts
  • Process diagrams
  • KPI dashboards
  • Timeline pages
  • Team profile layouts
  • Closing and contact slides

Every layout followed consistent spacing, alignment, typography, and grid systems to ensure visual consistency regardless of who built the presentation.

One of the largest opportunities for visual consistency came through iconography.

Instead of relying on Microsoft’s default icon collection—which often varies in style—I created a custom library of clean, scalable vector icons aligned specifically to the Smith + Howard brand.

The icon system covered topics such as:

  • Accounting
  • Tax
  • Audit
  • Advisory
  • Financial planning
  • Data analytics
  • Cybersecurity
  • Human resources
  • Healthcare
  • Manufacturing
  • Real estate
  • Banking
  • Technology
  • Government
  • Nonprofits

Because every icon shared identical proportions, stroke weights, and visual language, presentations maintained a polished appearance even when assembled by different departments.

Accounting presentations frequently contain dense information.

Financial charts.

Compliance updates.

Regulatory changes.

Business forecasts.

The challenge was making complex information easier to digest without sacrificing professionalism.

I established a visual hierarchy that prioritized clarity through:

  • Consistent typography
  • White space
  • Simplified charts
  • Color-coded information
  • Reusable callout components
  • Branded infographics
  • Executive summary slides

Every design decision reduced friction between the presenter and the audience.

One of the biggest measures of success wasn’t how impressive the template looked.

It was how little design knowledge employees needed to use it effectively.

To accomplish this, I intentionally removed unnecessary complexity.

Users could:

  • Duplicate proven layouts
  • Swap icons in seconds
  • Replace photography without breaking alignment
  • Update colors automatically
  • Maintain consistent typography
  • Build presentations rapidly using predefined components

The template became a self-guided design system rather than a static presentation.

By treating PowerPoint as another branded touchpoint—not simply office software—the organization gained a unified visual identity across countless presentations.

Whether delivered in a boardroom, conference keynote, client pitch, recruiting event, or internal leadership meeting, presentations consistently reflected the firm’s professionalism and attention to detail.

The system dramatically reduced time spent formatting slides while simultaneously increasing confidence across teams responsible for communicating the Smith + Howard brand.

I led the end-to-end design and development of the presentation system, including:

  • Presentation strategy
  • Information architecture
  • PowerPoint master template development
  • Executive slide design
  • Custom vector icon library creation
  • Layout system design
  • Motion and transition design
  • Visual hierarchy standards
  • Brand integration
  • User-friendly editing workflows
  • Documentation for long-term organizational adoption

Rather than producing a single presentation, the project delivered a scalable communication platform that could evolve alongside the organization.

By combining thoughtful UX principles with strong visual branding, the PowerPoint template empowered employees across the firm to produce presentations that felt intentional, polished, and unmistakably Smith + Howard—regardless of their design experience.

The final result wasn’t simply a presentation template.

It was a branded presentation ecosystem that strengthened executive communications, improved efficiency, and ensured consistency across every audience interaction.