Master Deck Slide Map

Design & Art Direction: Jessica Solomon

2025

Over the years, I’ve designed countless presentations for clients across different sectors. Many of those decks are protected under NDAs and therefore can’t be shared publicly. To address this, I developed the Master Deck Slide Map, a self-initiated framework built from my most effective and frequently used slides.

Explore the system ↓

  • An image of the Cultural Center.

    01

  • A presentation layout with multiple slides on topics about visual communication and presentations, including slides titled 'The Role of Structure in Communication,' 'Consistency Creates Trust,' 'Why Visuals Matter,' 'Presentations as a Strategic Tool,' 'Designing for Attention Spans,' and 'Why Systems Matter.' The slides contain text, headings, bullet points, and placeholders for images or graphics.

    02

  • Slide presentation slide with text and graphics. The left side titled 'Structure enables freedom,' shows data points about time saved, consistency, slide production speed, error reduction, idea retention, audience engagement, reuse rate, and iteration efficiency with percentages. The right side titled 'Ideas need systems to travel further,' features percentages and descriptions about structured frameworks, well-designed systems, and audience retention.

    03

  • A gray hardcover book titled 'Master Deck Slide Map' by Jessica Solomon, with a matching spine and a minimalist design, placed against a black background.

    04

  • Two presentation slides on a black background. The first slide titled 'Our Journey to Launch' shows three stages of a project timeline with brief descriptions. The second slide, titled 'Headline: The Evolution of Presentation Design,' features a timeline from the 1980s to the future, highlighting key shifts in presentation design styles.

    05

  • Collection of presentation slides with graphs and charts: bar graph of design priorities from 2019 to 2025, pie chart of deck creation time, and bar chart of common slide types in business decks.

    06

The deck is organized to reflect the natural flow of a presentation, divided into the following sections:

Covers & Openers – title pages, introduction slides, and dividers
Navigation & Structure – tables of contents, agendas, process flows, headers, and footers
Messaging – key statements, big ideas, and manifesto variations
Content – text and image pairings, lists, and information layouts
Team – profiles, organizational charts, and leadership statements
Data – graphs, tables, statistics, icons, and timelines
Callouts – pull quotes, captions, and highlights
Closing – summaries, thank-yous, and next steps

This list isn’t fixed. The Master Deck is designed to evolve — a living document that expands as I grow in my practice.

DividersBright.jpg
Two slides from a presentation, one showing a table of contents with sections: Framework Overview, Team Structures, Process & Timelines, Layout Modules, Data Visualization, Closing Notes, and the other showing a detailed index with sections and page
Slides showing a presentation with a black background. The slides include titles such as "Introduction", "About this Deck", and a large slide stating, "This system map demonstrates the building blocks of a presentation."
Six slides of a presentation outline for a professional or technical presentation, including sections on overview, team structures, layout modules, data visualization, process and timelines, closing notes, index, and usage instructions.

I chose to fill the slides with actual content rather than placeholders. Real text makes it possible to see how each layout functions in context, how a slide might support a story, emphasize a message, or pace information. Slides tell stories, and some layouts are simply better suited to certain narratives than others.

Visually, the deck uses shades of gray paired with black to keep attention on structure and rhythm. The absence of branding and color is deliberate, it lets the viewer see the slides in their purest form, without distraction. I used IBM Plex Mono as the primary typeface for its clarity and technical precision; it lends the deck a clinical, structured, almost scientific tone.

Each slide follows a 14-column by 9-row grid within a 16:9 format. This system allows for both consistency and flexibility, particularly in content-heavy layouts.

The Master Deck is not a template, it’s a resource. A tool I use during the planning and research phase of every new project. It ensures I can design presentations efficiently, even under tight deadlines, while maintaining narrative flow, hierarchy, and clarity.

  • Screenshot of a presentation slide deck with three slides focusing on vision, data, and strategy. The slides contain text discussing purpose, methods, and challenges of effective presentations, including visual examples of graphs and charts.

    01

  • A presentation slide overview with multiple slides on communication, visual trust, presentation strategies, design, and systems, each containing text, gray placeholders, and headings.

    02

  • Three presentation slides with light gray backgrounds and black text on a black background. The slides contain the quote: 'Clarity creates impact. The most powerful ideas are the simplest ones, structured for focus,' with the phrase 'Clarity Creates Impact.' bolded on the right slide.

    03

  • Side-by-side presentation slides with text discussing design principles.

    04

  • A presentation storyboard with two sections. The left section shows profiles of four team members with names, titles, and descriptions. The right section has a title labeled 'Design Statement' with paragraphs of text explaining design principles and purpose.

    05

The Master Deck Slide Map was designed as an internal framework, but I occasionally share the full version with clients and collaborators.

If you’re interested in seeing the complete deck, I’d be happy to send it to you directly.

Request the Deck