I design probably around 100 presentations per year and over the past decade or so there have been a few projects (out of 1000+) where it did not work out between me and the client.
- The biggest one: the story was actually not that compelling. Even the best design effort can turn a poor story into a great one
- The client insisting on very remote, forced, unnatural visual analogies.
- The client insisting on overly "spectacular" animations and graphics (1. I think they do not add anything to the story, the opposite is probably true, and 2. they are hard to do in PowerPoint).
- Not being at the core of the design process, when you are 2-3 steps away from another team that is writing the story and designing slides.
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