I use visuals for presentations in 2 ways. One is the obvious use: put visuals on slides (duh). The other one is actually to design the story of the presentation.
Very often, pitches are about why something is better, why existing solutions don't work, why the market is focussed on yesterday's problems. I create a diagram for myself to create some sort of map where I can put all the elements, comparisons, and movements of a story. It starts simple, then gets really messy and complicated, then gets simplified again.
With that little piece of paper I go back to the slides of the presentation, and it is highly unlikely that my sketch visual and the visuals in the presentation have any similarity.
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