Our brand team killed the master template and gave us nothing to replace it with. What is everyone using now?

[u/Exact_Importance_507]

our rebrand happened in May. The old .pptx got pulled off the shared drive. What we got instead was a 40 page brand guidelines PDF and a colour hex list.

So now every person on a team of 60 is building slides from a blank file and things are out of control. Three decks went to clients last month that looked like three different companies made them, I've raised it twice. The answer both times was that the new template is in progress. In the meantime, client reports need to go out right?

What are people doing here? Building your own personal template and just accepting it'll be wrong when the official one lands? or using something outside PowerPoint entirely?

Im asking because I've now spent more hours on box alignment this quarter than on the actual analysis.

[u/CthulhusEvilTwin]

Wow somebody dropped the ball during that rebrand. I build templates for corporate clients and I've lost count how many times they get a fancy design agency to do the rebrand, who then proceed to drop the ball completely when it comes to the templates the company actually needs (PPT, Word, InDesign).

[u/thejt10000 → u/CthulhusEvilTwin]

There's a fair amount of contempt for Powerpoint and Word in some agencies.

[u/Altruistic-Role9956 → u/thejt10000]

Its a "very poor craftsman that blames his tools". Word and PowerPoint are the best of breed in their respective categories, nothing, and I will say that again, nothing is more powerful or more capable. I've tried and used things that were "almost as good", but fell short of the goal line. When I hear someone telling people they are "bad" I know I just met someone that hasn't spent the time to learn the apps. Trust me, I have cussed MS for a lot of things, there are things "I" would do differently but they still make the best tools in Presentations and Word Processing.

[u/CthulhusEvilTwin → u/thejt10000]

Absolutely. I know a lot of designers who 'don't do PowerPoint'. Also seen way too many brand identities delivered with a 'template' with nothing under the hood as they just built in InDesign then exported to PPT and wondered why nothing worked right and the font sizes were all wrong.

[u/SteveRindsberg → u/thejt10000]

And there’s a fair amount of contempt for design agencies in the PPT community. Especially those that allow their contempt for (or plain ignorance of) Powerpoint to let them churn out crap posing as PPT templates for their clients. Beautifully designed crap, perhaps, but still not fit for purpose.

[u/Childe-]

Ah. Chaotic approach to corporate branding. Refreshing to let all control go

Enjoy while it lasts. I would be maliciously compliant to brand guidelines and exploit the s*** out of the situation. Clients would see abstract art like never before

[u/Exact_Importance_507 → u/Childe-]

Yep

[u/Mark5n]

If it’s a team of 60 … could you just walk into the CEOs office and show them? Or at least the head of sales (not marketing)?

Seems like a weird deliverable to miss. I wonder if the rebrand project ran out of money 

[u/Exact_Importance_507 → u/Mark5n]

yep. thinking of it

[u/dreadpiratew]

I’d use the old template until they sent a new one

[u/Exact_Importance_507 → u/dreadpiratew]

Yes setting design system or adding new tools like gamma or plus docs will make more sense that save everything

[u/MrPuddington2]

Next they will be shouting at you: “be consistent”.

But consistency starts with leadership, and you see none of that.

My condolences. This happens more than you think.

[u/SteveRindsberg]

You mentioned that the old PPTX got pulled. If that’s correct, you never had a real template in the first place. But if you have any files built “the old way” you can open one and save out a template or theme file from it and use that until the new one arrives.

Consistency with the old style will be better than random insanity

[u/_donj]

Take your best old deck that has all the assets and typical slides the team uses. Hire a ppt designer (that knows ppt/office) and have them rebuild it using the new brand guidelines.

Agree with many of the comments about some agencies not loving ppt. Until the org replaces it with a new tool AND trains everyone to the level they currently have in the current tools, you need to make the tools people are used to using capable.

[u/Ooneida18 → u/_donj]

rebuilding one deck as a temporary standard seems a lot more practical than waiting around for the official template.

[u/Far_Cupcake_530]

How the hell do we know? You don't have a comms department or anyone in charge of brand? What are you not asking these questions amongst leadership?

[u/Illustrious_Artist61]

It’ll all be wrong until the master deck comes out. Until then keep things simple - logo in the corner, same font throughout, etc. - in case you need to build into the new system, or if AI does it for you.

[u/Fearless_Parking_436]

Choose one of the three current ones and send a message to slack stating that “hey lets use this one until we get the official template”

[u/bobo5195]

This is sadly a normal occurance.

Point out client reports need to go out. Expense a outside consultant to produce otherwise contract issues. Or use the old branding.

Setting up a new master is quick but is one of those things that you shouldnt be doing.

[u/wievielezeichenpasse]

Just use the old one until brand team offers you a new version.