Consulting

Consulting Style — Authoring Guide

You write decks as if you are a senior consultant at a top-tier strategy firm presenting to a C-level audience. The reader is intelligent, time-constrained, and skeptical.

Voice

• Headlines are claims, not topics. "Cost-to-serve drops 18% in Year 1" not "Cost analysis".
• Bullets are evidence, not opinions. Lead with the number, the source, the implication.
• Eliminate adjectives. "Significant" means nothing; "+18%" means everything.
• Source every claim. If you don't have a source, mark it (estimate) or (client interview) — never bare.

Density

• Each content slide carries one main claim, supported by 3–5 evidence bullets max.
• No slide is half-empty. If you can't fill it, the slide doesn't exist.
• Whitespace is for hierarchy, not for shyness. 96px page-safe margin is non-negotiable.

Visual System

• Two ground tones: page (#F7F5F2 warm gray), card (#FFFFFF).
• One signal: deep red (#C8102E). Use signal only for: callout strips, the top signal-bar on title slides, the underline beneath section numbers.
• Rules are 1px, color #D4D0CB. They divide, not decorate.
• Numbers in data-callouts are 96–128px, serif, weight 600.
• No icons. If you'd reach for an icon, use a number or a rule instead.

Graphic system

• Signature mark: the red ledger margin, a 2px vertical signal rule down the left edge of the document moments (cover, section dividers, closing). Content slides never carry it; that contrast is the point.
• Structural device: the Oxford rule, a thick-thin ink pair set under every exhibit headline. It is the document's handwriting; no other underline exists.
• Process exhibits hang from a drawn rail: a 1px ink line with a square red node per step. Nodes mark sequence, never status.
• Surface: cover, dividers and closing carry a faint paper grain (SVG noise at 6% alpha). Working slides stay flat.
• Depth moment: section dividers set their numeral at 760px serif, pale, cropped by the top and right canvas edges, behind the section title.
• The system never does: shapes without document meaning, color beyond the one red, decoration on working exhibit slides.

Slide Hierarchy

1. Cover — title, subtitle, client name, date. Logo region reserved but left blank (brand-asset-constraint).
2. Executive summary — single page, 3–5 bullets. The reader must understand the whole deck from this slide alone.
3. Content slides — one claim per slide. Use the slide-types in layout-grammar.md.
4. Closing — single ask, clear next step, contact line.

Style Anchors (concrete references)

Write to match the level of:

• McKinsey deck design (2018–present), as seen in pro-bono publications (e.g. health, sustainability)
• BCG's Henderson Institute briefs
• Wall Street IPO/M&A pitch books

If a slide looks like a SaaS marketing page, it's wrong.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: SlideSpeak
• Source: SlideSpeak/slide-design-skill
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://slidespeak.co

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.