Design System · Vol. 1

Deck Design
System

A clean, editorial foundation for presentations — warm paper, dark ink, and a measured indigo accent with teal in support.

Playfair DisplayDisplay & headings
Source Sans 3Body & UI
Indigo + TealAccents
HeroiconsIconography
01
Foundations

Color

Warm paper surfaces, near-black ink for type. Indigo carries primary emphasis; teal supports for highlights and secondary data. Semantic colors are muted to sit calmly on the page.

02
Foundations

Typography

Playfair Display sets the editorial tone — high contrast, used large for headlines and italic for subheads. Source Sans 3 keeps body copy quiet and readable. Two families, no more.

DisplayPlayfair Display ExtraBold · 60 / 1.02
Big ideas, set in serif
H1 — Slide titlePlayfair Display Bold · 42 / 1.08
The headline does the work
H2 — SubheadPlayfair Display Medium · 30 / 1.15
A supporting subhead
TitlePlayfair Display SemiBold · 22 / 1.2
Card and column titles
Body LargeSource Sans 3 Regular · 20 / 1.55
Lead paragraphs and introductions that deserve a little more room on the slide.
BodySource Sans 3 Regular · 16 / 1.65
Default body text for bullets, notes, and supporting detail. Comfortable to read at a distance.
CaptionSource Sans 3 Medium · 13
Captions, sources, and footnotes
Eyebrow / LabelSource Sans 3 SemiBold · 12 · +2.5 tracking · UPPER
Section label
03
Foundations

Iconography

Heroicons (MIT licensed) at the 24px outline weight, 1.5px stroke, drawn in Ink 900 or Indigo 600 for emphasis. Thin strokes keep them quiet against serif headlines. Full set at heroicons.com.

04
Foundations

Spacing & Radius

An 8-point spacing scale holds the rhythm. Radii stay minimal — corners are nearly square to keep the editorial, printed feel.

Spacing scale (px)

Corner radius

05
Templates

Slide Layouts

Nine reusable 16:9 layouts. Wide margins, one idea per slide, serif headlines, and a hairline rule as the recurring anchor.

Acme · 2026
A title slide that
leads with the headline

Presenter name · Role · Date

Title
01
Section 02

Where we are today

02

Content slide with bullets

  • One clear point per line, kept short
  • Indigo markers keep the list calm and scannable
  • No more than four or five items
Content
03

Two-column comparison

Before

The old way, described in a sentence or two.

After

The new way, with the benefit made obvious.

Two-column
04
Results

The numbers that matter

3.4×
Faster onboarding
92%
Retention
$1.2M
ARR
Metrics / KPI
05
The best slide is the one you don't need to explain.

— Someone worth quoting

Quote
06

Image & caption

A short caption explaining what the visual shows.

Media
07
Agenda
  • 01   Where we are
  • 02   What changed
  • 03   The opportunity
  • 04   What we need
Agenda / Contents
08
We don't need more data. We need fewer, clearer decisions.
Statement
09
What you get

Three reasons it works

Clarity

One idea per slide, every time.

Speed

Reusable layouts, faster decks.

Consistency

Shared styles keep it on-brand.

Feature grid
10
How it works

A simple three-step flow

01
Capture

Gather the raw inputs.

02
Shape

Turn them into a story.

03
Ship

Present with confidence.

Process / steps
11
Comparison

How we stack up

CapabilityUsThem
Reusable layouts
Editorial type system
Built-in icon set
Comparison table
12
Roadmap

The year ahead

Q1

Foundations

Q2

Launch

Q3

Scale

Q4

Expand

Timeline
13
68%

of teams ship faster

after adopting a shared deck system, measured across the first quarter.

Big number
14
Thank you

Let's talk

[email protected] · acme.com

15
06
Templates

Section Break

One divider to mark a new chapter: solid Indigo 700. Use it the same way every time.

Section 02

Where we are today

Indigo 700.

02
07
Guidance

Using the system

One idea per slide. If a slide needs two headlines, it's two slides. White space is part of the design, not room left over. Editorial decks breathe.

Indigo leads, teal supports. Use indigo for the single most important thing on a slide — a key metric, a section, a call to action. Teal accents secondary data. Never set them at equal weight.

Serif up top, sans below. Playfair Display for anything headline-sized; lean on its italic for subheads. Source Sans for everything else. Hierarchy comes from size and weight, not new typefaces.

Dark ink on warm paper. Body copy is Ink 700, headings Ink 900. Reserve Ink 400 for captions and metadata. The only dark slides are section dividers and the close.

Hairlines, not boxes. A 1px rule does the work of a heavy border or shadow. Keep corners near-square so the deck reads like print, not an app.

Contrast check. Ink 700 on paper, white on Indigo 700, and Indigo 600 on Indigo 100 all pass WCAG AA. Teal is an accent — don't set small body text in it.