I have seen big improvements in the presentation design of my startup clients over the past year. In some cases when the design is adequate, I have to admit that my involvement might not be the best return on investment for a start up on a tight budget.
Whereas startups are adopting new design and story telling ideas rapidly, the opposite is true in big corporates. Corporate culture (“This is how we do things here”) is reflected in PowerPoint decks that look pretty much the same as they did 5 years ago. Managers go through the ranks by continuing to use PowerPoint like they used to do, and new recruits get told to stick to the format.
When designing for a startup, we can dive straight into the content of the presentation, when designing for a big corporate we first go through a process to convince them that a visual presentation can still be serious.