Presentation decks

The rule: a deck slide should look like a screenshot from frontierdefensetech.com, not like a PowerPoint deck.

Template

Aspect ratio: 16:9 (1920×1080) standard. 4:3 is not supported.

Slide masters shipped

1. Title slide (hero)
2. Section divider (full-bleed)
3. Content (H2 title + body)
4. Two-column content
5. Content + image
6. Full-bleed image with caption overlay
7. Data / chart
8. Comparison table
9. Process / timeline
10. Quote / callout
11. Closing / next steps

Every slide carries (defense-industry standard, treat as non-optional):

• Classification strip - top and bottom of slide, centered, uppercase Micro white text on a 4mm semantic-color fill bar. Real-world classification markings follow U.S. government conventions:
  • UNCLASSIFIED - green
  • UNCLASSIFIED // FOUO - green with yellow accent
  • CUI - purple
  • CONFIDENTIAL / SECRET / TOP SECRET - ascending red intensity For internal program decks (capability reviews, pitch decks on FDT products), use PROGRAM SENSITIVE (caution-amber) or FDT CONTROLLED (electric-blue) matching the digital classification badge system. Training-construct disclaimers appear once on the title slide and once on any closing slide that presents synthetic scenarios.
• Page number - bottom-right, JetBrains Mono, steel-400. Format: 03 / 24.
• Project / date - bottom-left, Micro uppercase, steel-400. Format: AUSA 2026 · 14 OCT.
• FDT wordmark watermark - bottom-center, Barlow Condensed, steel-400 at 60% opacity. Watermark presence, not logo presence.

Slide patterns

Eleven master slides, each with a locked anatomy:

Title slide

Full-bleed navy-900 with grid overlay at 4%. Eyebrow top-left in Micro uppercase, electric-blue (e.g. CAPABILITY BRIEFING). Title centered-left in Display XL (Inter 800), title case. Subtitle below in Body L, fog-200. Bottom-left: presenter name + role. Bottom-right: date in JetBrains Mono. Hex mark optional, bottom-right corner, --fdt-glow-md.

Section divider

Full-bleed navy-900. Section number in massive Wordmark XL Barlow Condensed - 02, electric-blue, top-left quadrant. Section title in Display L title case directly below the number. Nothing else on the slide. Used to break the deck into thematic chunks.

Content slide

Title bar at top: H2 in fog-100, with optional eyebrow in Micro electric-blue above. Content area: left-aligned, narrow measure (~720px max text width). Body in Body (14/22). Maximum 3 bullet points per slide - if you need more, it’s two slides. Bullets use an em-dash as the marker, not a round bullet or arrow glyph.

Two-column content

50/50 split, 32px gutter. Each column has its own H3 heading and body. 1px steel-500 vertical rule between columns. Used for compare/contrast, current-state/future-state, feature listings.

Content + image

60/40 split with image on the right. Image full-bleed within its column, no border, color-graded to match the sensor-aesthetic palette. Caption below in Micro, steel-400.

Full-bleed image

Edge-to-edge. Caption overlays at bottom in a navy-800 @ 85% translucent bar. Classification strip remains visible at top and bottom - non-negotiable, even here.

Data / chart

Chart fills the content area below the title bar. Axes in steel-500, labels in steel-300 (Micro), data series in the semantic palette (brand for primary, neutral/success/warning/danger for categorical). Legend bottom-left, never on the chart. Prefer labels-on-data over legends where feasible. Native .pptx / Slides chart primitives - not screenshots of spreadsheets, not embedded images.

Comparison table

Two or three columns. Header row in Wordmark S uppercase, steel-300. Cell rows with 1px navy-600 dividers. Recommended column highlighted with a 10% electric-blue fill. Use system icons for check/cross states - never green-check or red-X emoji.

Process / timeline

Horizontal, 3–7 stages. Each stage: circular node (navy-700 fill, navy-600 border, steel-400 numeric inside), stage title in Wordmark S above, descriptor in Body below. 1px steel-500 connecting line. Active/current stage: electric-blue border + --fdt-glow-sm.

Quote / callout

Large pull-quote in Display M, fog-100, title case. Attribution below in Body, steel-300, format: - Name, Role. Electric-blue leading-quote glyph (straight, not curly). Never italicize the quote.

Closing / next steps

Not an “Any questions?” slide. Three short next-step bullets or a single call-to-action paragraph. Contact block (name, email, org) in Body. Hex mark or wordmark in the lower-right corner.

Typography in decks

Same three faces as digital. Scale adapted for slide dimensions:

Role	Face	Size
Title slide heading	Inter 800	72pt
Section divider title	Inter 800	56pt
Callouts / pull quotes	Inter 700	40pt
Slide titles	Inter 700	32pt
Column / sub-heads	Inter 600	24pt
Emphasized body	Inter 400	18pt
Standard body	Inter 400	14pt
Labels / eyebrows	Inter 500 uppercase	11pt
Data / numerics	JetBrains Mono 400	13pt
Wordmarks on slides	Barlow Condensed 700 uppercase	28–56pt depending on role

Embed fonts when saving .pptx (File → Options → Save → Embed fonts in the file). If embedding isn’t available (Google Slides), the fallback stack activates - still readable, but the real system fonts should be locally installed for anyone presenting.

Chart styling in decks

Native chart primitives only - no 3D charts, ever. Drop shadows off. Gradient fills off. Axes hairline. Data labels beat legends wherever legible. Series colors come from the semantic palette, applied in this order for categorical data: brand → neutral-60 → success → caution → danger. Radar charts (doctrinal-profile visualizations, risk matrices) are particularly on-brand - use them liberally where the data supports it.

Anti-patterns - decks

• White backgrounds. The template is dark. A white deck breaks the brand. (Exception: print-destined decks may use an alternate light template - see Delivery below.)
• Bullet nesting. No bullets-within-bullets-within-bullets. Hierarchical content becomes multiple slides.
• Slide transitions. No “cube,” “flip,” “morph,” or anything beyond instant cut. Presentation mode is cut-only.
• In-slide animations. No fly-in, fade-in, or zoom-in text. All content present on slide enter.
• SmartArt. PowerPoint’s worst feature. Banned entirely.
• Clipart, stock icons, stock business photos. Use FDT UI icons (Font Awesome via embed or inline SVG) or nothing. No handshake icons. No “diverse team in conference room” stock.
• Emoji as bullets or status indicators. Status uses the system badge pattern, never 🟢🟡🔴.
• “Any questions?” closing slides. Close with next steps.
• Centered body text. Always left-aligned. Centered body reads as wedding invitation.
• Gradient backgrounds, gradient-filled charts. Flat only.
• Hero photos of soldiers. The video anti-patterns apply here verbatim.
• “Confidential - do not distribute” footers in red Comic Sans. The classification system is the footer. Nothing else.

Delivery

• .pptx master template with all 11 slide masters, embedded fonts
• Google Slides equivalent (import-ready, fonts installed via Extensis or direct OFL install)
• .key (Keynote) equivalent - Apple-forward teams exist, don’t make them suffer
• A separate “starter deck” of pre-composed slides (example hero, example section divider, example data slide) that presenters can copy-and-fill rather than building from masters
• Export presets for PDF: screen-quality (1920px, RGB, dark) and print-quality (CMYK, light-background alternate template). Dark-on-paper is a known pain point - the print-destined light template is a sanctioned exception and lives as its own master set, with the same typographic and structural rules but inverted surface and text tokens. The digital dark-native stance does not hold for paper output.

Since many defense customers require PDF deliverables over native decks, the PDF export workflow is a first-class test path - verify classification strips render correctly, that JetBrains Mono page numbers don’t rasterize, and that the full-bleed bleeds cleanly without white slivers at the edges.