10 Color Palettes to Nail Your Next Presentation

Bring your A-game to your next pitch meeting with these sure-to-dazzle color palettes.

Color is a powerful design tool. The right scheme can energize and motivate, soothe and inspire. With that in mind, we’ve put together a batch of ten eye-catching color palettes, each intended to have a different psychological effect on your presentation audience.

Perhaps you’re a young startup and need to excite potential investors, or maybe you want to ensure that viewers remain focused on important data. Whatever the style of presentation or pitch, you’ll find a color palette that suits your presentation needs in the list below.

Simply take a note of the HEX codes in these inspiring color palettes, and apply your swatches to backgrounds, typography, or sales presentation templates for your next PowerPoint presentation or Google Slides pitch.

Now, let’s get started! It’s time to nail that pitch.

License this image via Pikoso.kz.

What Are the Best Colors for Presentations?

The best colors to use in PowerPoint, Google Slides, and other presentation software can vary widely depending on your audience, brand, and what you’re trying to achieve with the presentation.

A pitch for a new client might require exciting, inspiring color choices that help your audience to feel energized, while a data-heavy presentation to long-standing investors might require a more stable and reassuring color scheme.

Below, you’ll find 10 color palettes for presentations that tap into the power of color psychology, helping you to choose colors that will always work in your favor.

These stylish color palettes can work for a variety of presentation purposes, like corporate reports, brand launches, and Q1 forecasts.

Scroll down to find the perfect presentation palette to help you bring the power of color to your next pitch.

1. The Perfect Color Palette to Energize Your Audience

Orange has been proven to promote energy and appetite in viewers, so it’s the perfect color choice for presentations that need to have an upbeat feel.

To keep your audience engaged throughout a long presentation, it helps to balance orange’s energy with the soothing, expansive mood of violet blue.

Blue-sky thinking is blue for good reason—this is a color that provokes inspiration and openness to new ideas.

To keep your energized palette crisp and clean, turn to ice white and pitch black to ensure your text remains crisp and legible.

Color palette including view of orange tinted sky scraper, white diving board against orange wall, and futuristic woman with orange and blue braided hair — *License these images via SharonPhoto, Markus Pfaff, and FlexDreams.*

Young African American woman with short hair and sunglasses dressed in a stylish orange outfit laying on a blue sports court — *License this image via Wirestock Creators.*

2. The Best Color Palette to Calm and Reassure the Room

Sometimes, it’s more important to calm and reassure your audience than to energize or surprise them. Presentations focused on mental well being, health, or wellness wouldn’t benefit from a neon palette, for example.

Instead, bring a zen mood to the boardroom with this palette of soothing hues. Spring green, mulberry purple, terracotta, and blue gray have a grounding effect and mimic the soothing colors found in nature to create an ultra-relaxing effect.

Color palettes including top view of a small dark green barrel cactus, a loft-style interior with brick wall and pastel accents, and a beach sunset — *License these images via Michaela Warthen, bezikus, and Milosz_G.*

Loft-style interior with brick wall and colorful furniture — *License this image via bezikus.*

3. The Perfect Color Palette to Boost Confidence

Red is traditionally the color of confidence, proven to make viewers feel stronger and more self-assured in its presence. However, pure red can be overtly aggressive, and the forceful effect of the color can be heightened on bright screens. Much better to temper red’s aggression with softer red orange, fuchsia, and shell pink.

This is still a highly confident palette with its graduation of warm hues, and its assertion is even stronger when paired with mysterious and authoritative plum purple.

Color palette featuring a desert scene with a woman standing on a sand dune next to a neon square, a silhouette of a girl in the light of colored lamps in red and blue, and a red Siamese fighting fish on dark background — *License these images via Pikoso.kz, Alexander_Evgenyevich, and panpilai paipa.*

Pink, purple, and orange gradient design on black background — *License this image via Pengedar Seni.*

4. The Best Color Palette to Appeal to Corporate Businesses

This color scheme gives a nod to the traditional palettes of the financial and legal world. Bottle green and cognac brown are teamed with dark racing-green and old gold for an established and luxurious effect.

Corporate presentations can be difficult to enliven, as they require a degree of formality and convention. However, this palette steps away from oft-used navy blue toward something more interesting.

Evocative of leather and velvet, this is a cocooning and moneyed palette that will help corporate clients feel like you understand their formal world.

Color palettes featuring a woman in green suit holding bouquet of dead flowers, a living room with green accents and a closeup of a palm leaf on dark background — *License these images via Capable97, Followtheflow, and Stock Foto.Touch.*

Top view of folder, smartphone with blank screen, glasses, paper for notes, and wooden box with pens on dark green desk — *License this image via Piece of Cake.*

License this image via AlonaPhoto.

5. The Best Palette to Look Cool and On-Trend

Many startups, entrepreneurs, and young brands want to appeal to Gen Z audiences, and they need to have a cool color palette to match.

Whether you’re presenting a new product launch or looking to entice an on-the-pulse angel investor, this violet and neon palette will cement your cool credentials.

Look to urban colors, such as neons and grays, to create presentation slides with an ultra-cool mood.

This urban-inspired presentation palette combines deep and inky violet with acid lime yellow for a high-contrast effect, while concrete gray and moody black provide a neutral offset.

Color palettes featuring an African American man wearing leather jacket and sunglasses on neon background, cement building with curved facade, and purple coffee cups on neon green background — *License these images via Damir Khabirov, VTT Studio, and AlonaPhoto.*

Explosion of yellow, gray and purple paint on black background — *License this image via Master1305.*

6. The Perfect Color Palette to Look Innovative

Young companies or startups pitching for their first round of investments need a palette that will communicate a spirit of innovation and fresh thinking. A perfect color palette for tech businesses or science startups, this palette has a futuristic, forward-looking mood.

Purple is the most intellectual and mysterious of all colors, making it a good fit for businesses offering something a little different from the norm, especially in the tech sector.

Neon pink is an unexpected choice for work presentations, but here it’s the perfect companion to purple and violet blue, bringing energy and a youthful mood.

Color palettes featuring a closeup of a neon light bulb, an aerial view of skyscrapers in the city of Kuala Lumpur, and a neon purple hallway — *License these images via Echelon Photography, SkyMediaPro, and bigkai.*

Black man talking on his mobile phone with futuristic neon lines surround him — *License this image via Rawpixel.com.*

7. The Best Color Palette to Appear High-End

Elevate your high-end presentations with this luxurious color scheme that borrows from vintage color schemes of the 1930s and 1940s.

If you’re pitching for a high-end brand or simply want to bring an elegant mood to your presentation slides, this claret and copper scheme will help your PowerPoint templates feel opulent and expensive.

Dark brick red and olive green are traditional establishment colors that give a nod to beautiful brick architecture and vintage uniforms.

This affluent color palette would also be a good fit for the hospitality, travel, or luxury goods sectors. Team with metallic backgrounds and crisp white text for simple luxury.

Color palettes featuring a red building facade with lit office windows, pomegranates next to measuring cups, and copper scrap bars and plates — *License these images via umcher, Cavan-Images, and Mirko Graul.*

Restaurant with wooden furniture and red and black accents — *License this image via Eug Png.*

8. The Best Color Palette to Improve Focus

If you have vitally important data or a specific message you want your viewers to remember, consider this presentation palette of focus-promoting colors that will prevent your audience from mid-pitch window gazing.

Blue and green are the two colors most associated with improving focus and concentration, with blue promoting expansive thinking and green providing a harmonic, nature-inspired mood.

In this business color palette, rich teal combines both of these hues for a serious focus hit. Earthy burnt orange prevents teal from feeling lethargic, while giving the palette a grounded edge that feels serious and cerebral.

Color palettes featuring a pier on Lake Switzerland in the fall, a long exposure portrait of a male model, and lake surrounded by trees in Autumn — *License these images via Tobias Vannay, Iryna Kalamurza, and Robert Ruidl.*

Beautiful orange and turquoise building facade — *License this image via Sichim Sergiu.*

9. The Best Color Palette to Promote Sustainability

As sustainability is a central concern for many businesses today, it might be in your interest to give your presentations an environmental edge.

While businesses are often advised to avoid greenwashing, for the purpose of presentations, green is still the most reliable color for communicating environmentally-themed messages. It helps to immediately situate your audience within an eco-friendly mindset.

Whether you want to discuss how your company can become more eco-friendly or promote a sustainable product to a potential buyer, this fresh and verdant palette will give your slides a nature-inspired mood.

Emerald green, sage, and deep bottle green are made crisp and contemporary when teamed with chalk white.

Color palettes featuring a palm leaf in a vase on cream background, a top view of apple blossoms in vases, and a tropical palm tree with lush green leaves near white house — *License these images via VictoriaArt, Sve_M, and Floral Deco.*

Small coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh city with Japan style — *License this image via longxmusic.*

10. The Perfect Color Palette to Boost Creativity

We could all do with a little more creativity in our working day, and you can turn to selective color choices to boost your weekly brainstorming session.

For presentations that need to appear creative or boost the creative potential of your audience, bright colors are stimulating, expressive, and promote a sense of childlike play and experimentation.

This is a colorful pick-me-up scheme for work-weary souls—a perfect presentation color palette for team-building days, ideation sessions, or for subjects that are more outside-the-box than usual.

Orange and pink perk up the palette with warm tones, while viridian green and azure blue bring a fresh, tropical feel to this fun, creative color palette.

Color palettes featuring a Yemen chameleon on dark background, a wooden fence with coral and blue accents, and an orange and pink building against a blue sky — *License these images via Baishev, Valerii Piankovskyi, and Ron Ellis.*

Colorful houses on a small traditional square at Burano island, Venice, Italy — *License this image via Eric Isselee.*

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License this cover image via VISTA by Westend61.