ABET Presentation Design Case Study

ABET is a higher education accreditation nonprofit, focusing largely on STEM programs, that currently accredits 4,863 programs at 950 colleges and universities in 42 countries. I worked for ABET on a six month contract, designing a wide variety of materials spanning digital and print, from trade show booth designs to web ads. I crafted the identity of several of ABET’s campaigns, including their Cause Awareness, Sustainability Microcredential, and Upcoming Events campaign.

November 2025-March 2026

Supervisor: Shannon Fitzgerald, Creative Manager at ABET

Challenge:

ABET needed a slide deck template that could be used by ABET staff members and volunteers promoting initiatives at conferences, as well as at ABET workshops. The previous slide deck style was dated, bare-bones and heavy in its use of black and white. ABET wanted a fresher, more modern design system to put their best foot forward. They also were in an interim period of their branding, and were looking to establish a design style that could translate to future digital and print design.

ABET’s Previous Slide Deck Design

Solution:

To improve ABET’s slide deck design and establish a design style that could be applied to other materials, I created a structured, modular design system that could be adjusted to house a wide variety of content. The title and section divider slides are minimal, using large images or text quotes to act as bookmarks and signal shifts in content. The interior slides contain a “footer” on the side of the slide, a modular system to organize content, and a clear visual hierarchy. The flexibility of the system makes it useable for a wide variety of applications and formats. I also created a brand guide for the design system so that slides can be edited and changed as necessary.

Slide Deck Design Sketches

Outcome:

The slide deck was well-received, both by leadership at ABET and by audience members. Several aspects of the design system were used to further define ABET’s branding. Previously, ABET had relied on the bright orange, black, and white primary colors for most of its design. The color system that I introduced, which used some of ABET’s softer secondary colors as background colors, helped to give more dimension to the design, while still prominently using ABET’s primary orange for headers, callouts and dividing lines. The modular aspect of the design system was incorporated into social media posts, email design and marketing materials which I created for ABET.