How should the slides of a good stage presentation look?

One of the best presentations delivered in recent years was Jensen Huang’s talk at the GTC Paris 2025 event. He announced several innovations in the AI industry. But let’s focus on the slides. What did they look like at that conference?

Huang’s style resembles that of Steve Jobs: natural, direct, simple, yet powerful in delivery. You can watch the full presentation HERE>.

Today, however, I’d like to show the slides from this talk. Not because they’re perfect—they’re not (for example, the text was sometimes too small to read from the back rows of the conference hall). Still, they are interesting enough to deserve a closer look.

What key features stand out in these slides?

1. Black background
There’s long debate among experts about whether slides should use light or dark backgrounds. My view: dark backgrounds work best for stage presentations, while light ones fit business decks or so-called “slide docs” (presentations sent by email). Since NVIDIA’s talk was a stage presentation, the black background was a good choice. Why? Because in this setting the audience shouldn’t be blinded by a bright white screen. Their focus should be on the speaker. That’s why dark backgrounds are the best option for conference slides.

2. Consistent yet varied visual style
NVIDIA’s slides are stylistically consistent. That’s good—it makes the whole presentation feel like it’s told in one design language. At the same time, the slides are quite varied: some show only an image with no text, some are diagrams full of details, some are vector graphics, others have a hand-drawn look. The set is varied, yet cohesive. This balance is the essence of good presentation design. Consistency prevents the slides from looking like a patchwork of materials created by different departments. Variety introduces surprise elements, which is the best way to keep the audience engaged.

3. Striking simplicity
At first glance, the slides might seem plain: “There are no flashy effects. I could have made these myself.” But if you look closer—at the maps (see the Germany example below), the careful arrangement of elements, the quality of photos and graphics—you see design mastery. The design isn’t there to impress in itself; it’s there to make the content as clear as possible.

Here are a few slides from the presentation itself: