How to Design So That Investors Take Notice

You’ve probably heard the phrase "If you confuse, you lose."

In the StoryBrand community, it usually refers to words.

A clear message wins.

A cluttered one kills sales.

But words aren’t the only language your audience reads.

Design is a language too.

And just like with words, if your visuals are messy, overwhelming, or distracting, your message gets lost.

So here’s the question:

What is your design communicating? More importantly, what isn’t it communicating because of all the extra clutter?

Design isn’t just about making things look good. It’s about guiding the eye. It’s about making your pitch deck, sales deck, or company one-pager instantly clear so your audience doesn’t have to work to understand it.

Here’s where most people go wrong: they try to say too much at once.

A webpage overloaded with graphics. A pitch deck filled with text-heavy slides.

A LinkedIn banner with a dozen competing elements.

All of these create visual noise that dilutes your message.

If you want your visuals to communicate effectively, start thinking like an editor (by the way I started my career as a video editor).

Here’s how:

✅ Cut ruthlessly. If an element isn’t absolutely necessary to communicate your main point, remove it. More blank space = more chance they are willing to read it.

✅ Make one thing the hero. Every sales presentation should have one dominant element. The thing you want people to see first. If everything stands out, nothing stands out.

✅ Use color to your advantage. Color is one of the easiest ways to aid communication. For example, green means "good" for most people, red means "bad." This applies to StoryBrand pitch decks, lead magnets, and website wireframes too.

✅ Think in seconds. If someone glances at your investor pitch deck for three seconds, will they get the main idea? If not, simplify. Because sometimes, three seconds is all you get.

A VIP client won’t sit there decoding your sales deck. An investor won’t sift through visual clutter to find the one thing that matters.

This thought process is what shifts my value from "you could get this designed on Fiverr for $20" to "this designer helped us communicate our message clearly… and landed us $20 million in funding."

When clarity becomes non-negotiable, you don’t just need a designer.

You need a communicator.

Because at that level, you can’t afford to be misunderstood.

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