A pitch deck that’s simple and bare bones in design but crisp in logic and reads well is 10x better than a pitch deck that’s professionally designed but lacks sufficient logic and flow.
It’s like indoor rock climbing — You want clearly marked, well placed holds so you know which one to reach and grab the next. But on the contrary, imagine the holds that are pretty but placed randomly or too far from one another (i.e. logical jumps). These will make you confused and frustrated.
So when it comes to a pitch deck, pay attention to storytelling not design. Average time spent on reading a pitch deck (especially when delivered over email) is probably less than a minute – impress with logic and flow, not with high-quality stock photos.