1. Data Guidelines on the BCG format
Color with care! 3x3 Guidelines on color usage
Title and subtitles (Alt-Q macro to format)
Title in sentence case, 24 pt, bold
Subtitle in 16 pt, nonbold
Maximum of two lines
Two line main title
OR one line main title + one line subtitle
ALL text in slides should be sentence case
Even bullet points
Title page is the only place that uses title case
‘Text Column’ or ‘Number Column’ functions to format text
Top level of hierarchy is bold
Green bullet point, text is nonbold
Green dash, text is nonbold
Columns
Header font is 2 pts larger than body text, bold
Boxes are not filled and have no lines around them
Body text follows the same hierarchy as a text slide
Chart design
Five tick marks maximum on the Y axis
Axes (1-2 pt larger than axis labels or same size)
Y-axis label above axis, left aligned text, black
X-axis label below axis, right aligned text, black
Axes lines are gray
No border
gray lines separate segments
No graph titles (optional for 1 graph per page)
Timelines
Bars in green or gray
Light gray fill on the left hand side
Green line separates month/week label from chart
Chart and date sections separated by thin gray lines
Separator gridlines are available in white – send green bars to the back
Tables
2, 3 or 4 groups per page, columns, boxes or tables
5 or more groups use columns or MS Tables
Use light gray stripes to separate rows (if needed)
Takeaway boxes
color, size and position of takeaway can not be changed. Only use 16 pt font
Margins
Stay away from the "Margins"
Keep your data and text out of the margins
Turn the margins on/off in BCG Home > Insert group
Three color rules to live by
1. Don’t use any color! Don’t fill every box. Black text on a white slide is clear and uncluttered. Kill the fill!
2. gray is a beautiful color! First color used should be light gray without a visible border
3. Respect the brand! Don’t change objects that are brand green (takeaways, headers, etc.)
Only EVER use color to
Three different color palettes
Distinguish between group and concept
2. Show hierarchies, relationships between groups
3. Highlight key data/main points
Fills
Stick to grays, blues, browns and greens
Light colors: large objects
Dark = smaller objects
Dark
Dark BCG green for macro elements (use sparingly)
Other dark shades (rarely)
Highlight
Highlight key data
Small patches of intense color
Lose the line! The 90/10 rule
Mostly
(90%)
No visible lines around objects
line color = fill color
Rare
cases
(10%)
dotted line
Solid line matches
Calls attention to call-out
Line is the same color as the fill, but darker shade
White line for overlap
Important buttons and useful info
Switch between A4 and Letter.
Switch between standard and WWOM format
Format slide title/sub-title
Format text box
Automatically formats text boxes, including bold/ unbold of bullet points
Automatically formats the title (font size and bold)
Five principles of graphical excellence
Data
Less > More
Stay away from the margins
Keep your charts, words, tables, line, etc where they are supposed to be
Ink
1. Data/ink ratio
2. Less is more
3. Information hierarchy
4. Fit with BCG brand
5. Selective use of color
Version 9 October 2012
Send feedback and bugs: