In February 2019, McKinsey introduced a new identity designed by New York agency Wolff Olins, and subsequently implemented this across the globe.
The new identity is not just a small update. It encompasses everything from the main brand mark to colors, images, fonts, and layouts.
In this post, we will go through the different key elements of the new identity, but with extra emphasis on the updated McKinsey PowerPoint Template. You can see examples of the updated template in our list of real McKinsey presentations.
The new logo is not far from the old one, but the font has been updated a bit and the logo is now stacked in a way that makes the logo a bit more dynamic and personal.
The new identity comes with a new serif typeface, named Bower, uniquely designed for McKinsey. The new font was named after Marvin Bower, who helped define the structure and principles of McKinsey in the 1930s and 40s. Its letterforms are characterful and bold, enabling headlines to stand out. It looks classic and contemporary at the same time. The best way to see it in action is by clicking through McKinsey’s website.
The Bower font is combined with a non-serif font called ‘McKinsey Sans’ used for long paragraphs of text.
Using a custom font in presentations is highly impractical because it makes it hard to share documents with clients. Therefore, in McKinsey's PowerPoint presentation, the Bower and McKinsey Sans font are replaced with Georgia and Arial respectively.
The brand color palette has also been updated. It's still ‘50 shades of blue’ but the new colors are more contrasted – the dark blue is darker and the bright blue more vivid.
Both online and in presentations, white and dark backgrounds are often mixed. Both backgrounds use soft gradients to give more depth to the design.
A key element in the new identity is the blue line-pattern being use across websites, presentations and even as McKinsey's social media icon.
As a large global brand, aligning photography styles across thousands of images is costly and complex. McKinsey has solved this consistency problem in a smart way. All main images go through a grayscale filter, and then a shimmer of blue and purple is added to the sides, making it look like they came from the same source.
McKinsey's new PowerPoint design template can be described as professional, clean, and minimalist.
The template features the same white and blue palette, but the vivid blue colors are used sparsely and mostly to highlight key data or insights.
The design focuses on clarity and readability, making use of well-organized layouts, bold headings, bullet points, and numbered lists to present information in a structured manner. Graphs, charts, and diagrams are incorporated seamlessly to convey data and insights effectively. Overall, McKinsey's PowerPoint design template is geared towards providing a visually appealing and easy-to-understand presentation that effectively communicates complex ideas and data-driven insights.
A few examples from publicly available presentations:
McKinsey's use of a mix of white and dark blue slides serves two purposes:
We recommend reading this article if you want to go deeper on the structure of a McKinsey presentation, its key elements, and formatting tips and tricks: How McKinsey consultants make presentations.
As every consultant knows, Icons are an effective way to make a boring slide looks good.
McKinsey uses icons to represent concepts visually, emphasize key points, or categorize information. The icons come from a sizable bespoke icon set and are simple, minimalist, and monochromatic, designed to blend seamlessly with the overall aesthetic of the template. Icons are typically used in a consistent style and size throughout the presentation to maintain visual coherence and harmony. They enhance the content's understanding, make the presentation more engaging, and reduce the need for excessive text.
We hope you enjoyed this article. We recommend trying out our High-end Powerpoint templates, created by ex-McKinsey, Bain, and BCG consultants, if you want to adopt some of the visual principles applied by McKinsey.
McKinsey uses two custom typefaces commissioned for its 2019 rebrand: Bower, a serif named after founder Marvin Bower, and McKinsey Sans. In PowerPoint presentations, McKinsey substitutes Georgia and Arial, because custom fonts make documents difficult to share with clients.
McKinsey's palette is built on blue: a dark, deep blue paired with a more vivid bright blue, applied with high contrast. Presentations alternate between white and dark blue slide backgrounds, with soft gradients used sparingly for hierarchy and emphasis.
McKinsey introduced its current visual identity in February 2019, designed with the New York office of brand agency Wolff Olins. The rebrand covered the logo, custom typefaces, color palette, photography treatment, and icon set.
A McKinsey slide is minimalist and structured: a full-sentence action title, one message per slide, restrained use of the blue palette, simple monochromatic icons, and charts rather than decoration. Photography, where used, is treated in grayscale with a subtle blue-purple tone to keep thousands of images visually consistent.
No. McKinsey's PowerPoint template is proprietary and is not publicly distributed. What you can do is study the many real McKinsey presentations that are publicly available and apply the same design principles, or use a consulting-grade template built on those principles.
Practicality. A presentation set in custom fonts breaks whenever a client opens it without those fonts installed. Standard system fonts guarantee every deck renders correctly on any machine. This is a trade-off most professional firms make deliberately, and one worth copying in your own templates.
Adopt the principles rather than the brand assets: a restrained two-color palette, one or two system fonts, consistent alignment, simple monochromatic icons, and action titles carrying one message per slide. The Slideworks templates, built by ex-McKinsey, BCG, and Bain consultants, apply these same design and layout standards in editable form.
