Many business users need to create presentations that match their company brand guidelines. Manually picking the correct hex codes for every shape, text box, and background takes time and often leads to color mismatches across slides. PowerPoint offers a built-in feature called Brand Kit that stores your company colors and logo, and the Designer tool can automatically apply these brand elements to create professional slide layouts. This article explains how to set up a Brand Kit and use Designer to enforce consistent company branding in your presentations.
Key Takeaways: Setting Up and Using the PowerPoint Brand Kit
- Design > Designer > Brand Kit: Opens the Brand Kit panel where you upload your company logo and define up to six brand colors.
- Design > Designer > Design Ideas: After your Brand Kit is saved, Designer suggests slide layouts that use your brand colors and logo automatically.
- View > Slide Master > Colors: If Designer does not show brand options, create a custom color scheme manually from your Brand Kit colors and apply it to the slide master.
What the PowerPoint Brand Kit Does and What You Need
The Brand Kit is a storage area inside PowerPoint that holds your company logo and a set of brand colors. When you activate the Brand Kit, Designer uses these assets to generate slide design ideas that match your corporate identity. You do not need a special add-in or third-party tool. The Brand Kit is available in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 on Windows and Mac. You need a Microsoft 365 subscription that includes the Designer feature. Brand Kit does not work in PowerPoint 2019, 2021, or PowerPoint Online. You also need a company logo file in PNG, JPG, or SVG format and a list of your brand hex color codes such as #005a9c for the primary blue.
How Designer Uses Brand Kit Data
When you add content to a slide and click Design Ideas, Designer scans your Brand Kit. It pulls the logo and colors from the kit and creates layout suggestions that place your logo in a corner and apply your brand colors to backgrounds, shapes, and text. Designer does not change existing slides. It only offers new design ideas for the current slide. You must apply each idea manually by clicking it.
Steps to Set Up Your Brand Kit and Apply Company Colors
- Open the Brand Kit panel
In PowerPoint, go to the Design tab and click the Designer button in the ribbon. The Designer pane opens on the right side of the screen. At the top of the pane, click the Brand Kit button. If you do not see Brand Kit, make sure you are signed in with a Microsoft 365 work or school account. Personal accounts may not show this option. - Upload your company logo
In the Brand Kit panel, click Add Logo. Browse to your logo file and select it. PowerPoint accepts PNG, JPG, and SVG. The logo appears in the Brand Kit panel. You can add up to one logo. If you need to change it later, click the logo and select Replace. - Add your brand colors
Below the logo area, click Add Color. A color picker opens. You can type a hex code directly or use the eyedropper to pick a color from your logo or any image on your slide. Add up to six colors. Give each color a name like Primary Blue or Accent Orange. These names appear in Designer suggestions later. - Save the Brand Kit
Click Save at the bottom of the Brand Kit panel. PowerPoint stores the kit for your Microsoft 365 account. The kit applies to all new presentations you create, not just the current file. Existing presentations do not automatically update. - Apply brand colors using Designer
Create a new blank slide. Add a title and some bullet points. Go to the Design tab and click Design Ideas. The Designer pane shows several layout options. Look for suggestions that include your logo and brand colors. Click any suggestion to apply it to the slide. The colors and logo are placed automatically. - Manually apply brand colors to existing slides
If Designer does not suggest brand layouts for a specific slide, you can apply the colors manually. Select a shape or text box. Go to the Format tab and click Shape Fill or Font Color. Choose Eyedropper and then click a color from your logo or from a shape that already uses your brand colors. For text, select the text and use Font Color > Eyedropper.
Common Issues When Using Brand Kit and Designer Together
Designer Does Not Show Brand Kit Suggestions
This happens most often when the slide content is too sparse or too complex. Designer works best with slides that have a title and a small amount of bullet text. If your slide has a table, chart, or many images, Designer may show generic layouts instead of brand-specific ones. Remove some content and try again. Another cause is that your Brand Kit was saved but not refreshed. Close the Designer pane and reopen it by clicking Design > Designer again.
Brand Kit Colors Do Not Appear in the Color Picker
The Brand Kit colors are not added to the default theme color palette. They only appear in Designer suggestions. To use them in the color picker, create a custom color scheme. Go to View > Slide Master > Colors > Customize Colors. In the dialog, click each color slot and use the More Colors option to type your brand hex codes. Name the scheme and save it. Then apply it to your slide master. This makes the colors available in every color dropdown.
Logo Appears Distorted or Cropped in Designer Suggestions
Designer resizes your logo to fit the layout. If your logo has a transparent background, it blends into the slide background. Use an SVG file for best results because SVG scales without losing quality. If your logo is a PNG with a white background, the white box may show. Edit the logo in an image editor to remove the background before uploading.
Brand Kit vs Manual Color Scheme: Key Differences
| Item | Brand Kit | Manual Color Scheme |
|---|---|---|
| Setup location | Design > Designer > Brand Kit panel | View > Slide Master > Colors > Customize Colors |
| Logo storage | Stores one logo for Designer use | Does not store logos |
| Color availability | Colors appear only in Designer suggestions | Colors appear in all color pickers and theme dropdowns |
| Applies to | All new presentations under your Microsoft 365 account | Only the current presentation |
| Requires Designer | Yes, Brand Kit works only with Designer | No, works without Designer |
| Number of colors | Up to six | Up to twelve (four text/background, six accent, two hyperlink) |
After setting up your Brand Kit, you can generate brand-consistent slides with one click using Designer. For full control over every color in your presentation, combine Brand Kit with a custom color scheme on the Slide Master. Open your Brand Kit again when your company updates its logo or color palette. The changes will apply to new presentations immediately.