Step 5 · Real logos and brand assets
AI-generated decks routinely leave a text placeholder where a logo, a product icon, or a screenshot should be. It reads as unfinished at a glance, and it costs credibility.
This step is about finding those places, sourcing real assets, and putting them in.
The one rule that doesn't bend
Official logos, original brand colours, never restyled to match the deck.
Write it into the prompt. The deck is allowed a strong visual identity; brand assets have to stay recognisable. Recolour Stripe's purple to your deck's green and the audience doesn't recognise it — which is worse than leaving it out.
The prompt
Review the whole deck and find where real external assets belong.
Look for:
1. Company logos
2. Product logos
3. App icons
4. Platform screenshots
5. Public product images or interface references
Instructions:
1. Find the official or high-quality version of each.
2. Download them and place them on the relevant slides.
3. Keep logos in their original brand colours.
4. Do not recolour, distort, or redesign an official logo.
5. Do not add assets to every slide. Only where they improve clarity,
credibility, or recognition.
6. Assets must fit the layout without crowding the slide.
Then tell me:
1. Which slides got new assets.
2. What was added.
3. Which assets I should verify myself."Not on every slide"
That's the core constraint of this step, and the pattern repeats in every step after it.
Without it you get a deck with a logo parked in the corner of every page. An asset earns its place by having a reason to be there — this slide is about who we integrate with, so that company's mark belongs here. Spread evenly, it carries no information.
Quality check
Once the assets are in:
- [ ] Every logo is legible and undistorted
- [ ] Official brand colours are intact
- [ ] Low-resolution or blurry assets are replaced or removed
- [ ] Each logo supports what the slide says rather than decorating it
- [ ] No screenshot contains anything it shouldn't — real user data, internal information, test accounts
That last one isn't on the official checklist, and it's the one that actually causes incidents. Told to find interface screenshots, an agent may pull one from someone's blog with live data in it. Look at those yourself before you present.
The verification list
The prompt asks for a list of assets to verify. Read it properly. What usually needs checking:
| Type | Why |
|---|---|
| Sourced logos | May be an old mark — plenty of companies rebranded recently |
| Interface screenshots | May be several UI versions behind |
| Product photos | May be a concept render rather than the shipped thing |
| Anything with a number in it | The number may be out of date |
On rights
The agent is downloading things from the web. Before this goes anywhere external, confirm two things:
- Whether the trademark use needs permission. Most companies publish a brand kit that says how their logo may be used.
- Whether the images are licensed for commercial use. Anything grabbed from search results usually has murky provenance.
Internal reviews rarely require this rigour. Public talks and published material do.
Where it goes wrong
| Trap | How it shows | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Recoloured logo | The audience doesn't recognise it | Keep the two colour clauses |
| A logo on every slide | A wall of decoration | Keep "not on every slide" and name what to remove |
| Blurry assets | A mosaic on the projector | Specify a minimum resolution, or replace them yourself |
| Screenshots with live data | A disclosure risk | Look at every one before presenting |
| No official version found | It draws an approximation | Say what to do instead |
That last case is worth adding to the prompt outright:
If you cannot find an official version of an asset, do not draw an
approximation. Leave a clear placeholder and tell me in the summary.Next
Step 6 · Images that carry an argument — after real assets come the conceptual ones.