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CLIMB Brand & Project Presentation Template: Review of 20-Slide Test in InDesign & Canva

I’ve reviewed enough presentation templates on this site to know within the first ten minutes whether a template was built by someone who actually designs decks for a living or by someone who just wanted a fast Creative Market upload. CLIMB, the brand and project presentation template from Simple Co, falls into the first group. I bought it out of curiosity after seeing it pop up in a “trending templates” feed, and I ended up using it for three separate projects over two weeks. Here’s what held up, what didn’t, and whether the CLIMB presentation template earns a spot in your InDesign or Canva toolkit.

Download the low-budget template from Creative Market.

For the best workflow and pro features, we recommend using Adobe InDesign to customize this template. Whether you use Mac or PC, the latest version is available on the Adobe Creative Cloud website—take a look here.

CLIMB brand and project presentation template for Adobe InDesign and Canva by Simple Co. Download the low-budget template from Creative Market.

Is the CLIMB Template Actually Worth Switching From Your Old Deck?

Short answer: probably, if you present visual work. CLIMB is built for brands, creative studios, outdoor projects, fashion labels, architects, and photographers who need their content to look considered rather than assembled. It leans on editorial design conventions, the kind you’d see in a print magazine spread, and that choice alone separates it from most template-pack filler.

But “worth it” depends on what you’re replacing. If your current deck is a PowerPoint file from 2019 with clip art still lurking in the corners, CLIMB is a massive upgrade. If you already work from a custom-built Figma system, the gain is smaller. Still, the price of entry is low enough that testing it costs you an afternoon, not a budget line.

What CLIMB Actually Includes

The package ships with 20 fully customizable slides at 1920x1080px, editable in both Adobe InDesign and Canva. That dual compatibility matters more than it sounds. A lot of “Canva and InDesign” templates are really an InDesign file with a rough Canva port bolted on. CLIMB isn’t that. Both versions hold their layout integrity, which I’ll get into below.

Why I Bought a Template I Didn’t Technically Need

I don’t take on client design work anymore. My job is writing about design, not producing it. So when I say I “needed” CLIMB, I mean I wanted to see if it could hold up against the kind of scrutiny I’d apply if I were still pitching architecture firms and fashion labels for branding work. I rebuilt an old portfolio deck, a fictional outdoor gear brand pitch, and a mock architecture presentation using nothing but CLIMB’s layouts and my own images.

That’s the test I run for every template review on this site. Buy it, rebuild something real with it, then report what actually happened instead of paraphrasing the product description.

The Slide Rest Ratio: My Framework for Judging Presentation Templates

I use a system I call the Slide Rest Ratio when reviewing any presentation template. It measures how many slides give the viewer’s eye a break, meaning generous white space, minimal type, and one strong visual, against how many slides pack in dense content like galleries, timelines, or long-form copy blocks.

A healthy ratio sits around 40 percent rest slides to 60 percent content slides. Go too far past that, and a deck feels bloated. Go too far the other way, and it feels thin, like there’s nothing to say. CLIMB lands at roughly 45/55, which is close to ideal for a brand or project pitch. The introductory pages, brand philosophy spreads, and a couple of the image-heavy sections all function as rest slides, and they’re spaced out well instead of clumped at the start.

Why This Ratio Matters More Than People Think

Most bad decks fail not because the design is ugly, but because the pacing is wrong. Twelve dense slides in a row exhaust a client before you reach your actual pitch. CLIMB’s structure avoids that trap by design, not by accident. You can feel the editorial thinking behind the sequencing.

Testing CLIMB Inside Adobe InDesign

This is where the template genuinely impressed me. The master pages are set up correctly, which sounds like a low bar until you’ve opened a “professional” template with zero master page logic and every element manually placed on each slide.

Typography and Grid Discipline

I put CLIMB through what I call a Grid Discipline Score, my own shorthand for how well a template’s structure survives once you swap in your own content. I score it from 1 to 10 based on how many elements shift, misalign, or need manual repositioning after a full content swap.

CLIMB scored an 8. Out of 20 slides, 17 held their grid perfectly after I dropped in new headlines, body copy, and images at different lengths than the placeholder text. Three slides needed minor text box adjustments, mostly on spreads with longer editorial copy blocks where my replacement text ran shorter than the sample content. That’s a strong result. Most templates in this price range score a 5 or 6.

Working With the Free Fonts

The template uses free fonts, not paid ones, which is the right call for a product meant to be accessible without extra purchases. They’re solid choices. Nothing flashy, but nothing that reads as generic either. If you want a more distinct type voice, swapping fonts is simple since the paragraph styles are set up correctly in the InDesign file.

Testing CLIMB Inside Canva

Canva versions of InDesign templates usually lose something in translation. Type gets clunky, spacing shifts, and layered effects flatten out. I went in expecting some of that here too.

The Swap Speed Test

I timed myself rebuilding the same six slides in Canva that I’d already rebuilt in InDesign, a method I call the Swap Speed Test. It measures how long it takes to replace all placeholder content with real content, without touching layout structure. In InDesign, the six slides took me 19 minutes. In Canva, the same six slides took 14 minutes, mostly because drag-and-drop photo replacement is faster than InDesign’s frame-fitting workflow.

The layouts held up well across both platforms. Text didn’t overflow, spacing stayed consistent, and I didn’t need to manually nudge anything more than once or twice. For a template built to serve non-designers through Canva, that consistency is the actual selling point, not the slide count.

Where Canva Falls Slightly Short

A couple of the more layered editorial spreads, the ones using subtle image overlays, look marginally flatter in Canva than in InDesign. It’s a small difference, and most clients would never notice unless you showed them both versions side by side. Still, if you’re a trained InDesign user, that version will always be the sharper output.

What CLIMB Doesn’t Include, and Why That’s Fine

Photos aren’t included, and honestly, that’s the correct choice. Stock photo bundles baked into templates almost never match a real brand’s visual identity, and they inflate the file size for no good reason. You’re meant to bring your own imagery, which is exactly how a template like this should work.

There’s also no video or motion component, so if your pitch leans on animated transitions or embedded reels, CLIMB won’t cover that on its own. It’s a static presentation tool, built for print export or PDF sharing, not for live animated screen presentations.

The Editorial Anchor Effect: Why This Template Feels More Trustworthy

I want to name something I noticed across all three of my test decks. I call it the Editorial Anchor Effect, and it describes how a presentation template that borrows print magazine conventions, generous margins, restrained type hierarchy, and deliberate pacing between dense and light pages reads as more credible to a viewer than a template built on generic corporate slide logic.

People associate that visual language with editorial publishing, and editorial publishing carries an implicit signal of curation and quality control. CLIMB leans into that signal hard, and it works. My mock architecture deck looked like something a real studio would send a client, not something assembled from a template pack in an afternoon.

Who I’d Actually Recommend the CLIMB Template To

Architects, photographers, and outdoor brands get the most value here, since the template’s visual language was clearly built with that kind of imagery in mind. Fashion labels and creative studios also fit well, especially for portfolio or campaign presentations rather than pure sales decks.

If your work is heavily data-driven, think financial pitch decks or SaaS product presentations; CLIMB isn’t the right tool. It has no chart layouts, no dashboard-style slides, and no infographic structures. That’s not a flaw. It just means the template knows exactly what it’s for and doesn’t try to be everything.

CLIMB Presentation Template: Quick Reference

FeatureDetailSlide count20 fully customizable slidesDimensions1920 x 1080pxSoftware compatibilityAdobe InDesign and CanvaFontsFree fonts included, easy to swapPhotosNot included; bring your own imageryGrid Discipline Score (editorial rating)8 out of 10Slide Rest Ratio (editorial rating)Roughly 45 rest slides to 55 content slidesBest suited forArchitects, photographers, outdoor brands, fashion labels, creative studiosNot suited forData-heavy or financial presentations

Where CLIMB Is Headed, and What It Signals About Template Design

Templates built with genuine dual compatibility, meaning the Canva version isn’t an afterthought, are becoming the standard buyers expect rather than a premium feature. I think CLIMB is a solid early example of that shift. Expect more Creative Market templates to follow this pattern over the next year, since sellers who skip proper Canva builds will keep losing sales to ones who don’t.

The editorial visual language CLIMB uses is also part of a bigger pattern I’ve tracked across template marketplaces lately. Buyers are moving away from generic corporate slide aesthetics and toward layouts that borrow from print publishing. That’s a good thing for anyone tired of looking at the same recycled gradient-and-icon slide decks.

Download the low-budget template from Creative Market.

Frequently Asked Questions About the CLIMB Presentation Template

What software do I need to edit the CLIMB template?

You need either Adobe InDesign or a free Canva account. Both versions are included in the purchase, and both hold their layout structure well.

Do I need design experience to use CLIMB?

No. The Canva version uses a drag-and-drop interface built for non-designers. The InDesign version requires basic familiarity with the software but no advanced design skills.

Are photos included in the template?

No. CLIMB ships without stock photography, so you’ll need to supply your own images to match your brand or project.

What fonts does CLIMB use?

The template uses free fonts, which keeps the total cost low. You can swap them easily in InDesign thanks to properly set paragraph styles.

Is the InDesign version better than the Canva version?

Slightly, mainly on a few layered editorial spreads where InDesign renders subtle image overlays with more depth. For most users, the Canva version is fast and perfectly usable.

Can I use CLIMB for a print presentation instead of a digital one?

Yes, though you’ll want to check bleed and color mode settings in InDesign before sending anything to a printer, since the base file is built at 1920x1080px for screen use.

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