Sometimes the most well designed "deck" is actually not a deck at all -- especially if you want to turn the meeting from a presentation into a conversation. (You do, BTW.) We recently had multiple audience members from a pitch come up after to thank us for NOT have a deck.

Edward Tufte makes some salient points about this in his seminars, noting the authoritarian nature of PowerPoint and suggesting (perhaps counterintuitively) to let people see your materials in advance such that the actual meeting can be more of a dialog, more "interactive" in the traditional sense.

See also this essay, which is easily worth $7... http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/powerpoint

Disclaimer: sadly I do not receive kickback for misquoting Tufte or shilling his wares. If I did, I'd be rich (and earning money in a very unusual way).

TL

P.S. $500 should get you at most 5 or 7 hours of time from a talented visual designer, which in most cases isn't enough to do great work. YMMV.