Effective Church Communications

Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and Biblical Inspiration to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission

Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and a Biblical Perspective to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. Our tools constantly change; our task doesn’t; we can help.
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Design, what it really means for effective communication creation

4 December, 2009 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Design is often misunderstood. It is the structural plan and messanger for your message. This PDF will help you understand and use it more effectively.
Design is often misunderstood. It is the structural plan and messanger for your message. This PDF will help you understand and use it more effectively.

Design is probably one of the most misunderstood terms in communication work.

Design is not fancy graphics or multi-media fluff you add on to your message. It is the plan that organizes how you will visually represent your message.

Good design is the messenger, not the message itself and it should never shout more loudly than the message. If someone complements your images or the motion on the opening page of your website or any other design decoration, it is NOT a complement. The best design is invisible, allowing your message to be clearly comprehended and acted upon.

This PDF will help you understand this reality and give you some ideas for design sources and inspiration.

For a copy of the PDF, click here on on the image.

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.

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Filed Under: Design Tagged With: Communications, design for church communications, design inspiration, yvon prehn

Foundational and very important advice about design

4 December, 2009 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Design is the messenger, not the message. That is why it is so important to plan your message before you begin designing your church communications. Roger Parker, an expert in communication design put it this way:

The purpose of graphic design is to make it as easy as possible for readers to understand your message. Because graphic design is a tool, not an end in itself, it should be unobstrusive, almost transparent.

In evaluating many church communications, I’ve found one of the biggest reasons they don’t accomplish their purpose if not because of “bad” design, but because the design wasn’t appropriate to the message they were attempting to share.

It is an ever present temptation to put something on paper or your website just because “it looks great” or will “get people’s attention” or simply because you have the ability to do it with the latest software or web tool you learned.

But before you put anything into the design of your publication, always ask, “How does this type or image or moving graphic contribute to the message?” sometimes the most simple designs are the most effective.

Though you can do almost anything you can imagine with the communication creation software available today for both print and online communications, you don’t have to use every tool imaginable. It is clean, clear organization that makes the information—the message—primary. Good design enables readers to always know where to find the information they want, in what order, and in what section.

This is not to say you can’t ever add graphic interest and excitement to your communications. You can, but be sure that you first have a basic design structure that communicates your key ideas. Then build from there.

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Filed Under: Design Tagged With: communication design, Communications, yvon prehn

Choir newsletter example: upbeat, brief, and effective

4 December, 2009 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

One page choir newsletter and a great example of how a niche publication keep members informed in a fun and upbeat way.
One page choir newsletter and a great example of how a niche publication keep members informed in a fun and upbeat way.

Great design never goes out of style and though this PDF example is from a number of years ago, it's still great. The overall design, attitude, words, and content of this piece is a great example and inspiration for any church communication piece.

It is a one-page update newsletter for the choir, but what it illustrates could be applied in many situations.

A key take-away idea from this is that no matter what the format you use to inform people, whether it is paper, PDF online, a webpage or email, for a ministry update, be brief and positive.

Notice also that though the layout is fun and pleasing, images do not overwhelm content. The words, lists, content is clear and complete.

The tone of your communications, a pleasant layout and your words should all communicate the joy of serving the Lord.

To download the PDF, click here or on the image.

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.

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Filed Under: Church Newsletters, Design Tagged With: church newsletter, Communications, Music Ministry Communications, yvon prehn

Typography: a powerful tool to create effective church communications

4 December, 2009 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Type is one of your most powerful design tools and this book excerpt will help you use it effectively.
Type is one of your most powerful design tools and this book excerpt will help you use it effectively.

Type is one of the most powerful design tools you have in creating effective church communications.

Even though we are not always aware of it, we've all grown up with a typography vocabulary. For example which one of the two examples below is a headline and which is text:

THIS ONE?

or

this one?

You didn't even have to think about it did you? Bigger, larger, bold means headline; smaller and not bold means text. There are many more unconscious ways we read type and to be an effective communicator you need to understand them and use them wisely. This PDF chapter excerpt will help you do that.

To download the PDF, click here or on the image.

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.

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Filed Under: Design, Typography Tagged With: church communications design, Communications, type-setting, Typography, yvon prehn

Graphics: lines, screens, clipart overview

3 December, 2009 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

PDF of some Graphic Design Basics: lines, screens, clipart
PDF of some Graphic Design Basics: lines, screens, clipart

This PDF is the chapter from my first book on desktop publishing that gives you some ideas on how you can use the most basic elements of graphic design to help tell your story.

You may never have thought about how a line can actually tell a story, but it can and one of the sections here shows you how. Screens and reverses are graphic design tools that look great in high end printing, but in lower resolution materials you print in the church office they don't always come out looking as good as you want—this chapter will help you understand why.

It also has some tips on matching the style of your clip art to the style of the type in your communication piece.

Though we can do so much with some of the high-quality images we download from the web, you'll use them most effectively if you understand some of the basics taught in this PDF.

To download it, click here or on the image.

note: this PDF is from Yvon Prehn's archives and is the only format of this article available presently. Not the greatest quality to be sure, but shared with the belief that the content is useful.

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Filed Under: Clipart, Design, Graphics, Images Tagged With: church communication design, clipart, Communications, graphic design, lines & screens, yvon prehn

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