Effective Church Communications

The Effective Church Communication ministry from Yvon Prehn provides inspiration, training, and resources to help your church create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. It focuses on Bible-based and timeless principles and strategies that work no matter what digital or print channel you use to create your communications. The site has links to many free TEMPLATES and other resources, plus links to free TRAINING VIDEOS, and a RESOURCE LIBRARY for church communicators. 

The Effective Church Communication ministry from Yvon Prehn provides inspiration, training, and resources to help your church create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. It focuses on Bible-based and timeless principles and strategies that work no matter what digital or print channel you use to create your communications. The site has links to many free TEMPLATES and other resources, plus links to free TRAINING VIDEOS, and a RESOURCE LIBRARY for church communicators.

Linotype, the Film…..or how typesetting was done before computers

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Typography is a topic of almost endless fascination to many of us who love words and work hard to craft our messages. Though our message is unchanging, during my lifetime the methods for communicating this message have changed dramatically. One part of the history of type has recently been made into a movie and one of the ECC readers sent me this fantastic movie trailer about Linotype machines, which were extraordinary for their time in how they were able to cast an entire line of type rather than a typesetter having to assemble them letter by letter.

Take a minute to enjoy it. The brief material and link below the movie tell you more about it.

More about the film from the website:

Linotype: The Film is a feature-length documentary centered around the Linotype type casting machine. Called the "Eighth Wonder of the World" by Thomas Edison, it revolutionized printing and society. The film tells the charming and emotional story of the people connected to the Linotype and how it impacted the world.
The Linotype (pronounced "line-o-type") completely transformed the communication of information similarly to how the internet is now changing communication again.

Although these machines were revolutionary, technology began to supersede the Linotype and they were scrapped and melted-down by the thousands. Today, very few machines are still in existence.

The highly-skilled operators of the Linotype are in a battle against time. If their skills are not passed along to a new generation of operators, the machine will die completely. There is a small group of former operators that want to save the Linotype from the scrap yard, but some see this as a fruitless endeavor.

What place does the Linotype have in the age of new technology? Should the machine be shoved into a museum and left to rust? Why should anyone care about typography or the technology of communication? The film seeks to answer these questions.

For more about the film, go to: http://www.linotypefilm.com/

Video: Typography Tip: What is the Lorem Ipsum text and how can I use it?

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The "Lorem Ipsum" is a section of text that is used when designers want to look at layout or typefaces without being distracted by content. For example, in the video Typogaphy Tips #1 Choosing Typefaces, I used the Lorem Ipsum to create this slide:

Lorem Ipsum example
The Lorem Ipsum dummy text was used here to create the examples. It is used so you can look at typefaces without being distracted by content.

Here is an example of the text:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin quis augue sapien, imperdiet dictum ante. Maecenas in neque in sem pulvinar adipiscing non ac risus. Donec gravida, justo nec consectetur mollis, sem leo tempor sapien, id ornare odio massa vitae tortor. Integer consectetur nibh fermentum nunc porttitor vitae suscipit tortor consequat. Fusce quam lectus, dignissim non commodo sit amet, tincidunt at lacus.

The short video below shows you a site where you can find a Lorem Ipsum generator that will create blocks of text in any length and format you want. The video illustrates the site: http://www.lipsum.com/

Hi def version for ECC Members
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VIDEO: Typography in Church Bulletins, how small changes can make your bulletin easier to follow during the church service

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Typography is one of the most important tools we have to make our church bulletins help people follow and understand what's going on during a church service. Some very small changes that are quick and easy to do can make a tremendous difference in how well people will follow what is going on in your service.

Take less than 5 minutes to watch this video for ideas on how to make your bulletin more effective.

Some types tips to make your materials more readable

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A few little changes to how you use type can make a big difference in the readability of your communication as this PDF shows.

Some of the tips below are not what people intially expect. For example, most people think that to put type in a color emphasizes it, but unless the type in color is quite large, colored type is usually harder to read than simple black on white because there is less contrast.

Even though it is very popular today for some blogs to be done all in reversed type (white on a black background), that is always much harder to read. You have to decide—do you want people to read what you have to say or think your site looks really edgy?

What the poster illustrates is how you can use a fancy typeface to catch attention as we did when we did up a flyer to remind kids to donate to a shoe drive, but the actual instructions to the parents are in a plain, clear typeface. This is a good example to follow on the kinds of communications you design for people to put up on the refrigerator to remind them of church events or ministries.

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

Misc. type tips

Typefaces that look great for an entire publication

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You can save yourself a lot of time and trouble if you don't keep changing typefaces throughout your print publications. You can use a different typeface for your headers and your body text, but you certainly don't have to. Especially type-setting longer printed pieces, using one typeface throughout and varying the weight and style will give you a timeless and professional-looking piece.

Remember, the type itself should always be invisible—you want people to grasp your message—not notice the type that contained it.

Some of the typeface families that work well for this are shown in the PDF below. To download the PDF, click here or on the image below.

Typefaces that look great for an entire publication