Getting the Most from Newspaper Ads

We have talked about advertising in the past. You can check out all the articles by hovering over the "Topics" tab above and clicking Advertising. Or you can just click here for you lazy people. Today I want to get specific. I want to talk about Newspaper advertising. I've had a bit of experience with this working with Murray River Baptist Church and I was recently asked to design an advertisement for a local church, Resurrection Baptist Church of Pensacola, FL. This got me thinking. Why don't I write an article helping others make great newspaper ads? There is a lot that goes into designing and placing an ad in the paper so the following information is a compiled list of everything you should pay attention to get the most out of your...

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How to Print Professionally

Have you ever made a design that you thought was going to be great, but then when you printed the file it came out all pixelated and blurry? Do remember being disappointed because it did not look as sharp as you had hoped it would be? This post seeks to help you avoid the woes of printing. The All Important Rule Any time you design a logo or poster for your church, make sure that the file is large enough for what you want done. Do you want a large 40" x 100" banner showcasing your church building project progress? Don't make the design on an 8.5" x 11" size document. When you go to print, the file will have to scale almost 10x it's original creation size and that will skew your design. Notice the examples below: 4x6 Slide 40x60...

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Vector Vs. Raster

What’s the difference between Raster and Vector? It’s pretty much like the difference between a $5 bill and a $100 bill. Which would you rather have? Obviously you’d want the $100 bill. It’s the same for rasters and vectors. For identity design, a vector is worth ten rasters. When it comes to logos and official church stationary you should never use anything but a vector. Wait. Rewind. What is a vector anyway? A vector is an image that is based upon mathematical equations. It constantly calculates to give you the finest line no matter how far you zoom in. And a raster? A raster image is one based upon pixels. A pixel is a tiny square of color information. Each pixel contains only one color. Thousands and thousands of pixels combined make...

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Design a Coffee Cup Icon in Illustrator

Yesterday I wrote an article about a logo I created for a new ministry at our church. I wanted to create a step-by-step tutorial to show you how I created the coffee icon for the logo. If you have the Adobe Creative Suite, Illustrator is the program we will be using. A general rule of thumb, in case you are not familiar with it, is that InDesign is reserved for page layout, Photoshop for image editing, and Illustrator for logos and designs. If you have not dabbled much with Illustrator, take heart, because neither have I. If you have a basic grasp of InDesign, Illustrator should come easy. Start by opening and a new document and making it 10 inches by 10 inches. The first step is just to create a circle. So take the Circle tool and hold...

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SNAC Shop Logo

The latest design opportunity that I have had was to work on a few logos for our church. I hope that these logos will provide inspiration for you. I will also walk you through the steps I went through to create the logo. I will feature more of the logos that I created in the days to come. We'll start off with just one today. The first logo is for an upcoming event, the SNAC Shop. SNAC stands for Sunday Night After Church. The SNAC Shop will provide coffee and snacks after the evening service in the fellowship hall to promote church fellowship and raise money for the youth group. Here is the finished product: To begin. I searched the internet for various church logos to get ideas. Unless you've got an amazingly creative...

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The Amazing Race: Mildura

A few weeks ago, while I was in Australia, we hosted a church Amazing Race teen activity. It was a great blast and a lot of work. We had three video cameras present and we tried to get as much of the race on film as possible. The final product is featured below for your enjoyment. I have also supplied the rest of our meager "designs" for you to look at too. This was the envelope design. We printed directly onto envelopes. It wasn't difficult to make. Just use all caps, a black or thick bold font and mess with the letter height percentages in any Adobe program. These were our clues. We printed them in black and white for sake of saving money on color, but I designed them in color. It was pretty easy. Just a bunch of rounded-corner boxes...

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Free Book: Simple Church Giveaway

We are giving away one free copy of Dr. Thom Rainer's book Simple Church. Recently I wrote and article about the book. Check it out here if you haven't read it yet. This giveaway ends next Saturday, August 11, 2012 at Midnight Eastern Time. Just enter in the widget below. Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter, or post a Tweet to get extra entries. Then make sure you share this giveaway on Facebook (the widget should prompt you) to get an additional entry for each one of your friends that clicks your link....

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Review of "Simple Church"

A few weeks ago, it was suggested that I read Dr. Thom Rainer's book Simple Church. I acquired the book as well as an extra copy (for a giveaway starting tomorrow). By the authors' own admission, the book is "a nerdy research project" (243). What I found most humorous was shortly after that statement they write: "Normal people don't read church research books on vacation. We do. But we are not normal." And where was I when I was reading this book? On a plane on vacation. To that, the authors write "Welcome to the club." However, don't let that give you hesitation. The book is a extremely practical church statistic book. The authors never meant it to sit on your shelf next to your church philosophy books and counseling books that you reference...

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