How are your graphics?
Nancy Duarte author of the book, Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences, states the importance of presentations, “To me, presentations are the most powerful device. You can’t really name a movement that didn’t start with the spoken word.”
When I talk youth pastors, I always end up talking about design tools because this seems like something we all struggle with. We know the value of images, handouts, and main points looking great. They are the images that reinforce your ministry to the community and students within it.
You can’t have those images designed on publisher.
Here are 3 tools that will help your design game today. One that might revolutionize it. Let’s check them out.
The revolutionary program Canva
Design awesome infographics that go viral with Canva’s amazingly simple drag- and-drop tool. This is one tool that will eventually eliminate the need for graphic designers. We usually design our images for Facebook groups and instgram on canva. It takes almost no time to set up, and you can pick from their stock photos.
This is one free online program that will change a lot for you. All you need to design on your own is a nice logo and you can drag and drop that into Canva to brand it your own.
This really is the simplest design program I have ever seen. A month ago, I told one of my interns to use this program and our leaders were amazed at what this one intern with no design skills was pulling on. They didn’t know that the designs were already made up, just like your leaders don’t need to know either.
The best app for announcements, Word Swag.
Now you can create beautifully custom text layouts that would normally take minutes – or even hours – with just a tap. All you need to do is take your main idea and pump out a great looking slide to use tonight. There are different styles and templates for your text. All you do is select the image and add the words to make amazing looking slides.
One of the ways we intend to use wordswag this year is to make custom worship slides. It’s as simple as copy and paste.
The only issue with Word Swag is that you need a phone. There is no desktop program. The app costs $6.99, but it’s worth every cent. We do almost all our instagram announcements with Word Swag.
For the closet graphic designer, Affinity.
I love affinity. Affinity Designer is the fastest, smoothest, most precise vector graphic design software available for Mac. Whether you’re working on branding, concept art, print projects, icons, UI, UX, or web mock ups, Affinity Designer will revolutionise how you work.
And you don’t have to take our word for it. Affinity Designer is averaging 5 stars in over 10,000 App Store ratings worldwide—and was Editor’s Choice from day one, was featured as one of the best new apps of 2014, and received the highly coveted Apple Design Award at WWDC in June 2015 for its incredible performance and capabilities.
Now, this program isn’t for anyone. It’s for someone who has time to learn how to properly design graphics. The cost on Affinity is $54, and it’s a one time fee. Yes, there is no reoccurring fees.
This is the best design program on the market for serious designers. Ditch adobe illustrator and photoshop and just get affinity.
