“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” – Steve Jobs
What things look like now matters more than ever. I was talking with a pastor a few months ago, and he said that if he could go back for another degree he would go back for his masters of business. If I could go back to school, I think I would get a degree in graphic design.
Whether we like it or not, we are in the communication business. The way and look of what we communicate is crucial today. A logo, poster, Facebook page, and instagram account, could draw people to your youth ministry, or push them away. The design of your youth ministry needs to represent you, and your church. This is why you need to learn how to communicate visually.
I have never heard of a course in Bible College or Seminary teaching students how to design a slide. How to find images in other places than google images. We need to educate ourselves in how to clearly communicate ideas visually as well as verbally.
Here is an infographic called: 9 Graphic Design Trends For 2015. Here are some observations about design in 2015.
1. Illustrations have replaced stock images.
One program that every youth pastor needs to master is affinity designer. This is the best vector editor on the market, and it’s cheap. You can download it, and start learning how to use vectors. How to build posters, and banners. You can always check out the youth ministry media store for different vector calendars, banners, logos and more.
The best thing about illustrations is that you can customize them, and resize them. I made up a banner for my church that was 4ft by 30ft. This was all done with vectors and it looks awesome. You need to get affinity designer.
2. Fonts matter. The simplistic way you can communicate better is by using great fonts. A great place to start looking for fonts is lost type. This is where we get all our fonts and it’s a simple way to help brand a series, or event.
Another place to get great fonts is google. You can check out some of these clean fonts at google fonts. Our favourite font from google is called Montserrat. It’s a clean font that will look good on a slide or poster. This is our go to font.
If you worked on those two design elements this week you will change the way people look at your youth ministry. The way we design stuff for our youth ministry is intentional. We always want to make our youth ministry attractional.
You can see what we use in our youth ministry here.
