It isn’t anymore.

Logos are not the unchanging monoliths they used to be. They are, anymore, dynamic within their environments. Churches need to be ready to mold their branding to fit their environments if they want to be a part of the new trend in branding. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, start looking into recent brands and see how they let their branding mold into its surroundings. It’s pretty cool.

5 Ways to Make Your Church Logo More Flexible

1. Keep a PSD of your logo in different forms. My first suggestions may be the biggest time saver on this list. Start up a file, preferably  PSD at 300 dpi(Dots Per Inch) or so and copy your logo each time you use it in a new way. Save each iteration, at the same size or so, that way you have a collection, or a gallery, of the ways your logo has been put to use. This is something I’ve done for a while now, and it’s worked out wonderfully for me.
2. Incorporate it into posters and series materials in fun ways. If you don’t do posters, then think brochures. If not that, your website. Basically anything that carries church-wide branding clout, try something fresh. If your branding has something electronic on it, what would your logo look like in green, glowing, digital clock lines? If it’s something for the kids, what about forming your abbreviated letters out of pieces of candy? Honestly, if it’s done well enough, your entire branding (or at least a cool advertisement) may just be a new take on your logo.
3. Try a “weathered” look. It may seem cliche, but honestly try it out. Sometimes it looks cool, depending on the logo, and can spark new ideas. Maybe it belongs on a Saturday night service, or something targeting a younger demographic, but there is a use out there for it.
4. Experiment with new colors. This one kind of goes along with my first suggestion. Any colors you like, try washing your logo in that same combination. Who knows, maybe it will spark something and a whole new re branding process. If it’s for the better, it needs to happen.
5. Have fun with effects. Try mimicking effects with your logo. What about points of color, as if it was an up-close of it printed? Or try fixing your logo to a wall or a bag (often called Photoshop-ing something) and see how it looks. Overall, get a good feel for where your logo works and doesn’t work. If you can’t have fun with it, and it isn’t flexible in these ways, it may not be the best logo to have.

Remember, above all, to have fun with it. If you’re having fun with it the energy will bleed over into your work. Also, try and keep a record of what inspires you. Really this works across the board with creative stuff, but it’s good here too. Find logos you like, and cool ways of adapting logos that excite you (think Bounty on a football field—clip that out of the magazine and save it!) and pull them out the next time you hit a creative block.

How do you use your logo creatively? If there’s something that might inspire some individuals reading this, post a comment!

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First of all, you want to recognize what you have with each announcement. There are really three parts to any announcement:

1. The Introduction – People don’t know what you’re talking about until you tell them. This can be creative, and sometimes funny, but most often it will be purely informative.

2. The Sell – You want to tell people why they want to do whatever it is you want them to do. Keep in mind, the selling points for a class are different from a retreat, and each should be handled as such.

3. The Take Away – After you’ve taken them this far, you want to give them something to do. Commonly that means “pick up more information in the back” but sometimes “visit this website” or “call this number” works too. Again, depends on the announcement.

With this pattern in mind, let’s take a look at some principles to help guide your announcements to a new level. At the very least this could create some solid discussion, which couldn’t hurt either.

Be real with people

Don’t inject too much presentation in what you do on the stage. It’s easier to see through than you may think. Instead, try to be as real and natural with your congregation as possible.

If there are Germans coming to sing at your church (true story) then make a joke about how it’s at least worth seeing to be able to say that you’ve seen it! Or, on a more serious note, if you are pitching small groups and how to get involved in one, admit that you aren’t yet in one and that you are going to the same place. I think you’ll be surprised at the impact that it has on your congregation.

Showcase a testimony

You don’t have to experience everything at your church to be effective. One of the biggest misconceptions is that whoever is announcing has to be involved in every aspect of the church. This isn’t the case. If there is something you have no reflection on other than “people tell me this is important” then you should probably have something else for the “selling point” part of the announcement. Stage an interview with someone who has done it, then play the video (or do it quickly up in front on stage). Sometimes different events come with promotional materials, don’t be afraid to use those either.

Don’t use the pastor

This can be a touchy one, but I still would stress it. The pastor will have his time; the announcements need a different voice. For one thing, it will show the people that there are others involved in the church besides the pastor. (And on that note, don’t be afraid to finish doing announcements by introducing yourself. Let them know your name, the ministries you cover, and why they might want to get in touch with you.)

I would also suggest talking about the series that is being taught that weekend (probably before any other announcement). The effect of someone other than the pastor talking about the lesson is interesting, and definitely worthwhile.

The person announcing matters

Announcements are very personality-intensive. Again, it’s not about being fake, but it’s about finding someone who can communicate to large groups well. This won’t always be your outgoing people, either. Experiment, but find one or two people who are really excellent on your staff, so you can keep it interesting and serve up announcements the best way you can.

This is a guest post by Ryan Imel. In addition to running Aspiring Indie, Ryan also blogs and runs Theme Playground and Cool Church Websites.

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1. Make it as reusable as possible. Inevitably you will be spending money on this poster, whether it’s something you pay for and send away or a printer you purchase in house to use every week. With that in mind, plan on reusing your poster. If that means that after using it you can cut it in half and keep it up during a season of the year, then that’s a pretty worthwhile poster. Brainstorm on it.

2. Include a “next step”. If the poster is going to be worth anything, you want the viewer to have something to do after they finish absorbing your beautiful artwork. Give them a website, a phone number, or a thing to do somewhere on the poster. It will improve the effectiveness of your poster by leaps and bounds.

3. Don’t try your poster at 300 dpi(Dots Per Inch) unless you’re running on a beast. This one comes from experience: if you’re making something fairly large (anything more than a couple feet long is considered large, by most standards) then the quality you will get with 300 dpi(Dots Per Inch) may not be worth the strain it takes on your computer. In other words, if something is big enough to go on a wall and be viewed across the room, 300 dpi(Dots Per Inch) will barely look different from the same image at 72 dpi(Dots Per Inch). Keep your computer speed in mind when designing your large print work.

4. Whatever your poster says will be big. Put a lot of time into the planning, copywriting, and finalizing of your poster. Your words are going to be (depending on the exact size) very big. If in doubt, grab a second opinion.

5. Every poster will end up somewhere. This may be the most humorous tip, but there’s truth to it: if you don’t have a plan, all posters will end up in your office. As long as you don’t mind working amongst tubes, then you may not have a problem. But if organization is your thing, and you want to keep some posters around for a while (especially if they’re reusable) you may want to plan for a place to store used posters.

Bonus Tip: Something I’ve been considering a lot lately, and something which I think I could be very passionate about, is the idea of recyclable ministry resources, specifically printed materials. For example: let’s say my church is finishing up a message series on iGod (which we are) and leftover from the series are a bunch of series posters that could be reused by another church (which we have). Is there a place to send them? If you’re in a similar boat, check in with churches in your area (or elsewhere) and see if they would be interested. Odds are there are a lot of churches that would jump at the chance for discounted/free materials if they knew it was out there.

Any other ideas? What sort of principles do you live by when printing large scale? What advice do you have for other ministry leaders in the area of design here?

This is a guest post by Ryan Imel. In addition to running Aspiring Indie, Ryan also blogs and runs Theme Playground and Cool Church Websites.

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