Archive for 'Design'
Brand confusion
Posted on 28. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.
I was looking for an image for a blog post about the Olympics and I came across the logo to the left. I was kind of surprised. I have watched more of this winter Olympics than just about any other. Even while in Nashville last week, I watched what I could. However, I’ve never seen this logo yet it appears to be the official Olympic logo. I remember the controversy a few years ago about the design of the London Olympic logo, how no one liked it even though millions had been spent on it. I imagine that Canada spent a fortune on this logo, yet I can’t say I’ve ever seen it.
I did go back and look at the logos of past Olympics and most were recognizable (Okay, I didn’t recognize Torino, but I honestly don’t remember Torino at all.… Read the rest
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My new sign guy wants to be your new sign guy
Posted on 26. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.
Okay, Matt McKee is my “sign guy,” but only when I see a bad sign for him to blog about. When I need a sign, I call Cory Richmond. Last week when I was in Nashville hanging out with Jim Wideman and for about 90 minutes a few of us hung out with Cory to see what he had to offer. First off, Cory is Jim Wideman’s son-in-law. Secondly, Cory is Yancy’s husband. But more importantly, Cory’s a print media guru… he really knows his stuff! For the 90 minutes we had with Cory, he spent time looking at graphics, logos and t-shirt designs our churches were working on. He also showed us some of the designs he’s done for current clients, which includes Bro.… Read the rest
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Graphics: Stock XChange
Posted on 25. Feb, 2010 by Kenny.
When designing stuff for ministry, I rarely do anything from scratch. To be honest, I know very few designers that do anything from scratch. They usually start with something. Either it’s a background, a texture or sometimes a pre-designed element. Sometimes you can find something great in a basic Google image search. You can almost always find great stuff at iStock, but you’ll have to pay for it. If you’re looking for better graphics than you’ll typically find on Google image search, but free unlike you’ll find on iStock, check out Stock XChange. From what I gather, it’s a massive collection of user contributed images and graphics. Sign up for a free membership and look for what you need.… Read the rest
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New family registration form: Redux
Posted on 26. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
Okay, you’re going to start thinking that I like to re-design registration cards for fun. Actually, it is kind of fun. So back in October, we redesigned the registration card we were using. Functionally speaking, it was just about perfect. However, as soon as it was done and after I posted it here, I realized something I was missing. The Children’s Ministry at Gateway has had somewhat of an “old world” feel thing going on. It looks great, but we’re wanting to move the look and feel in a different direction. Something more vibrant, fun and colorful. So I don’t know what I was thinking by redesigning our registration card to look “old world.” So, I sent this back to our graphic artist and she changed the feel.… Read the rest
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Design in Children’s Ministry: You thought I was done?
Posted on 11. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
There’s a brilliant article over at Collide magazine about why design matters in the church. A few weeks ago I did a little series on how to improve your design and one of the posts was “why you should care.” I don’t know if I was nearly as eloquent as Collide, so definitely give it a read. My favorite part is in the intro.
…you’re probably convinced that design matters. I mean, it just does. After all, when something is ugly, confusing, vague, misleading, or malfunctioning— when something is poorly designed—we instinctively want to grimace, look away, or flee the premises altogether. If bad design is bad, it stands to reason that good design is good. But why, specifically, is good design good for the Church?
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Better Design: Conclusion
Posted on 05. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
Well, this wrapped up my little series on better design. In case you missed any of the posts, you can catch them all here:
Better Design: Introduction
Better Design: Why you should care
Better Design: Four Rules
Better Design: Contrast
Better Design: Repetition
Better Design: Alignment
Better Design: Proximity
Remember, we communicators by what we do. Unfortunately, we communicate in more ways than one, sometimes in ways we’re not strong. Bushing up on these simple design rules will help you become a better communicator in other mediums than just the spoken word.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention. The main resource I used in telling the four rules was the the book, “The Non-Designer Design Book” by Robin Williams.… Read the rest
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Better Design: Proximity
Posted on 04. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
Although good design is an art, this rule really appeals to the logical side of my brain. The rule of proximity is really about organization.
The rule can be boiled down to this statement: related items should be grouped together. Grouping similar items together while separating items that are not similar create visual cues. When someone is scanning that flyer or postcard advertising a future event, arranging the details into similar groupings help the reader understand what is being communicated. Sometimes we have pieces that are information heavy. Don’t make it a chore to look at.
So the next time you are designing something, keep this in mind. The closer you place items on a page the more you communicate a relationship between those items.… Read the rest
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Better Design: Alignment
Posted on 31. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
At time I find this rule for design to be the hardest. You might as well. A good designer pays very close attention to alignment.
Boiled down, alignment means that nothing is arranged on the page without thought and every single item needs to be visually connected with something else on the page. Good design is intentional and alignment is the one area where designer have to pay careful attention.
Here’s where most people miss it. This was the hardest thing for me to overcome and is still sometimes a challenge. I’ll say it gently. RESIST THE URGE TO CENTER! You know what I’m talking about. We design that flyer or program insert and what do we do with the title?… Read the rest
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Better Design: Repetition
Posted on 30. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
So this rule is easy. Repetition is finding certain elements that naturally repeat and strengthening them. The idea of repetition is to unify your overall design. Although this is really important on multi-page designs, it is true too of postcards, banners, flyers or other one page pieces. Repetition has the power to add visual interest. Perhaps your flyer has a paragraph of information. See if you can’t divide the content into 3-5 one or two sentence bullet pints. Not only does it make it easier to read, but it makes it more interesting to look at. Maybe you’re refining your resume. Incorporate repetition into your headings and sub-headings. Don’t use 5 different fonts, just use one (two at the most) and stay consistent through your piece.… Read the rest
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Better Design: Contrast
Posted on 29. Dec, 2009 by Kenny.
The first rule is to incorporate contrast into your design. You want to avoid elements that are all alike. Usually contrast is the most important part of the design… the thing that gets a person to look at the design to begin with. It’s like a great plot to a story. Without conflict of some type, the story is boring. The same is true of design. Don’t be afraid to create contrast in your design. The stronger the contrast, the bigger.
Don’t just simply use bold and italics to create contrast within your design. Use huge fonts next to small fonts. Use colors to create contrast. Rather than use a small picture on the card, blow up the picture so that it dominates the card and let your text fill int he space around the image.… Read the rest
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