Worship Media Arts

It’s a funny thing really… we all do them, but it’s practically unanimous that no one thinks they work. I’m referring of course to announcement slides.

For the past several years at my Design Matters seminar, I’ve regularly asked attendees whether they use announcement loops and if they feel they work. 99.9% of the time, the majority of the crowd responds first with nods and then with shaking heads.

The “announcement loop” seems to be completely ineffective, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are 5 tips for making your announcements more effective.

1.) Kill the clipart

The first and perhaps biggest problem is that from a design standpoint, our announcement slides stink. They are often thrown together at the last minute, are mostly made up of text, and are ultimately devoid of any sense of design. When we do incorporate imagery, we look to the wrong sources.

If Microsoft Office’s clipart gallery is your starting point, you’ve unwittingly discovered the root of the problem.

Clipart was originally designed for prints purposes. It was literally clipped/cut out and pasted to fliers, newsletters and other print publications.

While clipart may have served a distinct purpose in the print mediums of the past, it doesn’t usually translate well to screen use. Unfortunately, no one gave the folks on the PowerPoint development team that note.

Avoiding clipart will start you on the path to more appealing announcements. Look to full-screen, or high quality stylized art found at such places as www.istockphoto.com or www.shutterstock.com. Try using the search illustrations option to find some really tasteful source material.

2.) Engage in the creative process

For many announcement “designers”, creativity is barely considered when announcements are put together. Usually, creativity is limited to the selection of gradient colors, what font(s) to use (Comic Sans is the devil) and which clipart file best fits the headline.

Creativity matters! Brainstorm ways to make your announcements fun and visually appealing. Is there a creative twist you can put on your announcement that will catch the eye? Could you do a parody of a movie poster to convey the information? Might you display your info in the image on a brick wall, yellow legal pad or iphone rather than over a gradient or solid color? Look for visual hooks to make your announcements stick.

In this men’s prayer breakfast image, syrup is used to creatively display the title. This makes it more fun to look at than a simple block font.

3.) Consider your audience

The visual style of your announcement should appeal to your target audience. This may mean doing a little research.

For announcements appealing to youth, look at the design styles of MTV, G4 and other edgy networks. Lifetime and OWN might provide visual insights for imagery that appeals to women. ESPN, Spike and Comedy Central would be good references for men.

Also, don’t design in a vacuum. It never hurts to pull someone in from your target audience to give a little feedback on a graphic’s appeal.

4.) Model after the Movies

One of the best models for worship announcements can be experienced at your local movie theater. Using trivia, word scrambles and other creative slides in between your announcements can help keep the attention of the viewer. When you pose a question on screen, it’s only natural for the viewer to want to wait around for the answer. This means that they read everything in between.

There’s only one rule for how to make this work. You can only use the trivia one week! Don’t be tempted to reuse them – even once.

Here are a few simple examples I use at my seminar:

5.) Make multiple versions

Believe it or not, there is a shelf life for announcement slides. The newness of a design wears off after about 2 weeks.

It’s sort of like wallpaper. Lots of care and attention goes into the selection of a pattern, but once hung, it’s not long before wallpaper almost disappears. When seen every day, what once was appealing becomes uninteresting and unworthy of focused attention. If you use the same announcement slides week in and week out for weeks on end, people will tune them out.

The solution to the wallpaper problem is to design a minimum of 3 slides per reoccurring announcement – 4 or 5 would be even better. Any given design should only be used for one week at a time; never to be repeated on a consecutive week.

When followed, these simple tips will give your announcements some traction.

If you’re interested in saving time with pre-made layered announcement slides, check out our Announce It! Volume 1 and Announce It! Volume 2.

As an artist/writer/media guy, I am and always have been fascinated by the creative process. One of my greatest passions is that of storytelling. Storytelling can take many forms, from writing to video editing, from graphic arts to collaborative worship design. Inspiration for that passion can be drawn from many places, and I’m always on the lookout for things that can make me better at my craft.

Like many of the readers of this blog, I’ve been a fan of film and television for as long as I can remember. Those of us communicating the gospel in worship can gain much through an exploration of the processes used in Hollywood.

In addition to my work at Midnight Oil, I do graphic and motion design work for a number of “secular” clients. Over the last few years, I’ve gotten to know and work with several Hollywood writers and producers. I’ve learned so many things from listening to and watching my writer friends that apply directly to what I do at Midnight Oil, The Ohio River Valley District of the UMC, Simplifilm, and (from time to time) Ginghamsburg UMC.

After reflecting on some of the things I’ve learned, I began to envision a series of posts exploring creative collaboration and the creative process as known by Hollywood creatives. Several emails and conversations later, this series was born.

Over the next two months, I’ll be interviewing some of the entertainment industry’s most successful and up and coming television and feature film writers. If you design worship as a team, want to learn how to become a better storytelling, are fascinated by the creative process, or are just a fan of television and film, this series is for you.

First up is an interview with my friend Carol Barbee.

Carol is one of the most beloved writers/producers in Hollywood. I know quite a few people who have had the pleasure of working with her, and every single one of them has gone on and on about how great she is.

Carol has worked in front of the camera as an actor and behind the scenes as a writer/producer/showrunner. Her credits as a writer/producer include shows such as Providence, Judging Amy, Jericho, Swingtown, Three Rivers, Hawaii Five-0, and the new Fox drama Touch. I’ve had the honor of knowing Carol since about 2007, and I have great respect for her and her work.

When I asked Carol if she’d answer a few questions about what it’s like to be a writer/producer, she responded within moments with a resounding “YES!” I hope her responses will help you see your creative process from a new perspective.

1.) Carol, you have experience in front of and behind the camera. How did your time as an actor affect your role as a writer?

Having been an actor helps me as a writer in so many ways.  First of all, I’m not afraid of actors.  Don’t laugh—a lot of writers have never spoken to an actor and consider them a foreign and frightening life form.  Having been an actor, I think I understand what actors can say and also what they need in terms of motivation and drive for the character.  I also act out my scripts as I write them, and therefore supply endless entertainment to my assistant. Read the rest of this entry »

This has been an awesome week! I’ve been speaking at Leadership Nexus‘ “Creativity Conference” in Orlando, Florida and while my main role was that of teacher, I’ve had a blast listening to and learning from the other speakers. The leadership of the conference included a former Disney Vice President, the current Director of Global Events and Strategies, Disney performers, coaches, and entertainers. It’s been fascinating to hear their stories and learn from “The Disney Way”.

Chris Perry, one of the other speakers at the conference, wears so many hats it’s hard to keep track them all. He’s a United Methodist pastor, Disney Institute instructor, book author, seminary professor, and a community theater performer. Chris offered the very last presentation of the conference entitled, “Leadership Lessons from the Magic Kingdom”. He made so many good points, I could barely keep up (especially since my laptop was on the stage where he was speaking, and I didn’t have any other means of taking notes at the time). Check out Chris’ book The Church Mouse here.

As a motion and still graphics guy, I absolutely loved one of his illustrations which conveyed the importance of attention to detail. He cited a Michael Eisner quote (“Bumping the Lamp”) that has become a well-known mantra within Disney.

Read the rest of this entry »

Despite my best efforts as a teacher, it’s sometimes hard to get through to students. This fall I co-taught a graduate level course for Northwest Nazarene University entitled “Communicating Visually”.

One of the most challenging weeks centered around the use of references in design.

A few years ago, Midnight Oil Co-founder Len Wilson and I wrote a book called Design Matters: Creating Powerful Imagery for Worship. In it we spend a lot of time talking about what references are, their benefit to visual communicators, and how to effectively use them. The concept of references was taught to me in commercial art school, and while it’s as clear as can be in my mind, my students this year had a hard time grasping the concept. I wrote a followup post to give them a more complete description, which I’m told made everything much more clear.

I thought that post might be helpful for other budding designers out there, so I decided to repost it here on the blog. Here it is: Read the rest of this entry »