Church Communication Link » Tools

The 3D Retreat

michaels — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:10:26 +0000

This two-day retreat promises creativity, design, play, networking, worship… It’s a close-to-home, on-the-cheap ($50) version of a national design conference. Expect to learn something and have fun doing it.

WHO: Graphic Designers, Digital Artists, Marketers, Photographers, Event Planners, people who love PhotoShop, people with “crazy ideas”… any creative professional (or novice) involved in church or ministry design.

WHEN: 9 a.m., Friday, Sept. 25 through 4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 26, at Camp Geneva in Holland, MI

DETAILS: www.the3dretreat.com

Advertising on Facebook

michaels — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:44:52 +0000

Advertising on Facebook is convenient, easy to setup and can be pretty effective! We can select a specific audience by age, location, interests, etc. and then bid on how much we are willing to pay per click that we get. A nice thing is that we can limit our expenses per day so we don’t go over budget.

For our leadership conference we wanted to get the news out to the online crowd. Using Facebooks advertising we made one (see at right). We’ve currently draw about 13% of those who come to our leadership site through this ad.

To track traffic to our websites we make use of Google’s Analytics and run reports for leadership through the free tools Google provides. Pretty handy.

Thoughts by Michael Shead

Learning from each other

michaels — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:44:52 +0000

I came across this blog while looking for other ideas today. In it Vandelay Designs comments on the improvments that churches have made on the web.

Vandelay writes… “As far as web design is concerned, churches have come a long way in recent years. It wasn’t too many years ago that most church websites were several years behind the times. Apparently a growing number of churches today are recognizing the importance of their web presence.”

Check out the list of 50 church sites they liked here.

They’ve also got other great resources and ideas on their site.

Stock image resouces

michaels — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:25:26 +0000

We had a good meeting today with the roundtable hanging out at Panera Bread and sharing ideas.

Here’s a list of some stock image resources that you might find helpful that were brought up in the meeting:

www.sxc.hu (good variety & free. Read the paperwork though.)

www.morguefile.com — (best for backgrounds, outdated people)

wwww.everystockphoto.com (searches flickr but watch out for images that aren’t free)

Re-discovered by Michael Shead

Staying Creative

bmartin — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 23:07:45 +0000

At the October Roundtable, we talked about ways that we stay creative. It was a good conversation. Here’s some of the list we generated. Why don’t you add your favorite source of inspiration or creative exercise in the comments below!

going to the movies
an evening at Barnes & Noble
travel (close to home or far away)
nature and the change of seasons
Mag: HOW
Mag: Dynamic Graphics
Mag: Communication Arts
Mag: Graphic Design USA (free from this site)
Mag: Men’s Health (for insights into designing for Men)
Mag: Real Simple (just for the design)
Window shopping for the latest colors and textures in fashion (and window displays)
Book: How to Think Like Leonardo daVinci (and the workbook)

Then, we did a doodling exercise. Some of us were doodlers and others weren’t. It’s pretty easy to get started (pen and paper), but if you’d like some help, download the doodle worksheets at www.illustrationclass.com. (Thanks, Von!)

What keeps you creative? Leave a comment.

Bulletins

michaels — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:40:59 +0000

I was meeting with one of the pastors today and he asked me if I’ve thought about changing up the bulletin. We’ve been using our latest design and size for about a year now. Previously we were purchasing shells from Outreach, then printing and folding in-house. However, with some new equipment, we’ve switched to 12-page 8.5″x5.5″ booklets with a color front and back. Using our Lanier printers and bookmaker the cost for the 2,500 bulletins we make ends up being about $0.15 each. Here’s a PDF version for you to check it out.

So what are you doing? I’m curious about what other churches are doing for bulletins. I’ve seen a church that had a “Bullet” that was about 3.5″x8.5″ and had basic points of what’s happening and then referred people to more info elsewhere (a info booth or Web site).

I consider the weekly bulletin as one of the prime ways we communicate with people although we’re trying to drive more people to the Web site. It just seems that it’s an inexpensive way to get info into their hands and people know where to find bulletins…plus, they usually read or at least peruse them while they’re waiting for service to start or when they take them home.

So, any ideas?

Thoughts by Michael Shead

Holland’s Combo Run

michaels — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:43:09 +0000

I just got an updated pricelist from Holland Litho. We’re looking at some new folded double business cards.

Get it here.

Asking the right questions

michaels — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:18:38 +0000

When working with a client or department on any communication piece, it is important to start off with as much of the key information as possible. In our last round table meeting at Kentwood Community Church, one of the things we discussed was how we collect information for projects in a way to really get the most information from the start.

While some clients think they know exactly what they want in a project, the reality is that drilling down to what they want to accomplish is more efficient than just unquestionably making what they ask for. As Becky Martin pointed out, it’s our jobs as communications pros to ask the right questions so we can produce the best communication tools for them to use.

One of the key things that came up in the discussion is the idea of getting to the heart of what the client(s) really want the project to accomplish by asking the right questions.

I like how Becky described a question she often poses to her clients: If you were on an elevator and someone asked you to describe your church or what’s special about your church, what would you tell them when you’ve only got 8 floors worth of time to tell them? Questions like this can be helpful to get at the heart of what they want to get across. If it’s youth that you’re working with try a question like, What is it about this event that will make a teenager want to leave their video game to come?

Another good thing to ask if there are any MUST HAVE aspects of the project so you don’t come up with something wonderful, that misses the point they forgot to mention!

When it comes to new or large projects, there can be a lot of questions to ask, Becky uses this creative questionnaire when she starts a new client so she can know where they’re going. It’s several pages, but has some good questions that are worth asking.

At Resurrection Life Church we are currently using this form to get initial information or update requests. I’m in the process of changing up some of our processes including this form so I’ll have to post the new one when we get it rolling.

What questions do you ask? Comment below or send me an e-mail with the form you use: michaelshead(AT)gmail.com

Comparing paper weights

michaels — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:23:12 +0000

Original post by Becky Martin
Want to know how 65# cover compares to 110# index? Or 24# bond to 70# offset? Different paper weights can be a challenge to compare. Here’s a link to a conversion table that is helpful.

http://www.paper-paper.com/weight.html