Engage: Mix it Up!

As a church, maintaining your brand is really important. (See here.)

However, there are times it’s good to mix it up! Sometimes for special events or for different departments within the church, it’s OK to branch out from your church’s brand. Here are a few tips for mixing things up a bit.

Start well. In order to branch out from your church’s brand, you need to start with a good brand. If you don’t have one, start here. It’s important to choose a logo, 2-3 colors, and 2-3 fonts that convey your church’s personality. For most things  produced by your church, stay consistent with this brand. The 2012 Music Ministry Directory has some great resources for help with digital resources.

Choose wisely. For upcoming events, outreaches, special Sundays and for different departments within a church, it’s OK to diverge from the norm. For your church bulletin, website, stationery, and newsletters, it’s good to keep things consistent with the branding.

Don’t overdo it. When you do choose to mix it up, it’s important to stay as consistent as possible with your church’s brand while conveying the message or mood you want to convey by mixing things up. Make sure your church’s logo appears on every piece of printed and digital material you produce. Also, here are a few great reminders on using different fonts.

Fun with Fonts

I love fonts. I love they way they can make a word feel different. Fonts can add emphasis, make something seem fancy or make  us feel calm and relaxed. However, sometimes we can have too much fun with fonts.

When you’re building a brand for your church or ministry, it’s best to pick one text font, one heading font and a color scheme that all correspond with your logo. It makes everything you produce recognizable as something specific to your church or ministry. It might feel a little boring to use the same one or two fonts and colors all the time, but it will add to your brand strength.

Veer is a great site with tons of great videos explaining how to install fonts, different types of fonts (no pun intended) and some great tutorials and inspiration. Veer also sells fonts and clip art (they also do great giveaways,  offer free backgrounds for your computer, phone or tablet and have pretty good sales).

The internet has several great sites to download free font. I get many of my fonts for free from dafont. But, I’ll warn you: it can be a bit addictive.

The top left design is from the Phrasology Project (you can find more about it here).