Ok, so that’s not totally fair. Let me rephrase. Cheap Looking design leads to cheap Impressions. When something looks cheap, we automatically think it’s not a good product.
I’m loving Michael Hyatt’s book, “Platform: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World.” I will be doing a review of what I have learned from this book in the next couple of weeks. As part of that review I will be giving away a FREE copy of the book! Stay tuned!
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In writing about the design of a product, Michael says this:
“You won’t get a second chance to make a first impression. If your packaging looks cheap, dated, or confusing, your prospective customers will assume that your actual product is (surprise!) cheap, dated, or confusing.”
He then states,
“there is nothing more expensive than a cheap design that doesn’t work.”
When thinking about church promotion (websites, bulletins, PowerPoint announcements, posters, etc.), what impression about your “brand” (I know, you’re mad that I called what you are presenting a brand) are you portraying?
We have the most amazing message there is to proclaim. But are we doing it right even in our promotion? If we believe that the message of Jesus Christ is important, shouldn’t we portray that in how we promote what we do?
The message isn’t cheap, dated and shouldn’t be made confusing!
In every way we share this message of Jesus, I believe we should do it to the best of our ability. Yes, even down to the media and promotion we do. Websites, social media, posters, brochures, are all great mediums to be able to share the Gospel.
Websites should be clean, inviting and well designed (I know, it’s all subjective as to what those things are). Information should be easily accessible and concise. In todays culture your church website may be your first impression. Make it a good one.
The same goes for bulletins. They aren’t legal documents. They should again be welcoming, clean, and information should be easy to scan and find what you want to know. Don’t clutter it with too much information. If you have that many announcements, create a simple, clean PowerPoint slideshow to run before your services.
Sites like Creation Swap can help with creating those slide shows as they offer many well-designed options if you aren’t design savvy or don’t have someone to do it for you. Again, keep the slides clean and uncluttered.
The same can be said for Facebook pages, Twitter profiles and etc. Keep them clean and inviting.
The investment of time and money in these areas I believe can be a great starting point to getting the message out there. It’s not the be all end all, but it is something that we should consider very important.
The “product” (The Gospel) is already amazing! We know it’s successful. We have already seen the results! But it’s been given to us to give away. Let’s do whatever we can to portray it in the correct way.
Thoughts?
I think we way too often misrepresent Jesus through poor design. We follow the God who created the heavens and earth, why would we use a dated Powerpoint template? It seems a little backwards that we would represent our creative God through poor creativity. Great thoughts on how to combat that complacency.
Hey Seth. Thanks for commenting. Your comment was well said! Our world is so media driven. I think we need to see it as an opportunity and not an obstacle. It just takes thought and time!