Tutorial: Designing a Sermon Series to Glorify God

Every time I go to the movies- the previews make me want to see eight more films. Trailers set the tone and emotion of the movie, getting us excited and prepared to see it. Like trailers, visuals for sermon series set the tone for the  listeners, getting them in a proper mindset. When I set out to design the graphics for a sermon series the most important question I ask is this—What is the message the pastor is preaching to his people? Give me 3 minutes to share with you how I design a prototypical sermon series. The Book of Mark-

Planning

A great phone conference with Pastor Steve left me with a page full of notes on the series his church is starting this January on the book of Mark. They will begin the new year with the birth of Christ and work through chapter by chapter to Christ’s death and resurrection on the Easter weekend. The story of Christ’s life will be told in a way that shows reverence and relevance, so the design must convey mystery and power that will draw it’s viewers to the person of Christ. Pastor Steve and I agreed that this would best be done with  iconic or classical art that confronts the viewers immediately with Christ.

Next Step Research

After searching through iStockphoto, and searching though a few universities/museums open art collections. I felt I had three captivating images of Christ that would fit the description Steve and I had discussed.

Action- Inside the Designers Mind

Now I will share with you the reasons I used certain visual effects while designing: I began by importing the main image of Christ into Photoshop. This is a great photo. It has Christ holding the Bible with the hand symbol that he is God. The exact message we want to send to people. “Jesus is Lord, and the Bible is his Word.”

I want this series to have an ancient and reverent tone. So I will add a textured layer.

I then placed the texture over our picture and use the multiply effect to see Christ through the texture image. I then turn down the transparency.

I want to add a vignette to the corners of this image. Again, I want a dark and reverent style so I will add a gradient.

I then multiply and turn down the transparency until the vignette is perfect.

It’s now time to work on the typography. The series is called the ‘Jesus Factor: The Book of Mark’. I open up Adobe Illustrator and play with the text.

Now I grabbed the paper art again to make a backdrop for our type.

Add it to our picture.

Now add the text.

And we’re done… this was a simple series that I believe carries the message and sets the tone for a study on the book of Mark. I chose this simple series because sometimes I will have a series that has dozens and dozens of layers and all kinds of original art- like this one.

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