Creating slides for your service that don’t cause people’s eyes to bleed can be a far more simple process than one may think. The first step, is of course, identifying if you have a problem in the first place. This is part two of The Most Overlooked and Widely Seen Church Media series.
In my introduction to this series I painted a scene I have had to experience – and I would bet you have too. The bottom line is that poorly designed and assembled message slides can be distracting and a few thoughtful adjustments can go a long way in correcting your most widely viewed communication piece – the message slideshow.
I think it is critical early in this series to cover the basics when it comes to putting together slides. Once you have a solid foundation – we can build on more advanced and complex tasks to refine your process. But miss the basics – and it doesn’t matter how awesome your series art is.
So here are the top 5 foundational practices to implement in your message decks:
1. Limit one point per slide
Ok, maybe two – maybe. Different pastors and speakers will structure their notes and outlines in polarizing formats. Some have a simple 4 points. Done. Others, like mine, have 4 points with at least 2-3 sub points and supporting verses for each that hit the screen. Others have an essay written word for word that they want put up.
The key here is to find a good balance of consumable information. Too much will simply keep your congregation glued to the screens without engaging in what is being said. Too little may leave one needing more information visually. Understanding you will not have much control in how the content is worded – you do have control on where you break the slide. Be smart, make it simple and cover a thought at a time.
Bonus tip: include a blank slide (same background, no text) to fall back to in between points or off topic tangents.
2. Transitions and effects – keep it simple
PowerPoint is the most common program to building out slide decks (I understand there are a number of other solutions, but this principle is cross platform). PowerPoint has always had a gazillion different options when it comes to slide transitions and text animations. Each new release seems to come with more than the last. These options should be used VERY sparingly, if at all.
Rule of thumb – less is more! Just because you can, does not mean you should.
I limit transitions to a simple (relatively quick) fade or a hard cut – no effect at all. Anything more than that is simply distracting.
3. Templates are dumb
I wish I didn’t have to be so harsh on this one. The bottom line is that the templates already available to you are typically horrid. On top of that – the chances are that most everyone has seen them somewhere else before.
Here is where you, as the designer or creator, are responsible to carry the tone and message of the topic into the visual realm. There are some good rules to follow in developing your own templates and we will dive into the anatomy of those in a later post. But for today just keep in mind that something created for that specific message will always hold more value and have more impact on enhancing the content being delivered.
4. Colors and contrast
Now that we are sending the stock templates to the trash – make sure the colors you use both communicate the tone of the message and maintain a contrast once on screen that will be easy on the eyes.
Again, we will be going into much greater depth here as well, but the foundation to put into place here is test test test. Figure out what colors and combinations work well in your environment and with your screens or projectors. That subtle solid orange background may not be so mellow once projected at 10,000 lumens in a darkly lit room. Tim Adams has a great post on setting up the right projectors for your location – work with your media team to make sure your design will play nice.
5. Fonts – for the love, fonts
Hopefully the introduction post graphic for this series annoyed you, if not completely enraged your very soul.
When it comes to applying fonts to your deck keep these thoughts in mind:
No more than 2 font types (this includes bold, italic, underline. Just keep it simple)
Be a little boring, it’s ok. I know Arial is not the coolest font out there, but I could almost guarantee every system has it installed. This will ensure that a substitute font will not be used as your deck moves around from computer to computer.
For the sake of your spirituality and the spiritual health of your church – avoid clearly overused font types (comic sans, papyrus, and curls mt for example) they are not as creative as you might think.
Size, make sure you have a good balance – not to small to read and not so large it looks like it was made for the visually impaired.
Agree or disagree? What would you add to this list or what disasters have you come upon in message slides?
Todd Porter says
Totally agree! I put together all the PowerPoint slides for the communicators at my church. I especially cringe when we have a church business meeting and the finance guy gives me the slides he put together, because it looks like a business man did it. I usually modify them (with their permission) to make them better for church use.
Steve Mindrup says
The finance stuff can be tough! I just did our annual report (print form) this last year in a very heavy infographic style and it looked AWESOME. I tried to have them let me do some slides to boot – but I think that was enough modern change for one year 😉
What would you add to this list Todd?
Todd Porter says
For me personally I have been going with a plain, solid color background for the slides with a simply title logo in the bottom corner that has been hash tagged to encourage people to use it on social media. You can see an example below from our Supreme series. (The “htr” is because our website and social media name is HitTheRiver.)
I have a better graphic for the title slide, but the regular slides I want the limited content on the slides and the pastor’s message to be the focus. Not the pretty image I or someone else made.
SeanOfChandler says
The thing that bugs me is when people have too many slides with quotes too close together. Before you can process or write down the first point they’ve moved onto the next.