Photography
Guiding Principles
Authentic: Photograph real people, real moments
Diverse: Reflect our congregation and community
Engaging: Draw in viewer, tell a story
Clear: Have a focal point to the image
Best Practices
- Shoot in natural light whenever possible.
- Shoot both close up and wider views, include images with extra space for text.
- Shoot subject with varying depth of field (focus).
- Create depth with foreground-middle-background relationship.
- Capture a variety of facial expressions and gestures.
- Include recognizable architecture or environmental elements.
- Use rule of thirds – don’t center subject in frame unless there is a specific reason to do so.
- Background checks are required for photographing Grace Snellville ministries and events; especially important with children and student ministries.
- Do not use photographs that could be potentially embarrassing to the person/people in the image.
- Minimize use of stock photography. Sometimes no photograph is better than a bad photo or stock image.
Graphics
Guiding Principles
Inspirational: Try to create graphics that can give the viewer pause to think or take action. If you aren’t inspired, your work probably won’t be either.
Clear: Think through your purpose and messaging behind the graphic and make sure it communicates that well.
Creative: Don’t go for the obvious solution without exploring other concepts, themes, metaphors, and visual elements that could be more beautiful and engaging.
Consistency: Graphics used in a campaign or series should have a common style (colors, fonts, photography, etc.) that holds them together to reinforce the vision and messaging.
Best Practices
- Keep in mind the various platforms the graphic will be used and test for legibility, color consistency and cropping.
- Avoid poor quality clip art. Look for sources that license well-designed and beautifully crafted images.
- Minimize number of fonts and avoid poorly designed (usually free) fonts.
- Be cautious downloading images from the web (i.e. Google, websites) due to copyright violations, poor image quality, and other issues.
- Be creative and original without sacrificing clarity and legibility (and vice versa!)
- Does your graphic or campaign communicate what you want? Have an uninformed person give feedback.
Tools
Your brain: Obviously. God has created you in His image to be intelligent, creative and with the ability to design and make beautiful things.
Sketch pad: Before reaching for the keyboard and mouse, reach for the pencil and paper. Sketching allows you to quickly explore many ideas, images, configurations, and other elements as they come to mind.
Adobe Creative Cloud: Includes Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and many other apps used in producing graphics and layouts, editing photography and video and more. Subscription required, so check with your team lead.
Canva: A popular online platform for creating graphics. The paid version unlocks more feature and design elements. Team accounts can be used to share designs and branding elements.
MyFonts.com: One of many websites for purchasing font licenses. Beware of webites offering free fonts. They are usually highly textured, styled, poorly drawn, and badly kerned. They can be used, just know what you’re getting.