I’ll admit, I fit the graphic designer stereotype. I spend too much time oohing and ahhing over mockups, color palettes, and typefaces, and little tiny details that nobody else cares about. One way I fit the designer stereotype is that I’m a font hoarder… “That new typeface I bought? I know I saved it here somewhere….” “I’ll definitely use this font at some point… unlike the other one I bought last year and never used…” Maybe I am Michael Scott: Oscar: “Okay, the green bar is what you spend every month on stuff you need, like a car and a house.” Michael: “That's so cool how you have my name at the top.” Oscar: “The red bar is what you spend on non-essentials, like magazines, entertainment. And this scary black bar is what you spend on things that no one ever, ever needs, like multiple magic sets, professional bass fishing equipment.” Michael: “How did you do this so fast? Is this PowerPoint?” In that spirit, I want to share eight free or inexpensive fonts that you can use in your church branding to bring it into the 21st century and give it some life without breaking the bank. 1. Funnel Display / Funnel Sans Funnel Sans and Funnel Display are modern sans-serif typefaces with both clarity and character, originally developed by NORD ID and Kristian Möller for Funnel. Funnel Sans is a functional yet personal sans-serif, featuring both square and circular shapes in its letterforms. In Funnel Display, certain parts of the stems are shifted to further enhance the sense of movement. Get it here. 2. Inknut Antiqua Inknut Antiqua is an Antiqua typeface for literature and long-form text. Approaching the idea of web-publishing as a modern day private press, it is designed to evoke Venetian incunabula and humanist manuscripts, but with the quirks and idiosyncrasies of the kinds of typefaces you find in this artisanal tradition. Get it here. 3. TeX Gyre Bonum TeX Gyre Bonum can be used as a replacement for ITC Bookman (designed by Alexander Phemister, 1860, redesigned by Edward Benguiat, 1975). Get it here. 4. Outfit Outfit follows the forms of classic (and classy) geometric sans-serif families like Futura, but with 21st century features and modifications. Get it here. 5. Afacad The ’Afacad typeface project’ commenced in 2017 as a personalised lettering endeavour for Slagskeppet, a Swedish housing tenant, who sought fresh house address numbering for their entrances. The letters and numerals were meticulously crafted to harmonise with the architectural proportions and materials employed by Architect Sture Elmén during the 1940s. Get it here. 6. Felonia Felonia is an elegant serif font that blends retro and classic vibes, offering sophistication and a touch of nostalgia to your designs. Its timeless appeal makes it perfect for creating fresh and innovative designs. Get it here. 7. Hepta Slab Hepta Slab is a slab-serif revival based on specimens of antique genre types from Bruce and Co., primarily Antique 307. The family is a variable font which consists of 10 weights with the extremes intended for display use and the middle weights for setting text. Get it here. 8. Gambarino / Gambetta Gambarino is a condensed, single-weight serif face for headlines. Gambetta is intended for use in book design and in editorial design; the fonts come from Paul Troppmar. Get Gambarino here. Get Gambetta here.

If there’s a disconnect between your vision and your church visuals, you might have considered a rebrand at some point. There are different ways to approach a church rebrand, but there are two old ways of doing it that can be anywhere from “just ok” to a total disaster. The Bootstrapped Brand This seems like the intuitive way for a lot of churches. Here’s how this approach normally looks: Have a member design your logo Find a font that “looks nice” Rebrand again in 2 or 3 years when you outgrow it You don’t feel like investing much time and resources into the rebrand, so you rely on a home-grown approach instead. Here’s the problem: without a professional designer, what these churches get is probably not the best quality, and probably won’t last as long as they want it to. The Secular Agency This second way seems like it solves the problems inherent in the bootstrapped rebrand. Here’s what it often looks like: Go online and find a designer who does corporate branding Endure 6 months or more of revisions and tweaking End up looking, well… corporate… This approach invests time and money into the rebrand, recognizing that a DIY identity is probably not what you want. The problem with hiring a secular agency, is that they are probably not specialists in branding for churches. They may not understand the unique two audience dynamic of a church brand, and they probably don’t have as much practice capturing a distinctly Christian aesthetic. The Better Way Maybe I’m biased, but there’s a better, more effective, and less stressful way to rebrand your church. I truly believe it’s critical to have a dedicated, professional designer who understands and specializes in churches. You shouldn’t have to pick between an expensive, year-long process of a secular agency or the uncertainty of doing it yourself. I do just that, but don’t take my word for it. Look at the portfolio of churches I’ve helped.

Where I live in Oklahoma is not too far away from Drummond Ranch. The Drummonds are a wealthy family with 433,000 acres of land in Osage County. I own 37 acres, which feels like too much some days. The Drummonds own more than 10,000 times more than that. It’s been said that at one point in the 1960’s they had an operation with 200,000 head of cattle. Those numbers are mind-blowing. If you’re a cattle rancher with 200,000 head, you can bet that branding (literal branding) is on your mind. Now let’s say you wanted to “rebrand” your ranch (I might be having too much fun with the wordplay). Even a tiny change would be massively costly. A ranch of that size would ruin its recognition (and finances) by rebranding every 5 years or even 10 years. If you truly needed to change your brand, there’s only one responsible thing to do: Spend the extra time and money to future-proof the rebrand. Upgrading your branding to something more timeless is a financially savvy move in the long run. Get a brand without an expiration date, and tending it will become easier.

As the ways to communicate online and with technology expands, so does the number of places your logo and colors need to be kept up to date. Your logo has to be replicated across every platform on dozens if not hundreds of profile pictures and thumbnails. And you’re probably using more online services than you think. In fact, the only thing holding some churches back from rebranding is the simple logistical costs of transitioning. That’s why it’s more important than ever to have a timeless visual brand. For every additional year your branding stays relevant, you’re saving ministry dollars on the costs of a rebrand. Conversely, a DIY or cheap logo that’s fresh but doesn’t stand the test of time is costing you money in the long run.

In the design world, something people often forget (or don’t realize) is that a church brand has to speak to two audiences instead of one. Unlike most businesses, a church doesn’t just have “customers.” It has a congregation and a community. You can think of these as internal and external audiences. Without a balanced approach that considers both audiences, you can end up speaking to only one. Some churches only do branding inwardly with their congregation. Others only speak to their community. This reality makes it all the more important that you have a timeless brand designed to work in both contexts. Churches need a brand designed to resonate with the people they’re trying to reach (community), and the people they want to inspire (congregation). Without a healthy balance, you’re probably not reminding your community THAT you exist and your congregation WHY you exist.

The Evangelical Press Association just revised its publishing ethics code to account for AI-generated content. Some organizations like The Voice of the Martyrs have stated that they won’t use AI tools in their process whatsoever. Are small churches expected to follow suite? The reality is that AI can save churches huge amounts of time and resources. There are no ethical reasons I can think of not to use it. ChatGPT has made content calendars and meeting summaries a commodity rather than a luxury. Midjourney has made beautiful backgrounds and sermon series graphics readily available. These tools help you tend your brand - use them! Are y’all using AI in your church? Reply and let me know.

People attend your church for a reason. Don’t be afraid to ask your congregation what that reason is. I grew up in the church, but it wasn’t until adulthood that I realized how significant the local church is in God’s plan for his kingdom. Christ meets the spiritual needs of his Church generally, but he also meets our individual needs through individual, unique, local churches with unique identities. Maybe you’re the only reformed church within driving distance. Maybe you’re the most hospitable church with young families. Whatever the reason is, there’s a need that your church uniquely meets for your members. Identify that, and you have the foundation for a galvanizing brand.

I was looking through a “Church Creatives” Facebook group I’m a part of and I came across this post: While the top comment here is a little snarky, he’s absolutely right: Having a well-defined visual brand all starts with defining your vision. What does your logo stand for?

Lifting weights has been one of my regular activities since college. I train hard, but I’m under no delusions that I could be a power lifter or body builder. That hasn’t stopped me from getting extra motivated every couple of years and starting to train like an Olympic athlete. Deep down I think I’m secretly hoping for some kind of miracle muscle growth spurt. What happens? Reality kicks in and reminds me that I’m not going to the Olympics - I have other priorities, a job, and family. My goal isn’t to be an elite-level athlete. The thing is, when you’re building a brand, the best approach is the one you can do consistently, week in and week out, over years and decades. You don’t have to be the church with a dedicated media team and a $100,000 logo and website. It all comes down to consistently tending your brand.

What if I told you that you can get away with lime green, hot pink, or any other uncommon color in your church branding, as long as it follows a simple principle? Sounds crazy, right? Color has the power to make us feel bored, excited, intrigued, sad, and everything in between. There’s a reason that very few churches use a fuchsia color in their brand, but is there ever an exception? Yes. Relevance. If a color is associated with the particular context of your audience, then it makes perfect sense to use it! A youthful, energetic church in Palm Beach may be perfectly suited by a lime green and hot pink color palette. Should you copy this for your Presbyterian church in Nebraska? To quote the apostle Paul, “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.”