When to Use a Local Print Shop Instead of VistaPrint

Having visuals and event graphics is great, but not just because those things make it easier to do promotion. The ultimate goal of an event brand is to make the experience “sticky” and memorable. To maximize that memorability, you’ll want to approach different types of events differently. There are tons of ways to categorize church events, but the one that matters for design and branding is timing. That said, here are the three different types of events (by timing) and how you can approach branding for each. Series Ongoing regular events in the life of your church that happen with a faster cadence (e.g. monthly or quarterly). For these, a new set of visuals for every event would almost definitely be overkill. However, there’s an opportunity for creativity. Instead of branding each event, consider giving the series a brand that persists throughout the year. If you need some variation to distinguish these regular events from one another, change something minor like a background color or a photo for each occurrence, keeping the design the same. Annual Annual events offer more flexibility and room to experiment with the unique event visuals. A lot of churches will approach annual events with an entirely new set of visuals each year, which is totally fine! As long as certain things about the event are consistent year to year, it can even become a beloved part of your church’s overall brand. Here’s what should stay the same for that to work: The event name Who the event is for What happens at the event (although there’s room to adjust this as well) You can also choose to treat Annual events in a similar way to Series events, keeping the core visuals the same and making minor tweaks. One-Off Do whatever feels right! One-Off events are an opportunity to go wild, but they’re also a chance to rely on the branding you use for everything else. If it’s an event you might eventually turn into a regular thing, then consider designing something simple to make it easier for people to remember. The goal of all event branding is to be memorable. If you don’t remember an event, it probably didn’t have an impact.

Advertisers are always looking for a way to get you to buy a product. To do that, sometimes they’ll parody or copy each other to make their message more memorable. It’s amazing how well this strategy works, but does it have a place in church branding? No. Copying another church’s messaging, branding, or marketing might look nice. It might even get more traction at first. In the long run, this approach is deadly. The first reason is that you could open yourself up to legal action. Many churches trademark their branding, which means you can easily break the law if you’re directly copying their image. Even if you don’t get sued, there’s a second and even worse outcome. Many people already think of churches (especially in heavily churched areas) like desperate credit card companies: always offering new incentives for people to switch churches. I’ve heard it called “sheep stealing,” “member trading,” and “transfer growth.” While it’s not always the intention of the leaders at one church to steal sheep, it would be wrong to encourage “church hopping” for such superficial reasons as slick branding. The solution Build your church brand around your unique story and vision. It’s that simple. But wait, is it ever okay to copy? Where is the line between taking inspiration and being a copycat? That’s what I’ll cover tomorrow.

I recently heard a pastor make the statement, “the Gospel doesn’t need marketing and branding.” It’s a legitimate criticism. Are churches who spend time, money, and effort on their branding just trying to “market Jesus?” Here’s my response: Some are to be sure… but most are not. Christ-centered branding is about reflecting God’s character, creativity, and what he is already doing in your local church body. It’s easy to see how this is different from just trying to be winsome, seeker-sensitive, and trendy. In fact, I’m staunchly against “winsomeness” as it’s been defined by evangelical leaders in the last 10 years. Their idea of winsomeness smuggles in self-censorship and compromise. I’m also against churches trying to make Christianity seem cool and trendy by mimicking our rebellious secular culture. Christ-centered church branding doesn’t reduce or dilute the gospel message, it makes visible the unique identity of each local church. It doesn’t copy from the world, it argues that beautiful visuals and communication strategies actually belong to Christ. God is a designer, after all!

Your brand can have a smell. My in-laws live in a Hawaii and only make their way to the US mainland once a year. Something I take for granted here is Chick Fil A, but they don’t have one on the big island. When they do come to visit, we eat Chick Fil A nearly every day. What’s the big deal? They have fried chicken in Hawaii. But the experience of walking into that brick building with the red accent colors, savory smells, and friendly staff saying “My pleasure” can’t be replicated. The tastes, smells, language, and visuals all work together to create a truly iconic brand, which is why Chick Fil A has been so successful and received so much praise. Here’s the point: Your church brand shouldn’t just be visual.

Let’s Imagine a young couple building a house. They’ve worked with a builder and picked a colonial style for the exterior. It has the white columns and the wide porch with two rocking chairs. It has the tall windows and the warm wood trim. But suppose this couple is handy and has decided to finish off the interior on their own, with the help of YouTube University. They browse Pinterest for inspiration and find a style of rustic modern kitchen to set their hearts on (you know the kind I’m talking about - with the subway tile, white marble countertops, and stainless steel accents). Then, in their hunt for inspiration, they come across those industrial living spaces with exposed brick and black steel. They haven’t begun to feel overwhelmed yet, and so they save this style for their living room. One Pinterest board at a time, they add layers of paint colors, textures, and styles to the interior plans. Before they know it, the inside of the house looks like a Picasso: an uncomfortable collage of pieces that would otherwise be beautiful on their own. It’s easy to fall into this trap with any kind of design, and branding is no exception. Before someone starts piecing together visuals for their church, the smart thing to do is to consult a designer who specializes in brands and get a set of guidelines nailed down. We have names for styles because certain textures, colors, and shapes work together to create a particular curb appeal. Switch it up too often, and curb appeal turns into confusion.

Last weekend I decided to finally clean the garage. It was dirtier than I thought - filthy, actually. That’s why I was amazed when I finished the whole project in under 3 hours. When it comes to your church branding and design, there are probably some things that you’ve thought about cleaning up but have been wary of starting. What if it takes longer than you thought it would? What if it’s going to cost you money to fix? It can be easy to ignore these minor issues until they turn into bigger ones. The problem is that we often underestimate how bad things really are. If you looked into it, you might find that your website actually doesn’t work on certain browsers, or that there are 7 different versions of your logo floating around. This spring-summer season is a great time to clean up those divergent designs and maybe even do a light branding refresh. Tending your brand means addressing problems before they accumulate for too long, or it will quickly get out of control.

For the last 8 years, my go-to work, church, and lifting shoes have been some variation of white Adidas sneakers. I replace them once a year because I have to: I take close to a million steps a year in those shoes. I didn’t do this intentionally, but those white Adidas have become core to the Braden East “brand.” Whether I chose it or not was irrelevant, white sneakers are now a part of how many people recognize me. Here’s the lesson I learned from this: Anything you say or do repeatedly will eventually become part of your brand. Once you understand this, you get to influence what your brand looks like, by choosing a message, choosing how you want to say it, and repeating it over time. Do anything consistently for 8 years, and I promise it will become part of your brand.

Building a brand isn’t as hard as you might think. When you boil it down, all you have do is decide what you want to be known for and work backwards from there. If you’re in ministry, you already have a “why,” but your core message (“what”) is the first building block. To turn that core message into a brand, you need two more ingredients: A communication plan (“how”), and consistent repetition. Distilled into three steps: Choose what you want to say Choose how you want to say it Say it over and over again in different ways Summed up in a formula: Brand = Message + Delivery + Repetition