Responsible Church Graphics
Every church needs graphics. Churches produce dozens of documents a week including emails, newsletters, worship orders, and brochures. We desire all of these things to be beautiful, and to be positive reflections of our church’s community.
All of these goals are noble, however churches have often, in pursuit of these goals, run a foul of copyright law. If you have ever simply googled an image and placed in your document, without getting consent from the artist, you have technically violated the law. There are numerous stories of churches being sued for just this kind of behavior.
It however does not need to be this way. There are any number of resources that help churches create beautiful graphics, while coloring in the lines for copyright law.
Solution 1 Do it Yourself
This is most labor intensive option but also the most rewarding. To do this well you will need a steady stream of pictures that you have the rights to use. There are several websites that allow you to download pictures under what is called a Creative Commons License, which allows you to use the picture in your church. My personal favorite sites for this are:
Off course another way to ensure that you have the license to use the picture is to take the picture yourself.
Next you will want to put text over your image and there is a number of ways to accomplish this. If you are a design novice there are a number of phone apps that make this step surprisingly easy. You can use Adobe Spark to overlay just about anything you want on top of a picture, for free, using only your phone.
Typorama is another app which is free to download, but $6.99 to unlock all the features. It allows you to add text over just about any image, while also having a sizable library of images that you are free to use.
Canva is both an app, for iphone and android, and is also a stand alone graphic editing website. They have a number of built in templates as well as library of very cheap support graphics, we’re talking less than a buck, which you can use to round out a project.
Solution 2 Church Media Websites
There are full service website that produce seasonal content for churches for a small monthly subscription. Gracewaymedia.com is one such site. They produce beautiful, seasonal graphics that can fit the vibe of any church. Additionally, almost every graphic available at gracewaymedia can be downloaded as a Photoshop file (.psd). So if you would prefer to customize the graphic you can.
If videos are more your speed ignitermedia.com is a great option. They have produced a collection of what they call “mini movies” that I have used in church before. They are high quality and could be a good fit for your situation. Ignitermedia also partners with graceway so that one subscription will give you access to both services.
Sharefaith.com is another option that provides a wide array of church graphic resources, with a full complement of membership plans. The membership plan starts at just $17, and grows from there. It is a great value service for the price.
Solution 3 Hire a Designer
It has never been cheaper to hire a personal designer for a one off project. Sites like fiverr.com and freelancer.com allow you to farm out your graphic needs to an army of freelancers. If you need something custom done, like a logo or brochure, these sites allow you the opportunity to work with a professional designer for an affordable price.
Conclusion
With all the options available there is no reason to not produce graphics the right way. From doing it totally yourself to hiring a designer you have the ability to make outstanding graphics for your church while staying with in the law.
