Sermon Series Web Graphics

Last summer I had the awesome opportunity to design the website graphic for my church's sermon series in Book Two of the Psalms. Since then, I've had the pleasure of working with one of the pastors to create several additional sermon banners. The process has been fun and it has been a chance for me to expand my graphic design exposure.

Next week, we will begin a sermon series on the story of Joseph contained in Genesis chapters 37 through 50. The title of the series, God Meant it for Good: the Gospel According to Joseph, is based on a passage at the end of chapter 50 where Joseph reassures his brothers, who had previously sold him into slavery, that what they had meant for evil, God had meant for good. (Read the whole story starting in chapter 37.)

Now, when many people think of Joseph, they think of his famous coat of many colors. Though the coat is a relatively small detail near the beginning of Joseph's story, this was my first association as well, and I initially started thinking of using a colorful textile pattern as the backdrop for the graphic. However, I was unhappy with the uber-literal concept. We weren't, after all, staging a revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dereamcoat! I began to wonder, what could I use that is colorful, textured, and layered, but isn't a literal piece of fabric?

After some web sleuthing, I settled upon the hand-marbled end papers often found in antique books, and I remembered that I had just the book: a mid-nineteen century edition of Alexander Pope's poetry with some awesome marbling. I photographed the end papers and, through the magic of Photoshop, transformed the warm palette of the original to a cool blue palette that worked with the blues of the church logo and website.

With the addition of simple text, including the series title and key verse, the result is a textured, colorful graphic that, I hope, offers open associations. Yes, it is colorful like Joseph's coat. But it is also textured, layered, and nuanced--much like the story of Joseph. It also brings to mind, perhaps, the old family Bible, passed down through generations. Or the textures of a middle-eastern desert. Or perhaps the subtle blue waves of the Nile River from Joseph's Egyptian exile.

Within the past year, I've also produced two additional website graphics.

Our previous Sunday morning sermon series, which began in fall 2013 and was completed over the course of a year, was entitled Looking to Jesus: A Series in the Book of Hebrews. The solution for that particular graphic was entirely typographical, with the series title and key verse floating over top of a background listing all of the names of Jesus used in Hebrews.

Lastly, the Sunday evening sermon series for fall 2013 was entitled The Real Jesus: A Series in the Gospel of Mark. For the website graphic, a simple silhouette of Jesus from one of the church's stained glass windows is cut out of a cool blue background gradient based on the colors of the church's trefoil logo.