Sermon Title Slides - June 2013

We're still in "The Patriarchs" sermon series. Here are the last four sermon slides I've labored over. Sometimes I wish there was an onsite art director - someone, anyone with a basic idea of what they want from these slides. I've made some basic decisions about what I want to see in every slide for this series (the optical flare for one) to add some continuity, but I wonder sometimes if I had someone dictating what they wanted to see if it would help me with the amount of time I spend researching and developing a visual concept. Then other times I'm glad that I don't have to accommodate too much design direction - yeah, I want my cake and to eat it too.

Had no idea where to start with this one. Spent at least four hours searching for ideas
then another two finding source images that were in the creative commons.
Collage was created by manipulating four source images. I also utilized some great
lightning brushes I found a while back. I studied the way lightning looked when
photographed and tried to make it fit with the composition. I had a lot of lightning
in there at first then realized it was too much and dialed it back some.

Really struggled with this one as well. Spent the whole day on it and then revisited the design the
next day to determine if it was alright. Did two versions before settling on the dentures option.
Since Sarah was 90 and Abraham, 100 when they had Issac,
I thought the dentures would both be funny, thought provoking and surprising.
I got mixed reviews on this slide. Some people loved it and other people really disliked it.
-shrug- can't win them all, huh?
Collage created in photoshop from three different source images. It was a challenge to make
the teeth look like it fit on that window sill.

This one was tough too. I didn't know how far I should push the sacrifice idea. I know that any weapon
in the design would have heavy visual weight but I didn't want to go with the overdone image of Abraham with his son on the altar - that and I usually like to do things in a subtle way instead of in such
an overtly obvious manner. I had a hard time deciding how to orient the weapon's blade.
But it seemed effective and no one came to me later to complain, although I thought that the imagery
overpowered the text this time and that's not good from a design standpoint.
I'm not really proud of the type treatment in this one because it seems to get
lost in the collage, but it's over now...
(Collage created in photoshop from five different source images - the mountain one was a collage
that I thought was absolutely beautiful. Had to draw some fingers
since the source image had a tightly held fist and I knew that with the inclusion of the bulky
knife handle, you'd need to be able to see some fingers in that shadowy area. it still isn't quite right, but
I doubt many non-digital folks noticed anything funny. Font is Chunk Five and Arvo.)

Ok, here's the one of this week.
So I admit that I struggle with every sermon slide. I struggle to decide how far to push things and still have the title
not be too overwhelmed by the imagery. How do you picture death without a body? How do you indicate
that although he's dead that there's still hope? Should I use a source image, a skull? Yeah, lots of questions
and no one around to answer them. And, if I let someone look at things before I have had a chance to
refine it somewhat, I invariably end up having to explain that I'm going to fix the text - that it's just a placeholder
at that moment and other such comments that I already know I need to address but that the viewer can't seem to
see past in order to answer my actual question about the image... sorry - for the run of the mill designer rant.
Design was created in photoshop. Font is Felix Titling and Dana. Utilized a Wacom tablet to draw the silhouette
and used some cool hair PS brushes to make the hair. Was a challenge to make the nose and other such spaces
look three dimensional by making them a little translucent... I'm reasonably happy with the result.
Background is a combination of several images purchased from faithclipart.