If you are like me, you have already started to see VBS Helper Sign-Ups popping up around your church. The signs on the walls, bulletin inserts, VBS director prowling the hallways like a lion seeking which volunteers she may devour. You avoid the her like the plague, knowing she (or he) is going to hit you up for helping in what I lovingly call Hell Week (It works, right? Going through hell to keep kids from going to hell?). Sure, you will commit eventually, but for now you are hoping to remain peacefully ignorant for a while.
Well, I wasn’t quite sneaky enough and our amazing VBS director (Char) already tackled me in the hallway and set me upon my task. BUT I was tasked to help in a way I enjoy, so that made the sting a little easier. She asked if I could help design promotional products to help advertise as we lead up to VBS in July.
I have been slacking off a bit, but last night at about 2 in the morning I finally finished up a nice flyer to hand out and put up around the church. Our church is doing Lifeway’s Galactic Starveyors™. It looks pretty cool and the graphics are nice. Lifeway never really gives out many graphics, but there are always a few free ones you can use from their website. These are great because it can give you a starting point to start designing your flyers. (Shameless Affiliate Plug: I use Xara’s Photo & Graphic Designer Program for all my design work. I love it because it is a simple yet extremely useful program. I have used Xara for years and am a loyal customer! Plus, it is WAY cheaper than Photoshop.)
Here is the first draft of my flyer:
A few things to always include on your flyers in the location, date and time. I sent off this copy of my flyer to our director and then realized I hadn’t put the times on it. Not good. Time for a recheck. But where to put that information? I like to have lots of open space on my flyers and this one is already looking a little more crowded than I would like.
A flyer that is too busy is hard to read and you miss a lot of information. A good flyer needs to be what I call “glance-able”. Yes, I made up that word. It works well though because you want to be able to impart information quickly. If someone is walking by and sees your flyer on the wall, you want them to be able to retain the most important information in just a quick glance. Keeping lots of white space and the most important information in bold print and easily readable is key.
So I went back to the drawing board and looked around to see what I could change. I made the tag line at the bottom a little smaller and also decreased the size of my little description in the middle. That stuff is just gravy on the page, not necessary information. I needed to make the basic facts stick out a little more. I took out the website from in front of the planet, replacing it with the time. Then I added it back in below the date and time information. I also decided to straighten the text to make it easier to read. Now it is looking much better.
The main information is clear and concise. I have more empty space and it all flows a little better. Now I have a working flyer that I can send to print and start getting the word out about our church’s VBS this summer!
Is your church doing Galactic Starveyors™ this summer? Download a copy of my flyer for FREE! Just click the link below to download. You can input your own information in the PDF Download.
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