ABOVE & BEYOND
Special Presentation Series
This teaching series is part of a set that went 18 weeks to cast vision for the year. I wanted to take some time to show you part of the process and ideation behind this series to create a look that would keep the audience engaged over the course of 18 weeks. Of course, with a project of this magnitude, I ended up putting too much thought into the design and found myself struggling to find a look that would really capture the entirety of the set. I got stuck using the font because I really wanted something strong and bold that screamed confidence but in the ended up deviating to something a little more round. Below are a few examples of what I started playing around with. The space looking one ended up being published the week before the series started because we needed something to go out in the weekly email but we hadn't quite landed on something yet.
DEVELOPING A BASIC CONCEPT
In designing the basic artistic concept, I begin by playing around with the overall look. I take a lot into account like balance, visual hierarchy, depth of field, legibility, movement, simplicity, et cetera. The point of the series is to create a thorough and established direction for the community using the book of Colossians as a guide. Also, because the series is casting vision for the year, there is a large amount of gravitas that I felt needed to be integrated as well. I ended up branching away from the tall bold font for this more geometric font to allow for the lines of text fill more space knowing that the slides would need to be more simplified. The start of the year, the lead pastor made it point to encourage people to start reading their Bibles so, compared to normal, the references to scripture were utilized more than the written passage. The effect made the slides seem very simplified and almost bare. |
LANDING A BACKGROUND
That's when the background was inspired. I needed to find something that was busy but not detracting from the focus. The bird's eye view of the beach was very San Diego but not as versatile for an 18-week series. The clouds just seemed too literal and perhaps cheesy along with the space-view of the horizon. After some brainstorming, an elevation map came to mind and I thought that it captured the element of being over or above as well as a sense of adventure or beyond. I found a topographical pattern and plugged it in but the pattern seemed too vanilla for the limited text on many of the slides. So, I distorted and warped the pattern and the result was perfect.
There was a new downside, though. Some of the thinly stroked typography was getting lost in the newly discovered background. To solve the problem, I ended up creating a stroke around the text that could easily be applied to any new layers. The actual design is done in black and white with a slight gradient coming up from the bottom right corner and the color is a gradient map that could easily be changed as the series continued.
That's when the background was inspired. I needed to find something that was busy but not detracting from the focus. The bird's eye view of the beach was very San Diego but not as versatile for an 18-week series. The clouds just seemed too literal and perhaps cheesy along with the space-view of the horizon. After some brainstorming, an elevation map came to mind and I thought that it captured the element of being over or above as well as a sense of adventure or beyond. I found a topographical pattern and plugged it in but the pattern seemed too vanilla for the limited text on many of the slides. So, I distorted and warped the pattern and the result was perfect.
There was a new downside, though. Some of the thinly stroked typography was getting lost in the newly discovered background. To solve the problem, I ended up creating a stroke around the text that could easily be applied to any new layers. The actual design is done in black and white with a slight gradient coming up from the bottom right corner and the color is a gradient map that could easily be changed as the series continued.
THE MANY COLORS OF THE SERIES
At this point, the basic artistic concept is nailed down, the formatting of the presentation is figured out, and there's a great start to with a general direction. The next challenge is keeping the audience visually engaged for the duration of the lengthy series. As each week continued, I needed to switch up the colors. I explored monochromatic, warm, cool, earth tones, thematic, etc. The slides below are one slide taken from each of the presentations in chronological order of the series. The color schemes tend to get more complex as the series continued as well as new design elements are introduced as time goes on.
At this point, the basic artistic concept is nailed down, the formatting of the presentation is figured out, and there's a great start to with a general direction. The next challenge is keeping the audience visually engaged for the duration of the lengthy series. As each week continued, I needed to switch up the colors. I explored monochromatic, warm, cool, earth tones, thematic, etc. The slides below are one slide taken from each of the presentations in chronological order of the series. The color schemes tend to get more complex as the series continued as well as new design elements are introduced as time goes on.
WHAT DID I LEARN?
Overall,with a series that is so long, it's helpful to start out with all the pieces and formulate a plan but we didn't have all the pieces. A lot of the projects that I worked on with this team often times had changes unforeseen at the start. An example of that is Love Build Share, which started as a four-week series but ended up going six. Some people noticed but because we didn't push the four weeks in marketing too much, it wasn't that big of a deal. With Above & Beyond, there was a little bit of adaptation and flexibility as new ideas developed but overall the increasing complexity of the design added interest as the series unfurled. Nonetheless, having a plan at the start is ideal.
Overall,with a series that is so long, it's helpful to start out with all the pieces and formulate a plan but we didn't have all the pieces. A lot of the projects that I worked on with this team often times had changes unforeseen at the start. An example of that is Love Build Share, which started as a four-week series but ended up going six. Some people noticed but because we didn't push the four weeks in marketing too much, it wasn't that big of a deal. With Above & Beyond, there was a little bit of adaptation and flexibility as new ideas developed but overall the increasing complexity of the design added interest as the series unfurled. Nonetheless, having a plan at the start is ideal.
Did you enjoy this special presentation series? There are more projects to come where I will go deeper and explain part of the process. In the meantime, be sure to check out more of my work.
|