How to use visual hierarchy in church communication

TL;DR

Choose the most important message before designing. Use size, placement, contrast and spacing to guide attention, rather than making every notice, button or paragraph compete equally.

When everything is important, nothing is

I hope you are having a great day!

Let's get straight into this week's topic and today I want to start by taking you back in time.

Because today we're talking about the single most common mistake churches make with their comms - especially smaller churches who aren't blessed with a big staff team. Back in 2011 I walked through the souks in Marrakech. This was a long time ago, I must have been about 20 at the time and suffering with a bad stomach bug.

The souks are unique. If you've never been, I'll paint the picture - Narrow streets. Thousands of people flowing through. Colours everywhere. The smells of oils, spices, fresh food all blending together...

And every few steps someone shouting at you. “Boss, good price.” “Just one minute.” “Special deal.” Left. Right. Behind you. Now imagine you’re there for one reason. You’re trying to find one specific thing. Maybe a leather bag. Maybe a spice you promised to bring home. But everyone is shouting their thing at you. Carpets! Lamps! Shoes! Scarves! Tea sets! All urgent.

All "amazing". All competing. What happens? You filter everything out. Eventually you just want to get out. Some church comms feel exactly like that. A website where every ministry has a banner. A Sunday slide with seven bold announcements. A newsletter where every section feels equally important. A leaflet with three events fighting for space. Your comms have become a Moroccan souk.

And most visitors are wading through, normally trying to find one thing. Service times. Kids information. How to get connected. What this church is actually about. But, everything is shouting. This is where visual hierarchy comes in. I've talked about visual hierarchy here before, but if you missed it, it simply means this: Designing your communication so people instantly know what matters most.

Use size, placement, contrast and spacing to guide attention

Items need to become visible (noticeable) in order of importance. Through size. Through placement. Through contrast. Through spacing. Big, bold for the main item, smaller text to support it.

Funnily enough, the contrast between the larger and smaller items will make everything easier to read. Without hierarchy, everything fights. And when everything is fighting, nothing stands out. Too many churches try to attract attention by throwing the kitchen sink at the job. A bit of bolding here, some italics there, we'll make this red, we'll underline that.

Choose what gets attention first

In the pursuit of making things stand out - nothing stands out. That’s why it matters. Because people don’t read everything. They scan. If you don’t guide them to answers visually they’ll just move on. Every time you promote something, you’re demoting something else. So the real question is: What gets centre stage this time? Everything else can still exist. It just doesn’t all get the microphone at the same time.

Otherwise everything is just another voice in the souk. And people can't wait to get out.