Remember those ads? That’s what I always think of when I see a nice looking background in church that has a horrible white colored font that is outlined in black and a drop shadow beneath it. Actually, it’s worse than ketchup on steak. The black outline was like putting ketchup on steak. The black outline + the drop shadow is like dumping a .lb of salt on top of the steak with ketchup! 
Here are some samples from Igniter Backs 05 that Trent, Ryan, and I have been working on and will release in the next couple weeks. Notice the choice of fonts, color, and placement of text. Hopefully these samples will inspire you to choose fonts and colors that match the style of background. A more contemporary background might not want a serif font. In the same way, a san serif font may not work with a vintage looking background. All of the fonts I chose below are system fonts that are easy to get a hold of if you don’t already own them. I stuck with these fonts as a follow up to the idea that “It’s not what you are doing. It’s how you are doing it.” Who would’ve thought that Times New Roman could look so cool!
These look great. I agree with the Times New Roman statement. I looked at the pics before your statement and was a little surprised to see it.
Nice work man, your an inspiration. I’m learning a lot from your blog and appreciate it!
Cheers
dude…great post! i couldn’t agree more!
i think now people can get more mileage out of the fonts they own (and probably hardly use in this context) by changing it up from song to song.
let the visual art be the starting point instead of the software’s template/default selection (or your favorite font you always use b/c the last conference u went to used it) …letting the visuals dictate what the rest looks like…from fonts to lighting to, the music and songs, maybe??
i better stop myself there before i get black-listed.
Ha! VjProctor. Agreed!!!
Thanks Matthew Hawkins.
hey man… thanks for this… sometimes (especially for me) the fonts are an afterthought… i know, i know – ketchup and all, but when ur the creative arts/worship/outreach… etc… pastor at a smaller church you kinda pick your battles… i needed this though… and not only the thought put forward, but the examples as well… pink… who wooda thought???
YES!
I noticed every slide you had in all caps. Curious about that. Why?
Tony,
Great question! I meant to include that in the post and completely forgot!!
I use all caps because of the “appearance of large.” As long as you are using small amounts of text (like the above examples), it really makes things readable and feel larger than they really are. (cutting down on complaints that the font is too small to read). The upper/lower case combo would have to be even larger and take up more room on the slide in order to feel the same size.
If you are trying to fit more text than this onto a slide I would not recommend all caps.
Loved this! We implemented some of these ideas this past Sunday and I think it went really well. Although, we went to reposition the text on the slide and it wouldn’t let me. Hmmm, gotta remedy that.
Btw, I can’t wait for the new Igniter Backs. The stills in your samples are tight.
[...] an article from a blog I follow that I wanted to share with you all. Read it then study the examples to [...]
Perfect tutorial, thanks!
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