Tag Archive for: design

Worship Visuals featuring and interview with Corissa Nelson, Digital Artist

712 – Worship Visuals

WELSTech is back with a discussion of screen design for worship. Digital artist, Corissa Nelson, joins the conversation to share ideas for getting started designing for screens. AI continues to dominate tech news, and more ideas for church usage are being shared as well. Sallie is excited for home automation, and Martin is reading wisely. Finally, Barna weighs in with a study on Christian’s perceptions of AI usage in church settings.

Worship Visuals featuring and interview with Corissa Nelson, Digital ArtistThe discussion & interview

Aspire to keep it simple – Martin and Sallie are joined by Corissa Nelson, Digital Artist. The topic is worship screens, and Corissa’s advice covers everything from fonts and backgrounds to goals and tools. Corissa is the designer behind many of the graphics in WELS Congregational Services Foundation series for worship planning. Her work can be viewed at corissanelsonart.com.

Ministry resources

Picks of the week

Community feedback & events

Next time

Rachel and Jason are back to talk more about our edtech book feature, The AI Classroom.

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693 – Social Media Graphics

Thanks for tuning in to WELSTech! This week we have fun graphic design tools to share, both free and fee-based, which do the heavy lifting when it comes to creating social media graphics which look professional. The rest of the show is packed with goodies including Bible study resources, an affordable classroom document camera, Leadership Conference news, and a look ahead at tech of the future. Join the conversation!

 

The discussion

Get creative – A picture is … an expected and well received method of communicating on social media. For those who feel graphically challenged to design social media image masterpieces, Martin and Sallie share some of their favorite sites for creating professional images to share on social media. Check out the sample image library they created using some of the tools discussed and reference this article on the 10 Best Tips for Social Media Photos for additional inspiration and guidance.

Tools for image creation
Stock image resources

Ministry resource

WELS Bible Studies

Picks of the week

Community news & feedback

WELS National Conference on Lutheran Leadership early bird discount extended

  • Register by November 23 at the discounted rate of $249 per person
  • January 16-18, 2023, at the Hilton in Chicago, IL

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594 – Talking Design with Bri

WELSTech is back, and we’re all about design this week. We get tips and tools from WELS in-house graphic designer, talk identity/logo guidelines, and feature videos on the topic. There’s also chatter about three tech giants including news from Apple, magic for Google Drive, and new Microsoft hardware.

The interview and discussion:

Visual Communication – Briana Lambrecht, Creative Services Coordinator for Communication Services, talks with Martin and Sallie about graphic design, WELS communication resources, and favorite (sometimes FREE) tools to get creative!

News in tech:

Thoughts on Apple’s News+, Card,  Arcade, and TV+ event — something for everyone

WELS now:

Picks of the week:

Ministry resource:

WELS Identity Guidelines

Community feedback:

Featured videos:

Check out these design tutorial YouTube channels recommended by Briana:

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 595 – Jason Schmidt joins the conversation as we continue our edtech book discussion of Faithfully Connected, looking at chapters 6 and 7 – Digital Law and Digital Rights & Responsibilities. Release date: Thursday, April 11.

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Avery Design & Print

Let’s face it – ministry isn’t always glamorous! At times it even requires us to roll up our sleeves and get dirty in the church and school office. Eeek!!

Even though that introduction is intended to make you smile, it is true that many ministry initiatives include a component which starts in the church or school office with design and printing of resources such as bulletin and newsletter inserts, and decorations for special services, events, or celebrations. Often it is the desire to print multiple copies of a design on the same page. The most common need which comes to mind is mailing labels. While labels are often creating in Word processing software, those mail merge features can be intimidating and time consuming.

That’s why I like to use the Avery Design & Print Online site for mailing labels and much more. The creation tools are very easy to master, and there are advanced features as well, such as the ability to …

  • control font selection, size and color
  • add curved text
  • import files for mail merge
  • add a generated QR code
  • upload your own graphics

Don’t feel you’ll be limited simply to “grandma’s” old mailing labels, however! Avery has label templates of all shapes and sizes. Design one item in the desired dimensions, and it is automatically replicated on the entire page. Want to customize each one? Switch from the “Edit all” mode to the “Edit one” mode, and customize to your heart’s desire.

Application/audience

This tool would be helpful to anyone tasked with creating print resources for a church or school. You may use it with or without the actual label sheets selected. Avery doesn’t know whether those labels are in your printer when you print your work at the end of the process. Printing on plain paper is just file. You may even download your final design in PDF format, and skip printing all together.

To get started, visit Avery Design & Print Online. When prompted create a free account and save your credentials for use each time you visit the site. An added benefit of setting up an account is you may save your creations to your Avery account for free.

Related resources

If browser-based software is not your pleasure, check out these additional software options for Avery Print & Design.

In addition, Avery offers to professionally print your designs for you with their WePrint service. To encourage you to try it out, they’ll give you $10 off your first order with coupon code Print10.

This overview video will get you up-to-speed with Avery Design & Print Online in under 3 minutes!

See All Ministry Resources

463 – Feedback From You

On WELSTech this week, Martin and Sallie open the virtual mail bag and share tips and tricks from listeners, including the announcement of a free Fall conference focused on gospel outreach and technology, two things near and dear to every WELSTech-er. There’s also web hosting advice, typing tutors, and fun ways to create color palettes for your next project.

The discussion:

Community feedback feast – Martin and Sallie share all sorts of tech-in-ministry goodness from WELSTech-ers!

News in tech:

Week 2 of Apple updates – new mobile operating systems:

WELS now:

Just in time for Reformation …. “What does this mean? The continuing importance of Luther’s Small Catechism” is the title of the current Interactive Faith series led by Rev. John Braun. Tune in on Wednesdays at 6 or 8 pm Central, September 21 – October 26.

Picks of the week:

Ministry resources:

Zoom.us video conferencing

Featured video:

Replay the Martin Luther College live streamed presentation by Mahtob Mahmoody, author of My Name is Mahtob and daughter of Betty Mahmoody who wrote Not Without My Daughter.

Mahtob Mahmoody live stream

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 464 – We welcome Rachel Feld from Bethany in Kenosha, WI to the Semi-Regular Classroom Technology Correspondent (a.k.a., Guest Host) chair! Release date: Wednesday, September 28.

Get involved:

451 – Getting Ready for Mobile

The month-long WELSTech series on “mobile ministry” concludes this week with some considerations for your growing digital audience of mobile device users. Are you serving up a great web experience for those smartphone and tablet users? We discuss a number of tools and templates that will help you to do just that.

The discussion:

Responsive DesignResponsive design – Martin and Sallie finish up the June focus on mobile ministry with a discussion of web design that looks good on every screen size.

WELS now:

Read about Naomi Green’s contributions to the WELSTech Photo Challenge in the July issue of Forward in Christ magazine, page 22 (sneak peek).

  • There’s still time to participate in the June challenge. Share your photos of travel and vacation, VBS and Matthew 11:29.
  • The July challenge will be summer, outreach and Isaiah 52:7.
  • Visit the challenge album!

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 452 – In July we’ll be talking about all aspects of online security, and we plan to start the conversation next week with a discussion on a topic we all know and love, passwords. Release date: Wednesday, July 6

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407 – Nothing Boring About Your Photos

This week on WELSTech we tackle the topic of graphic design with a variety of online and mobile tools for creating professional imagery, infographics and slide shows to communicate a message. Martin tries to Sway viewers to a new way of presenting, and we hear from a WELSTech Hall-of-Fame member with a free eBook to share.

The discussion:

imagineThat145x125Graphic Design – Martin and Sallie help you take your images to the next level with a variety of easy and often-times free image editing tools in this 4th installment of the Imagine That summer series.

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

Coming up on WELSTech:

Episode 408 – Next week we wrap up the summer Imagine That series with a discussion of image storage and organization. Join us Tuesday, September 1 at 4 pm Central. welstechlive.wels.net

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275 – Before and After

This week on the WELSTech Podcast we review key design principles for effective presentations and talk about a new web find for easy project management.

The discussion:

Design Principles – Martin and Sallie return to their book discussion of  Presentation Zen, by Garr Reynolds, with a look at chapter 6 of the book. This chapter is “worth the price of admission” because of the many before and after slide transformations which are demonstrated.  Concepts of signal-to-noise ratio, respect for empty space, imagery, and concept alignment are discussed.

Sources for stock photography:

Ministry resources:

(15:43) Glo Bible 1.4.3 Update available to fix issues with notes, crashes and synchronization

Picks of the week:

Of interest:

Community feedback:

Coming up on WELSTech:

(40:17) Episode 276 – Next week’s podcast is dedicated to those who want to start collaborating online, and Martin interviews Missionary Brad Wordell about the collaborative work being done by translators through Multi-Language Publications. (Release date – 02/19/13)

The featured artist:

(41:30) We close the podcast with the music of Cross To Glory (www.facebook.com/crosstoglory) – Rescued

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243 – 7 Best Webmaster Resources

This week on the WELSTech Podcast we countdown the 7 best webmaster resources.

The discussion:

A patriotic salute to webmasters  – Martin and Sallie celebrate the 4th of July with a countdown of the best-of-the-best tools for creating great web sites.

7 Best Webmaster ResourcesWebmaster Resources

  1. Kuler by Adobe
  2. Stock Photography
  3. PicMonkey
  4. Embed content
  5. RSS
  6. Code
  7. Content Management System (CMS)

Coming up in August … 7 Best Ministry Gadgets

Picks of the week:

Community feedback:

Coming up on WELSTech:

(39:11) Episode 244 – The WELSTech Summer Software Showcase returns, and we look at 5 ministry uses of the popular video hosting site Vimeo. (Release date – 07/11/12)

The featured artist:

(39:46) We close the podcast with the music of Stephen Bautista (www.stephenbautistamusic.com or stephenbautista on Twitter) – Grace Beyond My Need

Get involved: