About a year ago at The Ridge we have moved to using a monthly handout rather than a weekly handout for reasons like cost, quality, and in an effort to (go green and do our part to) not use up so many trees. For years they have used a weekly handout (as have many churches) and in an effort to eventually one day move away from it completely in favor of the web we’re slowly scaling back.
Ideally there will be times when the message series starts/ends on the beginning of a month, in which case I’d get to brand the front of the handout promoting the new series. However, about 50% of the time the month is split between two series, and thus the handout gets a generic brand to simply be eye-catching and to differentiate it from the previous month’s handout. Such is the case in this month.
I typically get about a day to work on these handouts. My communications team works hard to gather all the needed information for the monthly handouts in a timely manner, but almost inevitably it is pushed to the wire where I find myself having it in time to start and finish it on a Saturday. Once it’s finished Saturday it’s proofed on Sunday morning and then sent to the printer that afternoon to be ready for him as he walks in Monday morning.
With quick work like that it doesn’t always lend itself to wildly to creativity so I tend to lean more towards quick clear communication and execution rather than really push myself for creativity, plus our budget doesn’t allow for any type of diecuts or spot varnishes but I still do what I can to push myself. The covers at times get to be a fun little playground to see what I can get out there, kind of like this month’s.
I can only imagine what it’d be like if I had a full week to focus on it, but those chances are pretty slim so I’m not going to get my hopes up. Here’s a link to the full PDF spread if you’d care to give it a peek.
