THE VIBRANT PARISH NEWSLETTER

Does Anyone Read Printed Materials Anymore?

You may have heard the claim that print media has gone the way of the dinosaur. Clickbait article headlines love to spotlight statistics about diminishing returns for newspapers, shrinking publishing practices, and the average consumer’s dwindling attention span.

But before you plan for a paperless future at your parish, remember that’s only half the story.

Sure, digital content is surging to prominence in every medium, from newspapers and books to church bulletins. And while your parish is likely — and rightly — putting a high priority on effective digital communication, don’t make the mistake of forgetting about printed materials entirely.

Think of the apostles and the gift of the Holy Spirit that enabled them to communicate with different populations. In that same way, parishes must be able to communicate the same message across all platforms, digital and print alike.

When it comes to ministry, the question of print vs. digital isn’t an either/or dilemma — it’s a both/and solution. Here are four reasons that print remains an integral component of your parish communication plan, even while you prioritize digital outreach.

The bulletin is an institution.

LPi’s research shows that 97% of Catholic parish bulletins are taken home every week, while 85% of parishioners report hanging on to old issues. The Catholic parish bulletin is more than just a flyer or a handout — it’s an institution! It’s a relationship you can hold in your hands, pin to your bulletin board, dive into in the morning coffee line and even save for posterity. It is less easily ignored, skimmed, discarded or “clicked off of” than its digital counterpart.

Print reaches your demographics.

Your methods of communication have to be as varied as the backgrounds and circumstances of your parishioners. Forgetting about the potential of print communication can essentially mean forgetting about a large demographic of church-going adults. While millennials, Gen Z, and even Gen X are smartphone-savvy and accustomed to consuming digital publications, studies show that younger generations favor reading printed learning materials and trust print publications more than digital media. Their grandparents who grew up without digital landscapes, also appreciate the longevity and reliability of a print piece.

Print still has power.

Even though digital avenues of advertising are increasing in popularity, print hasn’t given up the hold it has on our collective consciousness. Research shows that print advertising is associated with stronger consumer retention and action, and when it comes to reading books, the preference for print is much stronger than the preference for digital.

Digital can only do so much.

We all came to understand a strange paradox during the era of livestreaming Mass at the pandemic’s onset: digital relationships can connect people who are separated by a thousand miles, but they are not able to truly bring them together. After all, there is a reason we must be present in-person to receive the sacraments. There is a reason that gathering in community for the sacrifice of the Mass is preferable to watching it on television. There is a certain sacredness to the physical that is reflected by print media in a way that digital media alone cannot replicate.

If you’re ready to save time and money with a combined solution for your print and digital communications, then it’s time to check out LPi’s ePub Design.

Back to Top

EDITOR FEATURE

Hey everyone!

I’m Danielle, part of the team that brings you this monthly e-newsletter. To better hear your story, we’ve started including a short prompt for you each month about your best practices and tips for ministry!

For example, last month we asked about what kind of images you select for the cover of your church bulletin. Here’s a little of what we learned:

• A church in Danville, Vermont uses pictures of their altar “decorated for different occasions.”
• Another church in Miami, Florida says they focus on “colorful depictions of Christ. This year I concentrated on featuring depictions of the Lord on all bulletin covers.”

We appreciate your responses to last month’s inquiries because they helped guide us as we leaned into ways that you can improve your church’s print experience in this month’s newsletter.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you,

Danielle

Back to Top

Tips for Printing in Color: CMYK vs. RGB

As you prepare your piece for the printer, here are some helpful things to keep in mind!

CMYK — Stands for “Cyan,” “Magenta,” “Yellow,” and “Black,” — the four ink plates often used in printing.

RGB — Stands for “Red,” “Green,” and “Blue” — primary colors used in digital communications like television or websites.

Notably: computer screens display in RGB and involve an internal light illuminating the screen for ease of reading. Printed projects will use CMYK, not RGB, and don’t have a light illuminating them from behind as a computer screen does, causing many to comment that printed pieces appear “darker” than their digital counterparts. Keep that in mind when setting up a print project — your printed piece may appear slightly darker than your digital piece. Adjust accordingly for best results.

When printing CMYK, each ink color is assigned a percentage on a 100-point scale. For example, for a pure red, the printer selects: 0% Cyan, 99% Magenta, 100% Yellow, and 0% Black.

Not sure of your percentages? Here are some tips for ways to achieve success in coloration!

CMYK BLACK

Black and 85% Black make great accent secondary colors to a bright feature color, and convey a strong, modern design.

Black is one of the CMYK colors, so the density of the hue will depend on the percentage of black ink used. A blend of all the CMYK colors can be used to result in a “rich” black, or more saturated color. Be careful when adding black to other colors — an attempt to use black to darken other colors can often make them muddy.

CMYK REDS

Red is best used for a traditional, strong look, it pairs well with oranges and golds for a warmer, energetic style. Red can communicate warmth and passion, but it also can be overwhelming if used too heavily. Reds are a finicky bunch when it comes to printing — sometimes appearing orange or rusty upon print. If you find that your red is too pink, your magenta level is too high. If you see too much orange, yellow is too high.

CMYK ORANGES AND BROWNS

Orange can be great way to show a cheerful, enthusiastic, youthful style when paired with bright light blues and teals. To achieve a bright orange, use two parts yellow, one part magenta. Orange can command attention without being overpowering.

Brown is a neutral and earthy look that conveys reliability and warmth. Brown brings a sense of wholesomeness to designs. Our recommendation is to use different shades of brown, think “tan,” or “russet,” or “caramel.” Brown is similar to orange — a blending 2 parts yellow, one part magenta is the starting point, but the amount of cyan added begins to direct the color in a brown direction.

CMYK YELLOWS AND GREENS

Yellow is often considered positive, optimistic, and energetic. Yellow is one of the CYMK inks — use more magenta to make it more golden.

Green appears on the “cool” spectrum of color, and it is considered a calm and peaceful color. Green is often associated with growth, rebirth, nature, stability, endurance, and abundance. It is often related to wealth, as well. Mixing cyan and yellow results in green. For vibrant greens, mix cyan and yellow equally.

CMYK BLUES

Blue is a very popular color which conveys trust, loyalty, and peace. Use a “navy blue” for a more traditional look, while “ocean blue” introduces a more modern, peaceful energy.

While being highly popular, it is difficult to accurately produce. The best results are often achieved through using even and balanced mixtures (i.e. 100% Cyan, 50% Magenta, 0% Yellow, 0% Black).

CMYK PURPLES

Purple creates a sense of luxury, creativity, and inspiration. If you are looking to change up your design, purple is a great place to get started and it is an unexpected choice. Try a 3:2 ratio with your magenta and cyan inks.

CMYK PINKS

Pink is bold, playful, and intuitive. Use a lighter pink as an accent color to a navy blue and gray. For best results bring your magenta percentage high and your yellow, cyan, and black low. Excess yellow results in red hues while excess cyan leads to purples.

CMYK GOLDS AND SILVERS

Metallics are neutral. They give a refined elegance that conveys confidence and prestige. Use these tones with a burgundy, berry red. A true metallic isn’t possible on a standard CMYK printer like the ones used at LPi — metallics require specialized equipment with either Pantone spot inks or foils.

CMYK BRIGHT COLORS

On the lookout for the most vibrant rendition of colors possible? Without the backlighting of a computer screen, a printed page will never produce hues as brilliantly as a digital display, but color mixes that will pop are usually deeply saturated with at least one of the CMYK colors at 100%.

Back to Top

Graphics that GRAB — Designers Talk Cover Art

LPi’s Design Team produces Catholic art and content for a variety of parishes and preferences, providing graphics that correspond to Sunday messages and Liturgical seasons. One service that the team offers is art that can be used on bulletin covers. To appeal to a wide audience, the team provides six options for cover art each week, each with a different theme or style. Looking for new ideas for bulletin art but not sure where to start? Take a few tips from these designers!

Traditional

The Traditional series starts with the Sunday Gospel. From there, the team searches for classic art that directly represents the Gospel story — Mary and Martha, the Woman at the Well, the Feeding of the Five thousand, etc. Expect paintings from the masters of the High Renaissance — dramatically lit scenes, deep colors, striking compositions. The image will be layered with text from the Gospel message, pulling out a verse or two that captures the highlight of the story.

From the Designers…

Gabriella: Traditional art on a cover feels comfortable and familiar for your audience.

Evan: When using traditional pieces people know exactly what to expect week in and week out, it’s a very straight-forward experience for your congregation.

Heidi: This design style is very clean and to-the-point while maintaining classic aspects that people love and admire.

Contemporary

Maybe you’ve done the whole painting-from-the-Renaissance route and you’re looking for something fresh and updated. Faced with this dilemma, the design team’s solution was a text-forward option they have titled “Contemporary.” This minimalist cover features subtle colors and geometric shapes playing in the background: sun rays, dots, and unique color pairings. A single word from Sunday’s scripture holds a place of prominence, with the verse containing that word in smaller type below.

From the Designers…

Gabriella: (This is her top pick of the cover series.) It is a diverse, versatile series, focused on typography, that can be used in any bulletin or social post and appeal to a wide audience range — both the younger and more established crowd. If you’re looking for something cohesive across a few months, a series like this is the way to go.

Evan: In this style of art, we are using a word as the focus instead of an image. If a church is using a design with a lot of other information — Mass times, staff names, etc. — a simplified, clean graphic like a word treatment makes a lot of sense.

Heidi: This is a more simplistic choice, graphically. It is an excellent solution if there are other busy parts of your bulletin cover — masthead, logo, or other places.

Vibrant

If “Traditional” is your classic oil painting and “Contemporary” is your clean and modern word-treatment, the design style that the designers call “Vibrant” is a middle-ground between the two, recently redesigned by Heidi. This art style looks for bold and bright art depictions of the Gospel story that are a little less recognizable, think a stained-glass image of St. Paul’s conversion vs. the iconic piece by Titian. The pieces are still designed with corresponding verses of the Bible displayed below.

From the Designers…

Heidi: This is a creative piece that’s going to catch your eye, it’s artistic with painterly elements. We’ve noticed that some communities are drawn to bold, colorful pieces. When creating this piece, we keep things bright and captivating.

Evan: For churches that want something a little bolder and more colorful, art that adds texture and vibrance while still maintaining traditional depictions is a good solution.

Psalm

Every Mass features a short phrase, repeated verbally by the congregation, the Psalm response. The Psalms are meaningful songs, composed thousands of years ago, but relevant and striking as ever. These short phrases have been explored by the design team and made into art pieces for a visual accompaniment to the Sunday Liturgy.

This series is Evan’s favorite, a photography-forward design overlaid with text which makes the responsorial Psalm visually appealing. Conceptually, exploring the Psalms opens a whole new world of options.

From the Designers…

Evan: The Psalm series reaches a new audience but is respectful to faith tradition. It’s successful because it has a modern media feel for a younger demographic but can still include folks who have been at the church for 50 years. Since the photography we use is always changing, the design seems fresh week-to-week.

Nature

God reveals Himself through truth, goodness, and beauty, and the designers created a nature series to lean into beauty with stunning seasonal photos of beautiful parts of creation. They pick a photo with a beautiful piece of nature and overlay with a verse from Sunday’s Gospel in a modern design with a bold color-choice.

From the Designers…

Gabriella: My favorite part of the nature series is the simplicity and cleanliness of the design. it’s image-heavy, focused on landscapes with different natural features.

Heidi: It’s modern, minimal, and it focuses on the beauty of the world.

Saint

Long-term LPi followers might be familiar with a piece made after beloved Catholic saints. In this series, photographs of modern life were overlaid with a quote from a beloved saint, all in a subtle monochrome color treatment. BUT WAIT! That series will experience an update in the coming year! Beginning with the First Sunday of Advent, this series will still feature a quote from an inspiring Catholic hero.

From the Designers…

Gabriella: Our new design is a fresh, new take on what defines traditional artwork and what that can look like.

Evan: The imagery is comfortable for a church audience, but in a modern format.

Heidi: A modern take on collage — stay tuned!

(A sneak peak of this new series is hidden in the collage of covers at the top of this article!)

We love designing beautiful art for churches across the United States. Want a free 90-Day trial to WeCreate to view the bulletin covers explained here? Fill out the form at the bottom of this page.
We can’t wait to see what you create!

Back to Top

Beautiful Catholic Graphics

WeCreate is a graphics library featuring beautiful depictions of Catholic liturgical life. Use the art in your print or digital media!

Become a Bulletin Customer

Spend less time worrying about your church printing and more time transforming your community for Christ.

Branding Matters

A good brand invites parishioners and seekers into the mission of your church, helping everyone to grow in faith, live in hope, and reach out in the love of Jesus Christ.