Churches and new church starts face a daunting task in creating quality content for publications. From from time to time I test computer or smart phone applications that congregations could use for ministry. Today I tested the graphic design app Adobe Spark.
Graphic Design in Churches
A vast majority of congregations do not have a graphic designer on staff. Very few are blessed with designers who volunteer their expertise. This means the following criteria are essential for graphic design apps:
Intuitive Design: Staff or volunteers with little or no experience with graphic design must be able to use the app.
Ease of Use: Staff or volunteers must be able to create content quickly and efficiently.
Low or No Cost: Congregations invest funds in other areas, not communications. Expensive apps have no broad value among churches.
Smart Phone Priority: A little over half of Americans will view the church website on smart phones, not computers. Another percentage use a tablet. The designs must look great on a smart phone or tablet.
Functional Publishing: Staff and volunteers must be able to easily publish the graphics.
Adobe Spark
Adobe Spark is one of the Adobe family of apps, including Acrobat and Photoshop. You can create videos, posts or pages with Adobe Spark. I created one of each. The below example are my first (and so far only) attempt to use Adobe Spark.
As a guy who wrote his first news articles on a typewriter, I am not digital native. Yet I found Adobe Spark very intuitive. With a few clicks I sorted out text, images and layout. I got the sense Adobe Spark was designed for smart phones, knowing some users were still on computers. Adobe Spark is also free.
Video: Psalm 24:1-6
Because it was my first time editing a video, let alone one on Adobe Spark, this process took a couple of hours. I would have included video clips but had appropriate photographs available. Please also note I could have balanced the sound better.
Post: Prayer Walk
The below post look less than five minutes to design. When I looked at it on a smart phone, it looked professional. In fact, it looked better than a couple of professional graphics I used for comparison.
Page: Divine Stress Management
My only issue with Adobe Spark is I couldn’t download the page. This could be because I use Mac. Maybe it’s by design. Adobe Spark does provide code to embed on a website. I went with the link because many more churches can link to a page than embed a page. As for the creating the page, it was simple and straight-forward.
Click here to view the page.
That’s a Wrap!
Even though I use Adobe Light Room and Photoshop for my DigitalAviary.me website, I had not heard of Adobe Spark. Credit for the discovery goes to Doug Kallesen, who used Adobe Spark for this post, “Wait on the Lord.” Doug’s a mentor even when he’s not trying to mentor!
The bottom line: Churches should give Adobe Spark a test run.
Kevin Wilson 360 