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Here's the scenario: you are inspired by a scripture, a prophetic word, a vision or dream, a commission.....to produce a worship banner. But how do you come up with a design?



:zf: BASIC BANNER DESIGN

The following are basic concepts for successful worship banner design.



The first thing to do is pray and go into the Word. Get out your concordance and research all related scriptures to the concept you are considering. Write them down. Pray over them and highlight the ones that seem to "come alive" to you or are particularly cogent to the vision you have for your banner. Now, let the scriptures "speak" to you about the message of your banner, the words, the images and the colors.



Initial Sketch

This is very important. It's much easier to change your mind on a drawing than after you've cut up a bunch of expensive fabrics. Make your drawing as complete as possible before you start.



Size

God is BIG. And more important, He is bigger than US. Banners should tower over us to help communicate the bigness of God. (See my post on <URL url="http://zionfirefriends.com/index.php?showtopic=712">the power of perspective for some thoughts on that topic.) Make your banner as big as you can for the venue you will be using it in. I find a good size for one person to be able to handle is a banner about 4 feet wide and 8-9 feet long. Larger widths are certainly possible, but pose challenges for traveling and strength, etc.



Shape

Vary the shape of your banners, one to another. A rectangular shape is not inherently bad, but you have so many more options! The overall shape of a banner can be changed by hanging additions, drapings, or headers. Think especially about the bottom edge of the banner...it's a chance to be creative with your design. You are not limited to straight lines. However, be careful if designing asymmetrical shapes...you may have to do some strategic weighting later to get the banner to hang straight.



Perspective

Depicting certain scenes or images may require an understanding of perspective, that is, the way objects change in size as they approach a horizon point. Be aware that you can create a sense of distance and nearness by the way you handle perspective.



Illusion

You may want to depict a myriad of angels on a banner scene. You can't practically do that by constructing tens of thousands of angels to place on a 4 foot wide piece of cloth, so you must use illusion and perspective. In the banner<URL url="http://www.zionfire.com/page30.html"> Lord of the Harvest you can see that the suggestion that many angels are approaching is achieved by scattering a few angels in the background, but arranging the sizes and detail so that the forward angels are larger and more complete. That gives the illusion that they are at the fore of a group of many.



Glorified reality

When depicting natural images, real life forms like animals, trees, people, etc. it is best to not be literal in our renderings. Banners are a window to the spiritual. Natural mages on banners should have a "glorified" character. Think of the aspects of the kingdom and of our Creator....light, glory, brilliance, extravagant beauty....and seek ways to work those things into your natural images. For instance, in the banner <URL url="http://www.zionfire.com/page45.html">Lion of Judah, there is a depiction of a natural lion. You can recognize it as a natural lion....however, it is not furry or brown. It is silver and has an eye made of a red jewel. Those changes are symbols of the spirit Lion's character, and that is what I mean by "glorified" reality.



Negative space

This is the areas on the banner that do not have actual designs on them. It is the space between the designs. It is as, or even more, important than the actual designs themselves. Negative space allows us to comprehend the design. Always stand back and look at your banner and take stock of the shapes of the negative spaces. Are they pleasing? Are they too big (do you see "empty" spaces?) Always check to see that your design "fills" the available space, but without being crowded.



Texture & Dimension

Texture can be achieved by using different materials, and also by the way those materials are used. Banner making is a 3-dimensional medium. Think of it as "fabric sculpture". You are not limited by a plane. You can add dimension by padding, layering, and draping. Fabrics do not have to be glued on flat....they can be scrunched, twisted, stuffed, shredded....and they don't even have to be fabrics. You can use papers, plastics, metals, gemstones, beads, chains.....whatever your glue and stitching can hold on to the banner. Use of a variety of textures give richness to your banners.



Letters

These are the single most important element of your banner, as they are what will be the main communicating element of your design. Choose a letter style that reflects the character of your message. A strong, militant message requires a substantial, prominent letter style. A message about mercy might require a softer letter style.<LIST>

• <LI>
• Consider the scale of your letters to the overall size of the banner. Use your space.</LI>
  <LI>
• Make sure the letters of your main message are readable from across the room.</LI>
  <LI>
• Pay attention to making the letters prominent. Padding and trimming are ways to accomplish that.</LI>
  

</LIST>Sensory elements

Banners are not just visual. You can feel the air currents created as they move by you. You can smell spices or other fragrances built into the design of the banner. You can hear bells, or the rustling of tinsel or taffetas, and these can be a part of the message of your banner. Think about connecting with the other senses of the worshippers other than just through sight.



Symbols

Symbols are the language of the Kingdom. Learn about scriptural symbols and scriptural number & color symbology and use this language in your banner design. A good Bible dictionary like Ungers has information on this. E.W. Bullinger's book, Number in Scripture is good. I've also compiled a <URL url="http://z15.invisionfree.com/ZionFireFriends/index.php?showtopic=1363&view=findpost&p=4324842">Bible Symbols booklet especially for banner makers that you can order from our <URL url="http://z15.invisionfree.com/ZionFireFriends/index.php?showforum=49">ZionFire Shoppe.



Contrast and Color

Although the colors of white and gold may represent "holiness" in a symbolic way, it is a bad design decision to put gold letters on a white background. There is just not enough contrast to make the words readable from a distance. A solution would be to use black trim around gold letters, or use a gold letter fabric with a lot of black in it. Consider the issues of contrast and color value when making color decisions on your banner. Two colors that seem very different, for instance the primaries red and green, may have very similar color values and would therefore be difficult to distinguish at a distance. This does not mean that you can't use red and green next to each other....but that you should consider the values....say, a pale green next to a dark red.



Focused message

One of the most common mistakes that I see in beginning banner makers is the tendency to put every revelation you have ever had in your first banner....and so it might come out covered with twenty words and sporting a cross, a crown, a white horse, a river, fire and Mary and Joseph waving "howdy". Much better to focus on one aspect of God's character or Kingdom and design all the elements of the banner to support that one thought. Say you wanted to do a banner on the beatitudes. Much better to do a series of banners, one for each beatitude, and make each banner a unique design to support each thought.



Here is where your scripture research will help you. Remember those special scriptures that spoke to you? That's where you will find the design elements that will make your banner's message cohesive and powerful. Pay attention to this and you will be shooting one powerful spiritual rifle bullet instead of a bunch of buckshot. Got more than you can gracefully work into the banner front? Well, you have a whole great expanse on the banner back as well. Use that to enhance and support your message. Remember that in procession, people are seeing the back of your banner just as much as they are seeing the front. Use that space to make your proclamation even richer.



©ZionFire.com



Related threads:

<URL url="http://zionfirefriends.com/index.php?showtopic=296">All about glue

<URL url="http://zionfirefriends.com/index.php?showtopic=1126">Basic Banner Construction

<URL url="http://zionfirefriends.com/index.php?showtopic=299"> Basic primer for banner & flag fabrics

<URL url="http://zionfirefriends.com/index.php?showtopic=712">The power of perspective

The story is that when the country was coming into being after it's miraculous appearance on the international scene in 1948, that it was built on a hearty oatmeal that was cooked all night in cream and fueled the workers for the strenuous day ahead of them. Being as most of us do not have 14 hours of hard labor facing us each day, this recipe is not quite as cream-heavy as the original, but it has a richness that can't be gotten any other way but by cream.



Some of the big Jerusalem hotels have this on their menu, and it's wonderful. In fact, I'm having some right now as I type out this recipe! :yum:



Here's a version that is done in a slow-cooker overnight while you sleep:



Oats Cooked in Cream



1 C. steel cut (pinhead) oats

4 C. water

1/2 C. dried fruit, cut up into bits (can be increased to up to 2 C. dried fruit, if desired)

1/2 C. cream



Combine all ingredients in a slow-cooker, cover & set to LOW 8-9 hours. No, it's not a mistake, I didn't forget the salt. DO NOT ADD SALT. Salt prevents the oats from releasing their creaminess while cooking. You can add that in the morning, along with butter and a bit more cream on top.



In my version today, I used cut up dried apricots and dates. Another good combination is dried cherries and figs. You will probably have your own favorite. If you use a great amount of dried fruit, you might want to increase the water just a little.

I attended the CDF Midwest Regional Dance Conference last week. It was GREAT!! There was dance, pageantry, and music throughout the 3 day conference. There was also plenty of worship, fellowship, word, and learning. The 2007 National CDF conference will be in June in Chicago. Begin thinking about attending this trip now!



For those that don't know, CDF is an international fellowship that provides support and networking for people involved in dance and movement arts. In 2005 we kicked-off a Missouri CDF chapter. We are now looking for someone on the Kansas side that might be interested in leading a Kansas City seed group. Let me know if this leadership ministry opportunity interests you. Feel free to visit the CDF website at <URL url="http://www.cdfusa.us">www.cdfusa.us.



Peace & Blessings



P.S. Dean & Helena - Diane Ransom from Christian Assembly in Columbus, Ohio says hi. She was at the CDF conference last week.

Morning!



My question comes from the fact that I haven't been feeling well for the last few weeks--there's a nasty "cold" that's going around up here, and once you get it, it's extremely hard to get rid of it!



Last summer I had pneumonia, but was still able to lead worship--I'd be coughing my lungs out one minute, start to lead worship the next and be fine, then when I was done leading, I'd be coughing again!



Last week, I had this cold and had to take the Sunday off cuz I couldn't get out of bed.



Yesterday, I led worship, lost my voice, strained a lot, and someone said the worship really drew her in to God's presence. Funny eh? I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere really, but she was quite blessed.



Do any of you have any similar experiences you could share?



blessings!



Moe. :crooner:

I haven't been too satisfied with the colours I've been getting lately. Can't seem to get it across the to vendor that the shade of purple, red, green, etc., matters a lot. The purples seem to be more blue than purple and the reds more orange than blood coloured. It's so exasperating.



I have tried sending them samples and colour charts. I have to buy online as the one local fabric shop only sells colours suitable for dress(suit) making. There's also the cost issue - it's much cheaper online. However, if you can't get the colour you want/need cost gets a bit academic.



Anyone else have these problems. Have you sorted them, if so, how?

You should use a strong password (mixed letters, symbols, numbers) based on a word that cannot be found in a dictionary. Doing so prevents what Invision Board calls "cracking". Apparently there are people roaming around who think it's a hoot to break into message boards and be obnoxious. More important for moderators/administrators than members, but still.....a word to the wise. If you have a very simple password, make it a little more complicated.



Read on, if you want to know what makes a password vulnerable, and how alt characters can make your password nearly uncrackable.



Probably the most conventional way to crack a password in which the list of words found in a dictionary are used to try every possible single word. There are many different dictionary lists available besides the typical language specific such as the lists of names, slangs, acronyms, abbreviations, contractions and many other different forms of language use. Some new attacks also include 2-3 digits and/or other character combination added to the beginning or the end of every word attempted for every list. The other, a bit slower process is the use of case changing of each letter in all available dictionary lists in every possible position and combination for each word. For any of the above, a system with approximately 3 GHz processor and 512MB of RAM, can breeze through all attempts in no more than a few minutes to few hours. Upshot: Don't use words that can be found in a dictionary and think you are safe just because you added a number & a few characters.



To see a chart on how long various computer systems take to break down passwords, see this chart: <URL url="http://www.lockdown.co.uk/?pg=combi&s=articles">http://www.lockdown.co.uk/?pg=combi&s=articles

It will become clear quite quickly that having a longer password with more fields is the best way to go.





Password cracking programs allow for group character selection to minimize on processing time. Usually they are:

* 0123456789

* abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

* ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

* !@#$%^&*()-_+=

* ~ []{}|\ ;:<>,.?/



Choosing a password that includes at least one character from each of the five groups will keep a brute force attacking program guessing for a long time. Try coming up with your own words such as those that have never been spoken by anyone and certainly are not found in a dictionary. The above list is also made of characters that can be typed on a standard keyboard but there are many other ones found in windows character map which could be preset to be typed by a combination of keys.



While the above is good advise,<COLOR color="crimson"> adding alt-characters to your passwords makes it impossible to crack with todays current password cracking tools</COLOR>, here is a table that lists them all:



<IMG content="http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/5523/alttablevk1.gif">



<URL url="http://www.combobulate.com/node/25">http://www.combobulate.com/node/25





If you'd like to generate a password for yourself on occasion, you can use the customizable generator found here: <URL url="http://www.winguides.com/security/password.php">http://www.winguides.com/security/password.php