Church Letterhead Design Tips
Creating Church Letterhead Doesn’t Have to be a Chore
Whether you’ve been hired by a church to create professional letterhead, you’re revamping your church’s letterhead, or you’ve founded a new church organization, you can create church letterhead that is both aesthetically pleasing and professional.
While you might wish to use Microsoft Word to create your church letterhead, there are other methods that may make a greater impression. Once the letterhead has been designed, you may either wish to have it professionally printed on heavy stock printer paper or print it in the office as you need to use it.
Whatever your decision, there are a few tips for designing your own letterhead for churches for you to keep in mind as you create.
1. Use the Church Logo
Whenever you create letterhead, but especially when you create letterhead for specific organizations, you will want to use a logo on the letterhead banner. Many churches have nationally recognized logos. For example, the logo for the United Methodist Church is that of a cross and a red flame and the logo for the Baptist Church generally involves a dove and blue cross.
If your church has a national logo, you will want to use that on your letterhead. Some local churches like to add their community church name or gently modify the logo. As long as this is allowed in your church’s hierarchical structure, feel free to customize the logo to your branch.
2. Avoid Religious Icon Backgrounds That Compete With Text
While you may be tempted to have a watermark image of Jesus’s crucifixion or the image of Jesus with thorns around his head, try to avoid this. While this may be appropriate for personal correspondence, it is not appropriate for professional correspondence. It is best when designing church letterhead to keep the design simple so as to increase the professional appearance of your letters. If you must use a watermark on your letterhead, stick to a watermark using the church’s logo or a simple graphical design that does not detract from the messages you will convey in your letters.
3. Stick to Using the Fewest Number of Colors Possible
It is more expensive to print and photocopy letterhead that has multiple colors. Aside from the pragmatic reasons for keeping the number of colors you use in your design to three or five, there are also aesthetic reasons to use only a few colors. If you would like recipients of letters to pay more attention to what has been written than they do to the design, you may wish to keep it simple.
4. Include an Inspirational Quote
Many churches enjoy sending church letterhead with inspirational quotes. You have two options when including a quote. If you are having the letterhead professionally printed in advance of use, choose a quote that reflects the mission statement of your church. If, on the other hand, you are creating a template that you will use again and again on the computer and then print off when you need to send letters to congregants, you may instead wish to leave a space for such a quote and change the quote to match the topic of your correspondence.
5. Consider Listing Important Church Members on the Letterhead
Some organizations list their CEOs and other important members in a sidebar on the letterhead they use. You may wish to create such a sidebar that incorporates the names of the clergy members, board members, and church elders down the side. This way, those receiving a letter will know who to contact should they have questions without having to look it up in a directory or on a website.
6. Don’t Forget Important Church Contact Information!
Finally, when creating your church’s letterhead, don’t forget to include important contact information. In addition to including the return address, you should ensure that the church phone and fax number, email address, and website are included on the letterhead. Some churches even include individual contact information for each of the church’s key members under their names on the sidebar. Only do this if your church is very large and including the information will not make your letterhead too crowded.
References
View a larger image of our church letterhead sample designed by Ronda Roberts Levine.
Quote on letterhead courtesy of Inspirational Bible Verses https://www.topbibleverses.com/bible-verses-about-church
Religious symbol on sample letterhead courtesy of sxc.hu/gallery/Topsoft
