How to design a sermon series graphic when you're not a designer
A short title, one idea, a look that fits your church and every size planned up front. Real examples from the ChurchCreate library.
A sermon series graphic has one job. It tells people, in about two seconds, what the next few weeks are about and that they're worth showing up for.
You don't need a design degree to make one that does that. You need a short title, one idea for the picture, a look that fits your church, and every size planned before you start. Our team has made sermon series art for more than 3,000 churches since 2017, and almost every one that works gets those four things right.
Why the series graphic matters more than any other
Most designs at your church get used once. The series graphic gets used every week the series runs.
Over a six-week series it shows up on the sanctuary screens before and after every service. It's on the lobby TVs, the feed, the stories and the top of the sermon page. It's in the email and on the YouTube thumbnail. That's dozens of appearances from one design, so an extra hour on this one goes further than an hour on anything else.
Start with the title, not the picture
The title is the design. Get it short and the rest gets easier.
- One to four words. Joseph. Bloodline. Built to Last. The Armor of God. Short titles can be set big, and big is what reads from the back row.
- Put everything else in a subtitle. Joseph: Dreams and Destiny works because Joseph carries the design and the subtitle can be small.
- Say it out loud. If your pastor will say the title from the stage every week, it should sound good spoken, not only look good written.
If the title is a full sentence, the graphic will be crowded no matter how good the designer is.
Pick one idea for the picture
The strongest series graphics show one thing. The Armor of God shows a helmet. Built to Last shows a blueprint. Bloodline shows a single red thread looping through the letters.
A collage of four or five images tries to cover every sermon in the series and ends up saying nothing. Pick the one image that sums up the whole thing. If you're stuck, ask your pastor what object they'd hold up on stage for the opening sermon.
Choose a look that fits your church
The same title can go in very different directions. Neither of these is wrong. They're built for different rooms.
ChurchCreate sorts church design into six looks, and they're a useful way to think about yours even if you never use our app.
| Look | What it feels like | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Minimal | Clean, spacious, quiet | Reflective series, Advent, Lent |
| Refined | Polished and classic | Traditional congregations, teaching series |
| Bold | Bright and unexpected | Younger crowds, youth and college ministries |
| Textured | Raw and distressed | Hard topics, series on struggle or doubt |
| Photo-driven | Cinematic, built on an image | Story series, biographies |
| Type-driven | The lettering is the picture | Short, punchy titles |
If you don't know which one your church is, look at the last five graphics your people responded to. Most churches lean hard toward one or two looks without ever naming them.
Make the type do the work
Most series graphics fail on the words, not the picture.
- Contrast. Light words on a dark area or dark words on a light one. Never words over the busy part of a photo.
- Size. The title should take up at least a third of the height on a 16:9 slide.
- Two fonts at most. One for the title and one for everything else. More than that starts to look like a garage sale flyer.
- The back-row test. Shrink the design to a quarter of its size on your laptop. If you can still read the title, the person in the back row can too.
Plan every size before you start
Your series needs a wide 16:9 version for screens, a 4:5 for the feed, a 9:16 for stories and usually a square. It also needs a version with no words for lyrics and sermon notes, and maybe a wide banner for your website.
Plan for all of them up front. A design that only works wide will fall apart when you try to fit it into a story, and Saturday night is a bad time to find that out. Our church graphic sizes guide has the pixel sizes for every one of them.
Keep it consistent for the whole series
Once the series graphic is done, every other piece of the series borrows from it. The weekly sermon title slides use the no-words background. The announcement slide uses the same colors. The feed posts all match.
That repetition is what makes people recognize the series by week three. Changing the look halfway through throws that away.
A checklist before it goes on the screen
- The title is four words or fewer, or it has a short title and a subtitle.
- The picture shows one idea.
- The title passes the back-row test.
- Nothing important sits near the top or bottom edge of the story version.
- You have a no-words background for lyrics and notes.
- Every size is ready, so nobody has to crop anything on Sunday morning.
- Someone besides you has looked at it and said the title out loud correctly.
How ChurchCreate does it
ChurchCreate creates church graphics from a library of 300,000 designs our team has made for churches since 2015. You tell it the series title and how it should feel. It gives you three concepts in your church's look, you pick one, and you get every size of that one.
If you'd rather start from something finished, the sermon series section of our free graphics library has designs you can look through, and a new set is free to download every week.
Questions people ask about sermon series graphics
What size should a sermon series graphic be?
Make the main version 1920 × 1080 pixels, a 16:9 ratio, for screens and slides. Then make a 1080 × 1350 feed post, a 1080 × 1920 story and a 1080 × 1080 square from the same design.
How long should a sermon series title be?
Keep it to one to four words. Short titles can be set big enough to read from the back row. Put anything longer into a subtitle.
How far ahead should we make the series graphic?
Have it finished at least two weeks before the series starts. That gives you a Sunday to announce it and time to make the feed posts and the website banner.
Should every week of a series have its own graphic?
No. Use one series graphic the whole way through, and make weekly sermon slides from its no-words background with that week's title on top. That keeps the series recognizable.
Where can I find free sermon series graphics?
ChurchCreate puts a new set of finished designs up for free download every week, and the sermon series section shows past series for ideas. You need a free account with your church email to download.