First there was Ian’s sermon on Sunday. The text and recording should be going live on the recorded sermons page soon. The emphasis was on living well even when it doesn’t seem convenient or even make sense. I picked up a similar message when I was listening to the Stuff Christians Like audio book on the train.

That rather pricked my conscience into doing my Bible notes, and they didn’t let up either. Firstly I caught up on the weekend’s WordLive notes on Proverbs 6 about the ant. I’d only been thinking the other day about re-reading Bill Hybel’s Excellent book on Proverbs called Making Life work (link to Amazon). It’s one of the most challenging books I’ve read and so worth reading more than once. I must confess to having frittered away quite a lot of time recently. It’s far too easy to get sucked into playing browser based games or reading web comics. Maybe I should be handing the OpenDNS passwords to my wife so that she can block all those unhelpful timesink websites.

Finally there was today’s reading on Mark 6:6b-13 on WordLive. What challenged me was how little the disciples were to take with them on their mission. I went on a press trip last week and probably took almost as many gadgets as I did clothes (certainly by weight), and that was without a laptop.

Would I be willing to go to a strange place without loading the local GPS maps onto my phone? I didn’t last week.

Would I go without money? Not last week; I loaded up with local currency and made sure I had my credit cards with me.

Would I share their boldness? Perhaps. I’d certainly like to think so.

Funny thing is, I’m not resenting the challenge. Hopefully it’ll be an opportunity to grow.

The problem is that some of that professional help was not just getting arcane equipment to work, but valuable judgement. The Non-Designer’s Design Book is invaluable for anyone involved in producing any kind of print project, be it newsletters, headed paper or giant posters.

Getting hold of design software is relatively easy and even word processors are capable of quite complex desktop publishing. The challenge is turning that blank page into something that both catches the eye and transmits the correct information.

I know people whose fingers itch with lethal hate when they see Comic Sans (not out of malicious enjoyment but the grim determination of those working for the greater good) but some constructive replacement is still needed.

The Non-Designer’s Design Book starts with four simple principles of good design:

• Contrast
• Repetition
• Alignment
• Proximity

Once these are established and demonstrated, Robin Williams moves on to that most tricky of decisions, colour. It’s not enough to pick one colour but there is an art to picking the right colours to compliment each other.

There are enough variations to ensure the the repetition principle does not get out of hand. The rest of the book is made up of tips specific to different projects such as newsletters, flyers and letterheads.

There are quizzes throughout the book, just to make sure you are paying attention. The answers can be found at the back of the book. Some of this did come as something of a surprise. While good design is undoubtedly a gift, it is also something that can be learnt.

The book is impeccably laid out, as might be reasonably expected. Even better, every font used is named so it is an even more practical than it first appears.

This (and the full colour throughout) probably contribute to the price tag. But at £24 it is still cheaper than filling an ink jet printer and will probably pay for itself in faster design, not to mention vastly improved quality. Strongly recommended.

£23.99 – ISBN13 978-0-321-53404-0 ISBN10 0-321-53404-2

First published on The Sheep Dip,  a Christian-run website offering quality material for church newsletter and magazine editors to use for a small fee.