A Bulletin! A Bulletin! We have got a Bulletin, and there cannot be any more Bulletin. (Compare with  2 Nephi 29:3)

I had to repackage an information product for a class I took in graphic design . I specifically looked for an information item that was uniform, standardized and taken for granted. I settled on Sacrament meeting bulletins.

Bulletins need to first, display the program for that day's worship. Second, they should notify everyone of upcoming events so that they have enough information to attend. And third, supply basic contact information for the congregation. These seem to be the typical goals.

Generally, a bulletin is a folded sheet of paper that opens up like a book. There is usually a picture and quote on the cover. Information rarely gets placed on the back cover.

Sacrament Meeting bulletins seem to be sacrosanct. They look the same no matter where you are or where you go. I decided they were ideal for my project.

I tried to design the bulletin without taking into consideration how it had always been done in the past. It was not easy. I wanted to achieve the typical bulletin goals but determine if there was a better way to design the bulletin that would serve these goals better.

Every Sunday someone has to photocopy each side of the bulletin, making sure everything lines up, then fold it so it opens like a book. This is tedious and time consuming. I decided on a flat piece of paper. While designing it, I kept thinking to myself that it "did not look right." But, I kept at it.

What I developed was much different than the norm. But, it achieves all the old goals. It also cuts down on photocopying and eliminates folding. In addition, people can tack it to a bulletin board or refrigerator for easy reference. My new design makes it easy to add new information and eliminate the old with minimal effort.

I used many principles of good graphic design. For example, since most people scan information in an inverted "N" manner, I put the most important information in the upper left-hand corner and reserved the upper right for a picture. The least important information is a smaller font size and outside the inverted "N."

See it for yourself (or download PDF) and tell me what you think by using the comment feature below.

The ideal, of course, is to have people go online to a unit web site where everything is available, with full and complete information, and always up-to-date. Redesigning the bulletin is a first step to improvement. If people cannot handle a bulletin redesign of that they probably won't rely on digital tools either. That's a topic for another day . . .



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