Hymnal Design
§ Introduction
1. Christian Worship Overview
A timeline and outline of topics. Note that outline of posts isn’t chronological. The dates of the timeline are more often the date that something was produced, not when it was commissioned or presented. “Selling” the imporatnce of good design to XC early on (not a whole lot of convincing). The title to the posts are “CW” but note the title wasn’t settled until much later.
Preliminary Work
2. Hymnal Project Logo
Formation and drafts of Hymnal Project logo design
3. Other Early Design Work
Early design work done for the Hymnal Project (essays, templates, Path of Worship). Leave early brochure and promotional work for a later post on branding.
Research
4. Style Guides
Research was an ongoing process throughout the project—much less by the time the final Hymnal draft was submitted, but still necessary with bits and bobs at the end. The need for a bespoke corpus style guide that caters to the unique elements of the hymnal corpus while honoring the NPH in-house style guide.
5. Survey and Analysis of Lutheran and contemporary hymnals
Summary of our large document of analysis.
6. Surveys of Fonts and Design
Test congregations with bulletin design and font samples.
Corpus Design
7. Hymnal Prototypes
Early formation of the hymnal leading up to the actual production drafts. We knew that locking in the design of the hymnal would make like easier in designing the other books.
8. Lectionary Layout
The first page elements to be fully designed. Mostly on account of the SC’s push to test the new lectionary.
9. Rites
Scripture references, responses, etc. (Leave rubrics for their own post)
10. Psalms
Focusing on psalm pointing, verse numbers, small cap letters, location of psalms, etc.
11. Hymns
Titles, numbers, source text, Scripture references, etc.
12. Accompaniment Books
Survey results on what people wanted, format of the books, thoughts on number of volumes, etc.
13. Other Printed Books
The Altar Book, Agenda, Manuals, etc.
14. Handbook
The website Handbook
15. Rubrics
Overview, function (Instructional, Guiding, Optional Text), and rules. Save the choice of red color for a later post.
16. Custom Fonts
Cross, Meta Finale, Clefs, etc.
17. Cover Design
All of the stages of cover and spine design with and without the final logo. Perhaps note NPH’s preference to have the NPH logo on the spine (like LSB) and why we pushed back against that.
18. Colors
Focused more on the choice of red vs. blues used for the brand. What other hymnals use for their red and why it took so long before the final color was settled (how it looks on specific paper stock).
Branding
19. Early Work and Messaging
The formation of the ad-hoc committee for the brand to aid with marketing and HIP. Documents that helped form the messaging of the brand.
20. Visual Identity
Early work such as brochures and concept images. Using the art as the main images of the brand (vs. stock images)
Miscellaneous
21. Digital Hymnal Design
Design of apps/digital hymnals (mostly researched by CB). Early concepts of interactive ebook and also later text-only concept.
22. Projection and Slides
CB’s white paper, presentation, and overal philosophy of the TC regarding projection.
23. Christian Worship Style Guide
Modification of NPH’s in-house style guide that applied to the unique variables and elements of the hymnal corpus.
24. Post Mortem
How the design committee was embedded in the Hymnal Project (within TC, could be stand-alone or within CC, but worked well within TC). What could be improved upon (unique situation with down-sizing of NPH design staff, the need for content to be mostly settled before final designs are presented, etc.)