Basic graphic design skills are an integral and overlooked part of choral training. Unless you’re in an organization that can afford a marketing person (which leaves 99.9% of us), your choral program needs quality design.
If you didn’t receive it during your undergrad or grad programs (few do), take the following steps.
- Get real software. Word processors like Microsoft Word aren’t going to cut it: you need something where things stay precisely where you put them. I’m personally a fan of Adobe Creative Cloud (InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator) but there are other options.
- Acquire good taste. If you aren’t already discerning with design, take ten minutes with Google to figure out what you like. At the same time, peruse some design fails so you can avoid common mistakes.
- Understand reuse. Image searches allow you to filter to images you can reuse legally. Use a Creative Commons image search to stay within the law.
- Take advantage of the Web. I’ve been designing for choirs for over 20 years and still regularly find I don’t know the best way to execute something. Tutorials abound and a 90 second Youtube video is generally all you need.
Branding, marketing, design: these are important skills to build success regardless of what kind of choral program you’re overseeing.