We are told that "order is heaven's first law." This we also learn from a study of nature. From an orderly arrangement of sounds, we have good music, and similarly an orderly arrangement of color gives us a beautiful picture. And by an orderly arrangement of gray, black, and white spaces, we get a pleasing composition in evangelistic advertising for newspaper or handbill. These orderly arrangements satisfy our inborn love of the beautiful.
Years of art education, through the public press, have made the people of this modern age beauty-conscious as concerns correct form, color, and sound. And years of striving to express beauty have resulted in the discovery of the laws that obviously govern its creation.
As musicians can write beautiful musical compositions by theory, or a knowledge of the laws that govern tone harmony, so designers, architects, and printers can likewise produce beautiful things by the laws that govern their creation. For the benefit of those who have not made this a particular study, it may be helpful to set down a few of these findings. This I have been asked to do by the editor of the Ministry.
It is well to remember that many people are influenced more by what the preacher does than by what he says. Poorly arranged announcements, badly lettered signs, poorly prepared charts, and even the decoration of the rostrum may and do work against the most effective preaching. Let us scan briefly a few guiding principles in the art side of evangelism.
1. Signs.—Where places are large enough to hold public efforts, professional sign artists are usually to be found. And it is well to remember that the better this part of the work is done, the better the class of people who will be attracted by the effort. Tasteful, dignified signs speak of orderly thought and organization behind the effort, and have an attracting influence.
2. Announcements.—It is not the amount of wording, not the size of the card, but the nice balance between the large type and small, together with the open spaces, that makes for its attractiveness. Even a card 4 x 5 inches should have plenty of margin. If possible, use large type in the announcement for words needing emphasis.
3. Colors.—Flaming scarlet cards, or strong blues or greens, while they create a bright spot at a distance, also make for poor reading. Never forget that the type cannot be so easily read on dark surfaces as on light-tinted stock.
4. Balance by Weight.—By this expression is meant small areas of large black type, offset or balanced by larger areas of small type—the one making a gray mass, the other a black mass. This. is illustrated by Figures 1 and 2.
5. Balance by Opposites.—Try, for profitable practice, arranging type in squares, as in Figure 3. The alternate blank spaces rest the eye. Consequently, the used space is the more readable, by reason of the rests, or pauses. This, in effect, is like pauses between sentences in public speaking.
6. Pattern.—Orderly arrangement in type or design will result in a pattern or figure like that of a vase, tree, steps, or circle (see Figures 4 to '7), the pattern itself having attraction. In type, as in picture or design, we find that one part given more weight than the other serves to make the whole more easily read or appreciated. Filling a handbill or newspaper ad as full as possible with type, with no relief by cut or space, is like filling a picture with so many objects that It gives no focus or resting place for the eye as it scans the picture. Consequently, it fails to attract or please.
Cuts and illustrations serve the purpose of heavy bold type in relation to ads. A well-placed portrait cut serves as a balance for a larger area of type. The cut or portrait should be darker than the type to make a nice balance. Type alone is not very elastic. Some phases that are necessary cannot properly be worded so that, when set up in type, they form a dark spot for balance. Therefore the artist designs a sentence in reverse (a drawing made of white letters on a black background), and the thing is heavy enough to catch the eye and attract special attention. Otherwise the important thing, the subject, is lost in the mass of gray type. National advertisers know opposition and utilize this principle, and have their messages especially designed and arranged to capitalize it to the greatest degree.
Our message is very important. Therefore it deserves, and should be given, all the emphasis, art, work, thought, and attraction that can possibly be put into it.
Salem, Oregon.
* The writer of this article is a capable artist, as well as an earnest Seventh-day Adventist now resident at Salem, Oregon. He was for years in charge of the art department of the Pacific Press. He therefore writes as one familiar with our evangelistic art needs, having long aided not only in the illustration of our periodical and book literature, but in public evangelism as well. The principles here set forth are worthy of the careful study of every public representative of this movement —Editor.
