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Graphic Design

Framing a Message Quote in a Picture

Grace-and-FaithI like to take quotes from the weekend’s message and use them on Social Media.  It’s pretty easy to pull these quotes out if you’re listening to what quotes people respond to or tweet themselves.  I have the opportunity to tweet on behalf of Life Church during service, so I’ll use this   Images get much more engagement than a text quote, so I like to find images that reference the content of the quote, or an actual image from that person to use with the quote.

More than just including some text on an image, I like to ‘build’ or ‘integrate’ the text with the image and one of my favorite ways to make that connection is to have the subject overlap the text, so it looks like they’re connected.

Here’s how I built the image on the right in photoshop.

Before you start, pick your quote and your image.  You can change either of these as we go, but it’ll be easier to develop a design if you’re committed to including those concepts.

I started with a picture I had on file of Pastor Ryan and decided I wanted to use the image on instagram. Since instagram only allows for square images, I created a new photoshop file 500px by 500px.

 

Then I made a text box to decide where I was going to position the quote and made “Grace” and “Faith” larger for emphasis.  After the text was in place, to make the outline, I used the rectangle selection tool and made a rectangle around the text:

Screenshot 2015-10-27 15.39.46

 

I filled in the selection on a new layer with a color:

Screenshot 2015-10-27 15.40.44

And added a layer style by double clicking the layer in the layer pane. I added a ‘stroke’ in this case 8px / Position: Outside / Blend Mode: Normal / Opacity 100% and the fill color I used was the same as the font:

Screenshot 2015-10-27 15.41.23

 

Selecting that layer, I took the fill down to 0% – this leaves the stroke, but removes the bright blue filler I had used.

Screenshot 2015-10-27 15.41.33

 

Screenshot 2015-10-27 15.42.08

 

So now the image with the picture layer turned on looks like this:

Screenshot 2015-10-27 15.42.56

 

In order to edit a portion of the ‘stroke’ layer, I had to rasterize the stroke layer so it’s editable:

Screenshot 2015-10-27 17.25.30

Using the lasso selection tool, I selected the area where the quote box was over Pastor Ryan’s arm:

Screenshot 2015-10-27 15.43.35

and delete that portion from the rasterized stroke layer.  It will then look like the text frame is behind his arm:

Screenshot 2015-10-27 15.43.44

 

You can do this with text as well, not just shapes or lines, but you’ll need to rasterize the text (turn the text into a shape) which means you won’t be able edit the text after it’s rasterized.

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By Adam McLaughlin

Adam loves helping churches and businesses discover marketing ideas that are consistent with their values, loves coke slurpees from 7-11 and would love to speak at your conference or event!

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