DVD cover for Catholic Answers talk

Catholic Answers

We are an apologetics organization that is committed to explaining and defending the Catholic faith. Our audience enjoys our popular radio show, website and forums, magazine, books, CDs, and videos, through which we share the faith across the country and the world.

We are looking for a cover design for an upcoming DVD product. It is a 2-hour presentation that expounds upon Jesus’ command “Go forth and teach all nations”. It is designed to motivate ordinary Catholics to share their faith with those they care about. This is not limited to a narrow demographic. The cover should catch the eye of both the young and the elderly. It is for families, teachers, activists, and the more.

Our brand maintains a respected status recognized by our audience. Even those who oppose our views appreciate our respectful approach to dialogue and our defense of the faith.

The DVD cover has a few requirements, and we have several ideas for possible creative directions:

The title and the name of the speaker should both appear on the front cover.

Title: Evangelization: Making Jesus’ Last Command Our First Priority
The Speaker: Hector Molina

Visual design is pretty open-ended. Go to shop.catholic.com and take a look at the DVD products there to get a sense for what we like. This should have a similar look and feel to our other DVD products.

In the talk, Hector uses a slideshow with a distinct visual design. We would like to see the cover emulate elements (colors, fonts, and maybe textures) seen in the slides. I’ve attached 3 of the slides from the talk for your reference.

We have a few concepts we’d like to see:

1. One comp that incorporates Hector’s image. We don’t usually go this route, but it’s a possibility, so we’d like to see what you can do with it. See attached files for images of the speaker. You may find them low quality since they are video stills, but I’ll let you play with filters and techniques for working around that.
2. Text-only. On our website find the DVD “Truth and Consequences” for an example of a text-only approach. There are a lot of words in the title, so from a design perspective it may be best to leave out visuals altogether. But it might be more of a challenge to make a cover stand out from other products on a shelf this way, so with a text-only approach, you’ll have to get creative to add some dynamism and depth to it without being corny. (Suggested image attached has a nice blue gradient behind the text. Let that get your creative juices flowing)
3. Classical art. This is about Jesus’ message to his disciples, and some of the slides in the talk use illustrations of Jesus preaching. We are definitely open to using a cover that incorporates an image like that, and would like to see a comp with that approach. (See suggested image attached)
4. If you can create a comp with more than one image, we’d like to see a collage approach. Maybe with three images relevant to the subject matter. Past product examples you can refer to on shop.catholic.com are “Catholics And The Culture War” and the book “Converts and Kingdoms”. (The attached “sharing faith” image should also give you some ideas).
5. A more creative (and challenging) idea we’d like to see would be three figures striking similar poses: Jesus, a priestly figure, and an ordinary lay person. The point should convey that Jesus taught us how to teach. And while it is the priests today who teach us, it is we who should take up their words and spread it further. So the three figures should convey that transition, from Jesus, to priests, to laity.
6. One final approach we’d like to see is a sort of grungy stenciled-on look. Probably using the Holy Spirit theme. See attached image (the orange one) to see where we got the idea. You can take the basic concept and turn it into something much better.

This is a DVD product, so the dimensions are important. I have attached the template file for you to work with. Keep in mind what we want is a front cover. The spine and back cover will be created by you in a later phase of the process, once the front cover is finalized and locked down.
We expect to go through a few rounds of revisions once a concept direction is selected. We look forward to seeing what you come up with!