The Pro Church Tools Show with Brady Shearer Church Merch: The Master Guide
Dec 17, 2025
Join freelance designer Karl Nilsson, known for his collage-based church merchandise, as he shares insights on elevating church apparel from mundane to marvelous. He discusses the importance of starting designs with meaningful messaging and balancing aesthetics with audience needs. Karl highlights his unique style while collaborating with clients, ensuring the designs match emotional moments, especially for events like baptisms. He offers practical tips on garment selection and suggests ideal brands for creating eye-catching church merch.
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Purpose First Design
- Church merch usually starts with a clear purpose like an event, campaign, or baptism.
- That purpose should guide messaging and design choices from the first sketch.
Start With Strong Type
- Start church-shirt designs with a phrase or scripture and build strong typographic treatment first.
- Use type to inform tone even if you later add illustrations or collage elements.
Build An Asset Library
- Collect and organize visual assets and archival imagery you can reuse across projects.
- Make custom icons or illustrations when you need a precise vision for an element.