Exile & Return: Artwork Explained
BSF Staff
From the Editorial Team
Scattered. Broken. Exiled.
God’s people saw their home and temple destroyed, yet God promised to rebuild what sin had ruined. Exile & Return traces their journey through hardship and restoration, showing how every trial was part of His greater plan.
This study reminds us that God is always building His kingdom and His people. Even in exile, He invites us to join His redemptive work. BSF’s creative team wanted to evoke all of this through their visuals for Exile & Return.
Behind the Artwork
The Exile & Return brand reflects a longing to rebuild, with bold type, a nostalgic burnt-orange palette, brickwork, and broken and restored pillars.
The Cover
The lesson book cover combines the typography and the brand metaphors. A key consideration for our team when developing a study brand is ensuring that everything works across all our supported languages. We have Spanish- and Chinese-speaking consultants who provide guidance when needed.
Pillars and Flowers
The broken pillar with flowers represents the new life and hope within the chaos of exile and the ruins of Israel’s former home. The flowers we used in our illustrations are based on indigenous Middle Eastern flowers our team discovered during the research phase of the process.
Living and Dead Leaves
The alternating leaves metaphor you see in the border represents life and death, hope and despair. If you look carefully, you see that the shape of the dead leaf in this frame is also the shape at the tops of the broken pillars.
Ornate Borders
This is just one of several ornate borders. These are used in conjunction with other visual metaphors (leaves, crowns, rings, and so on). Each section of the study has a unique border to support it.
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Thank you so all your time, effort, thought and obedience in preparing the Bible studies, workbooks, and website for BSF. I appreciate everything!
What will be the study for the fall of 2026 and in the coming years ahead?
Thank you again,
Judy Bronczek
Romans for the fall of 2026.
The life of Moses 2027-2028.
Thankful for what did in my life through BSF
Ditto to all the comments that compliments the awesome artwork! My ladies and I love how you explained the front cover’s artwork, and how the inside front cover has artwork that relates to each book. However, like others who have commented ~ we are interested in knowing about the 20 designs that are repeated on the inside back cover!? Looking forward for the “More to come” and the next artwork article!
Thank you for the prayers, research, and God given talent that went into the design and color palette for the notebook cover of this year’s BSF Study, The Exile and Return. Your explanations of the art gave additional appreciation of the work done, and expanded the visualization of God’s Word. Thank you for sharing your creative skills with us. To God Be the Glory, Great Things He has done!🙏🏽❤️
I enjoyed reading the comments to see how so many of us resonate with the artwork! I’m an art and design teacher and immediately was drawn to this year’s artwork. Everything gets better and better and I enjoyed the Revelation symbols too. For Exile and Return, the well-researched symbols, culturally-appropriate considerations, color palette, line art, font pairing, and overall meaning spiritually are excellent. I would love to thank the illustrators and design team. Which agency or freelancers did you use? Thank you for visual excellence.
Interestimg – would like to see a green holly leaf on top of the broken pillars, rather than a brown one.
Very beautifully designed 😍 Led by God’s amazing wisdom.May God bless all of you abundantly to glorify him till he comes.
I like the artwork very much. It adds to the over-all appearance and enjoyment of the study.
Can’t wait to share this at Leader’s meeting! Love, Roanoke Va DW STL
The thoughtfulness behind the artwork is enlightening. Thank you for sharing.
I love the BSF Exile and Return artwork. The John and Revelations study artwork was excellent as well. My wish/request is for the artwork to be featured on the T-shirt designs as well. I believe many more people would want a T-shirt. Thanks
is there anything explaining all of the artwork besides the cover???
We do have plans for another artwork article soon!
Love the Artwork of this Study❤️
Thank You for the explanations.
Thank you for explaining the interesting artwork!
I love the artwork throughout the book. A picture is worth a thousand words!
Beautiful designs for each symbolism of this study of Exile and Return.
Thanks for explaining the artwork! Beautiful!
Thanks for explaining. And thanks for illustrating them so beautifully 😍
BSF’s attention to all details is impressive. I’ve always enjoyed the graphics and wondered about meanings – especially with last year’s Revelation the Hope. Thank you for making all aspects of study creative, insightful, and an inspiration. For those who learn or are motivated by different means, it makes a world of difference. Congrats on a beautiful design. 🙏🏼🙌
I was immediately drawn to the beautiful artwork for this year’s BSF lesson book. I felt as though the artwork was significant, and lo and behold, it is!! Thank you for walking us through the artistic process. 🌻
I want to know what the pictures on the inside covers of the lesson book mean. I’d love to use them with the School Program, but I don’t because I don’t know how to explain them.
glad
So beautifully thought provoking….thank for sharing. I am not an artistic person but the artwork in this study really got my attention.
Thank you for the explanation! I’ve wondered why but never what it stood for.
This explanation is very interesting and informative. There are similar plates connected to each of the books and prophets we will be studying. Some are a bit easy to interpret, others less so. And there is also the set of plates on the back cover.
Will you be providing interpretations for those also?
There is more to come!
Thank you for the artwork explanation. Lovely.
I am anxious to know the thought behind each “Ornate Border”.
Appreciate if anyone can help me with it, please!
Thank you!
One of the first things that drew me back to BSF this year besides the wonderful community and teaching was actually seeing this artwork and contemplating it. I so appreciate the time, effort, and thoughtfulness that went into creating the covers.
Please create shirts with this design in COLOR, or, perhaps more easily, stickers! I would love Exile & Return stickers of the artwork to put on my coffee mug or notebook. And so would my teens! Thank you for all you do!
I agree Allison, so well said! I would love a tee shirt and stickers too.
I love the artwork and symbolism in each piece of artwork. I would be interested in purchasing note cards if you made them available.
Thanks for all you do!
Such wonderful symbolism! I appreciate the time and talent that was required for this. What wonderful insight. God bless those who made this possible!
I have Jewish roots. I really appreciate the symbolism. Thank you and may God Bless you all.
On the back of this year’s T-shirt what do the Symbols mean under each OT book name?
Hi Peg, thank you for asking! we will share another article with more information from our BSF study artwork! More to come, and I’ll request this information specifically
As a former middle school reluctant art teacher, I so appreciate the thought and beauty into the enhancing design that complement our Bible Study.
Me too! I am an art and design teacher and found this so well done (excellence like Daniel!), contemporary and beautiful.
Oh my yes, this artwork is phenomenal! Doing things first rate for God! I love all the symbols and their symbolic meanings. I wouldn’t mind if you explained each one now or as we go through it thank you! I have that a lot of creative artwork throughout my life so I was particularly drawn to all this artwork! No doubt it has brought some to do this Bible study even. I have several sets of markers, pencils, and crayons. I found three fine line tipped markers that are the same 3 colors used in this BSF artwork. I have enjoyed coloring some in as it gives me time to meditate on what I’m reading and learning. It also helps me to focus instead of having a wandering mind. So thanks! A++
Thank you, Marcia, for reminding me to pull out my coloring utensils and start bringing to life the weekly illustrations that remain uncolored for our creativity to be launched along with our indept study and discussions.🙏🏽❤️
You are more than welcome! It Fun to read your reply, thanks! Can’t wait to see more artwork in the future. I absolutely love this!
I noticed someone else has the same question as I do about the different emblems on the very last page. Would anyone like to explain those? Thanks!
Thank you for this illumination of the artwork for our Exile and Return study. While the full artwork is very attractive, understanding the details
enlightens our understanding of God’s messages to us through this year’s study. “In your light, we see light” Psalm 36:9
So beautiful and inspiring!
Not just the cover but the way you depicted each book that we are studying. Just looking at the elements of each picture I could recognize the themes of the books. So helpful and beautiful at the same time!
Thank you for explaining. It was very interesting to read how you made those decisions.
Is it to late to order a study guide? I’m in a group already
Yes, you can still order a lesson book!
What a beautiful story behind the artwork! Thank you for sharing with us and God bless you always!
I appreciate this article! As an artist I was so curious about the cover art on day one and you nailed it! Thank you!
I am amazed at the time and the research going into this design. I have to admit I just looked at it and never gave any thought to its meaning. It means so much more !! Thank you Team for doing an amazing job at making this beautiful cover and sharing your thought process.
Thank you for this study, as usual BSF, is a wonderful resource for scripture that is absolutely perfect for the time and circumstances in my life. I guess that’s why they called it Divine Intervention. The words from the lecture were directly from God’s mouth to my ears and I immediately had to share with my family because it needed to be heard at that very moment. Much gratitude, Laura
Thank you so much for explaining the artwork. You do such a nice job and everything is so professional. It enhances our faith.
Love learning the meaning behind the artwork. Thank you.
I love this behind-the-scenes insight into the artwork, planning and thoughts that go into preparing each study. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for explaining the picture. It brings more light to how it details the study.
Loved the artwork, its one of the most beautiful creatives so far.
I have truly been impressed by the quality of the artwork this year — since I joined BSF several years ago, the visual representations seem to improve every year. I am a visual learner. The artwork is not only pleasing to the eye, but it also stimulates my thinking and invites me into the study of God’s word every morning. The details you shared not only confirmed what I was thinking, but also opened my eyes to the story behind some of the artwork which I had not yet discovered. I want to express my appreciation to everyone who worked so hard on this year’s artwork and the beautiful color palate. Your work blesses each of us and is pleasing to God.
❤️
Love the thought and detail that went into creating this year’s beautiful artwork. To God be the glory! Thank you for explaining the meaning that lies within the illustrations.
Such thought and attention to detail just adds to God’s amazing story of destruction and restoration.
Thank you for sharing these details
I love that i get to see and understand the illustrations
It will add to my experience as I study now@
I love the explanation provided for the artwork. It helps understand the context of the lesson.