So, I’m Going to Go Do What I Do For NewSpring Church Now

Two and a half years ago, I posted Welcome to the Rest of Your Life, letting my handful of faithful blog readers know that I had resigned from what was then known as New Spring Community Church to go out into the big, bad world to try my hand at being a “real” graphic designer and, to put it mildly, learn what the heck I was doing. It’s been a good 30 months. Three states, three jobs, lots of contract work, lots of clients, lots of projects, and a wife later…

We’ll be waving a bittersweet farewell to Boston soon, in order for me to join the team at NewSpring Church as Creative Director, and also to head up the cultivation of internet awesomeness. It will rock. NewSpring has grown by about 3x since I left (staff, attendance, and managerial structure) and is on the cusp of even more growth and change with the upcoming addition of their first video venue satellite campus, the need for a more-than-just-informational website to connect all those people, some lacking cohesion in branding that needs to be addressed, and a growing communications team. The challenges are big and uphill, but I’m turbo-excited to get to work and into what’s next.

I have no desire to do work that is “good… for a church.” I don’t want to “sell Jesus” like a product. That stuff sort of makes me want to laugh and vomit and cry all at once. It’s sad (though wholly understandable) that there’s baggage and pre-conceived notions about what design and the church are supposed to look like. Many of the church’s attempts at visual communication delve into poorly-executed, ill-informed parody, or only cannibalize ideas and co-opt styles from within the church community (which, let’s be honest, is a sub-culture of our own making and often out of touch with the reality most people operate in on a day-to-day.) 

What I want to do is really great design work. Attention to detail. Knowledgeable use of typography, illustration, and photography. The creation of a cohesive visual language that creates clear visual communication and engaging environments. And then I want to carry all that online in a seamless way that creates a similar environment there. And in that, I think we might be in new territory for me (and hopefully for churches, too.)

Details to follow. Onward and upward.