stewardship

A New Book I Want to Read

September 16, 2011 1 Comment

Alot of my work is for churches and other religious organizations.

With that in mind, I’d like to read the newly released Outspoken: Conversations on Church Communication. It’s by Tim Schraeder, and it’s put out by the Center for Church Communication, the same people who do the blog Church Marketing Sucks.

I don’t know much about the book, but at a mere $10.07 from Amazon, I figure it’s worth checking out. (It’s also available to order at Tribeca, in Watertown, WI).

Cost aside, the real reason I’m buying Outspoken is because its promoters have sparked my interest. They’ve creatively marketed their product and let me, their audience, know they’re sharing the collective wisdom of 60 church communication experts. Not only that, they’ve also provided free banners so I can promote their product as well. How smart is that!

So, if this book has done such a good job communicating its message, I’m guessing it will have helpful ideas for churches to communicate theirs—the greatest message of all, that of God’s love.

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Pro Bono No Bueno?

May 4, 2011 11 Comments

Yesterday my AIGA guild gathered for our monthly cuppa joe and design discussion. Our topic: the aptly-titled “Pro Bono No Bueno?” by Jen Stewart.

When asked how many graphic designers periodically do pro-bono work (free or greatly discounted), we all raised our hands.
When asked how many of these projects turned out to be headaches, again, we all raised our hands (kind of like the Willy St. construction happening in front of our venue Ground Zero Coffee Company).
When asked if any of these turned out to be meaningful and beneficial, we laughed, and most of us put our hands down.

C’mon! Not meaningful and beneficial?

After talking it out, we came up with helpful ideas that promise a more successful pro-bono project for both the graphic designer and the client. After all, our goal is a final product that’s the best it can be, whether the client is paying or not.

Establish good communication

The most effective projects happen when the graphic designer and client work together as a team to accomplish a goal. This is true for pro-bono projects, as well. Clear, detailed and timely communication is a must.

Often pro-bono projects are for non-profits, which commonly are committee-based organizations. The best design committees consist of three people or less, with one person serving as a designated spokesperson. This person should communicate to the graphic designer.

Define goals and stick to them

Objectives…Scope of project…Deadlines…Roles and responsibilities. These are things the designer and client must carefully define and then stick to.

Staying on course ensures the project can be completed on schedule and according to plan.

Know the value of the project

The biggest frustration of my designing peers is that pro-bono clients don’t understand the value of the product they’re getting. Unfortunately, “the less paid, the less valued” is a common woe.

Designer’s aren’t looking for an ego pat (although promotional recognition sure is nice—after all, business success is what enables us to offer pro-bono work). Rather, when clients know the value of the product, they’re more likely to fulfill their responsibilities and the end result is so much better.

If your designer doesn’t reveal what he would normally charge for your project, come right out and ask. You’ll benefit by knowing!

Work with a contract

A contract protects both the designer and the client, and should be created through back and forth discourse. It should outline the project; who will do what, when it will be done, and for what cost. It should create an overall understanding for both sides.

Basically, a contract fulfills all of the points listed above and is always necessary, even for the pro-bono project.

Adunate Word & Design is proud to take on two pro-bono projects per year—one large and one small. These are projects I have passions for and strongly support.

Adunate is currently booked for its 2011 pro-bono projects. However, if you’re one of those wonderful people who plans ahead and wish to apply for assistance in 2012, please click here.

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Filed Under: Creative Thinking: Good Business
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Have You Sent Your Thank You Note?

April 8, 2011 Leave a Comment

When I was a kid, my mom was naggingly insistent that her children send thank you notes whenever we received a gift. Well, according to Tom Ahern, a leading authority on working with donors, once again mom was right.

“Thank the donor immediately,” says Ahern in his book Keep Your Donors: The Guide to Better Communications & Stronger Relationships. “The thank you letter sets the tone for all your subsequent communications with the donor.”

Trinity Lutheran Church, Waukesha, WI, is spot on when it comes to thank you’s. Church secretary Sandy recently asked me to design a simple card that would allow them to handwrite their own message of thanks, whatever the occasion.

Working with Sandy has been a charm. We discussed imagery for the cover and Sandy submitted several samples that she shot herself. With a little sharpening and perspective adjustment, her photo of Trinity’s stained glass window was just what we wanted. We topped that off with a UV coating on the cover side for a nice gloss and left the inside flat for easy writing (thanks Crossmark Graphics).

A beautiful card, a handwritten note and a fitting Bible passage. Now there’s a thank you note my mom would have loved!

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Filed Under: Communicating Christ, Creative Thinking: Good Business, Portfolio
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Color is Communication

February 8, 2011 Leave a Comment

Today was another meeting for my church’s fund appeal campaign.

You’ll recall St. Mark’s Lutheran, Watertown, WI, is raising money for its school’s building addition and renovation. I’m one of three people serving on the communications committee (three being the perfect number for such a group).

The appeal planning committee had previously decided to use the same logo for this second phase as we did for the first, with perhaps a change of color for a distinguishing factor. We communications people willingly obliged and set forth studying the theories of communicating with color.

Color Communication 101

God created us to be very visual beings. He beautified our world with an array of colors and each one communicates a message.

With this thought in mind, graphic designers use color as a tool when designing logos. In doing so, they consider two important things: #1) the audience and #2) the message.

In our case, the audience is our 3000 congregation members of varying ages (median is 37) and walks of life. Of course, when choosing a color for the logo we cannot choose someone’s favorite, can we? Because, after all, each of our 3000 members has their own favorite color.

Instead we choose colors by the message they communicate.

Our logo’s objective is to communicate one overall message: “We have an important task of sharing the good news of salvation to future generations—a task we can fulfill through our school.” Additionally, the logo should also convey these attitudes:

Excitement
Happiness
Youthfulness
Energy
Vitality
Forward-thinking

Orange and yellow do all of this. Orange is a color that demands an exclamation point! As Leatrice Eiseman says in Pantone Guide to Communicating With Color,” orange contains some of the drama of red, tempered by the cheerful good humor of yellow.”

She also says, “Of all color combinations in nature, yellow and black is the most unignorable,” making this a pow!, as in powerful, use of color.

Let’s do some comparisons:

Purple

Purple was our second choice of color.

Purple is royal. It’s conveys spiritualism and excitement. It also has a futuristic quality when used in the right hue.

Purple is glorious, but when it really comes down to it, it doesn’t communicate our message with the vibrancy that orange and yellow do.

Red

St. Mark’s team mascot is the lion and its colors are red and white. Wouldn’t red be an applicable color?

For many reasons, yes, it would. Red communicates energy, excitement and passion. It’s is a color that motivates the viewer to action.

Yet, red is also a color of heat. Fire. Cinders. Here in our logo, we have a child walking with a lamb and lion—something incomprehensible, except by God. We certainly don’t want to associate them with fire, as in hell fires!

Nope, red will not do this time.

Green

Here are the colors we used three years ago for our first campaign.

When we began this campaign, there was a pervading doubt within the congregation and members wondered how we could afford to renovate our school. Therefore, the logo had to convey trust. It needed to remind members of God’s words when he says “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,” Jeremiah 29:11.

An initial color choice might have been blue. Blue is calming, meditative and spiritual. Dark blue conveys credibility and trustworthiness, which is why you often see financial institutions or policemen in navy.

Yet, blue wasn’t the right color.

This was a school project. It was for our children. It was about life. And when we began this campaign, it was before the big economic bust, a time when everyone was thinking green, sustainable and resourceful. Green communicates all of these things, plus more—it communicates generosity, a very necessary factor as we started our project.

Color is such an awesome thing, isn’t it? It’s a creation of God. It not only beautifies our world, it communicates a message.

So there you have it—the true theory of color.

Very awesome indeed.

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Filed Under: Communicating Christ
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Church Meetings and “Good News”

January 21, 2011 Leave a Comment

Last night I had a meeting at my church, St. Mark’s Lutheran in Watertown, WI. I’m on the communications committee for a $1,750,000 fund appeal to pay for a school building addition and renovation.

This is the second 3-year campaign of our fund appeal. We’re wrapping up the first campaign, which, thanks to God, proved very successful (we raised 60% of our overall goal). After studying the results of that campaign, the fund appeal committee set the ground floor for a second campaign.

We’re now off and running!

Serving on the communications committee is a good thing for me because, after all, this is what I do—communications. As a professional, I’ve done literature for more than 45 fund appeals. As a church member, I’ve volunteered for four different campaigns. Experiencing the process from both sides, as a professional and as a member, gives me some pretty good insight.

I thought it would be interesting to keep a running log on our second 3-year appeal. I’ll share the mechanics of what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and how it’s working. Most of the log will be related to communications, but I’ll share other general info as well, as it’s available to me.

For easier viewing, I’ll tag these posts with “Good News,” which coincides with our appeal theme “Good News for Future Generations.”

So check back often! And please leave comments!

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Filed Under: Communicating Christ
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