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The views represented on this blog are not necessarily those of Higher Things, nor does Higher Things necessarily endorse them.
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Posted At: 8:55pm by Anna Joy
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Things have been interesting this semester. I didn't really anticipate certain events taking place, but they did, and thus it's been a tough semester but I think God's trying to teach me patience.
The semester started off with me coming back to school (yay). Spring semester always hits you harder than fall semester. Bam. Sunday, you drive 6 hours to get back to campus and the following morning you start class at 8:30AM. Not fun. But this semester's first week was...different.
Discovering that you have a room mate that is addicted to sex is not easy. Dealing with it is even harder, especially when you have to deal with it through campus authority (blah Concordia). I'd imagine it's like dealing with any friend you have caught in a bad habit. Unfortunately, the situation didn't quite resolve itself as *I* would have hoped, but then you never really know what God's got up His sleeve in those terms. But in dealing with the situation comes many blessings as well. What's in the past is in the past, but it's been almost two months since the situation was supposedly "resolved." But will it ever really be resolved? I trust that God will deal with it in His own time and His own way.
Portfolio review has come and gone (whoop-dee-doo). I still don't know if I've made it into the program, but I pretty much rocked the presentation (not to be cocky...). After arguing back and forth with myself and God for about two years of college, I've decided that after school if the opportunity presents itself I will go straight into a long term mission. If not, I'll try to find a graphic design job until the right opportunity comes along. Design is an occupation that provides many opportunities to serve the church. There's a lot of shoddy design work out there among the Christian community mainly because...
A) Christians can't afford to hire designers and
B) Most Christian organizations don't realize the importance of looking just as good as everyone else out there.
Design is something that is becoming more affordable. Shopping at Target is one way to find good package design among a whole host of products. Not to mention that Target usually has more eco-friendly options among day-to-day items (especially compared to Walmart). But churches, too, even if in a traditional sense, MUST be prepared to present themselves well. One way to do this is to have good design among not only architecture but the 'advertising' of a church (brochures, posters, etc). This doesn't mean that you take the Bible and put ultra-modern sleek packaging around it in the form of a cover. Seriously. Image is important. If you were trying to evangelize and went out looking like a hobo, do you think you'd get people to approach you? Probably not. Image isn't obviously the most important thing out there, though. Just a thought.
Anyway. Back to where I was before my rant. Graphic design makes a person incredibly marketable because they know how to communicate ideas well with words and image paired together. If you want to get an idea across without being there to verbally communicate it, how do you accomplish that? Hang up posters or leave brochures. What does that require? Being able to catch people's attention visually. This crosses language barriers. Why did people paint pictures of Jesus on the cross? Or why have pictures of the saints? Why have pictures of Adam and Eve in the garden? Hmmmm... communication of ideas.
'nother rant. Basically, I really want to go into the mission field after college. That sums it up well. I don't know how I'm going to get there exactly or what the plan is. I don't really have a plan except to get out of here and then worry about where I end up. If I could I really would love to work in Africa with AIDS patients. But considering the fact that I have no medical training, I don't know how plausible that situation would be. We shall see...
Anyway... I guess that's enough for now. I'm not really sure what I wanted to say in this post. I guess I just wanted to say "HEY! I'm ALIVE!"
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Posted On: March 03rd, 2008 at 10:34pm by luvable lutheran |
Glad to hear that you are alive! Maybe you could add a 6 week CNA course to your summer todo list to prepare you to have that medical expertise in helping AIDS patients. I've seen several job postings through the CDC looking for folks to serve a 2 year tour helping with AIDS in Africa (performing lab testing, teaching skills to health professionals, assessing the situation, etc). I think the Peace Corps also have volunteer positions in some of these countries. If you do it now, you might even be able to earn credit towards your degree.
Back to your current vocation... I suspect I know the answer to this question, but I'll ask anyhow. Is there a right and wrong way (according to Scripture) to utilize media and/or graphic arts to communicate ideas regarding the church as you describe is needed? I ask since when things of the world meet things of the church, sometimes things of the world trump things of the church and Jesus becomes lost instead of more clear. One example is contemporary christian music, while another is use of powerpoint during worship. Previous articles on the HT Forum, Mag and website address these issues, but I don't recall graphic arts being one of them per se. Although I've attended a bible study on art in the church before. I'm prepared to be enlightened (pun intended).
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Posted On: March 17th, 2008 at 3:01pm by Anna Joy |
To your question: Yes. There is a right way and a wrong way. We shouldn't make the point of the Worship Service to be entertainment.
When I said we should look "just as good" as everyone else out there, I meant present ourselves. Now this doesn't mean that a spiffy brochure has to be modern with tons of crazy, eye-catching colors, angles, and slick paper. But it does mean that Christians should put effort into what they put out there so that it doesn't look like crap. Because what does that do? It makes Christ and His Church look bad.
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Posted On: March 17th, 2008 at 3:02pm by Anna Joy |
But it does mean that Christians should put effort into what they put out there so that it doesn't look like crap. Because what does that do? It makes Christ and His Church look bad.
And not to harp on any particular organization....but *cough* one does exist in St. Louis which could employ some better design principles, instead of putting out badly designed documents and books.
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Posted On: April 05th, 2008 at 5:30pm by Nathaniel |
[Print/Graphic/Package/Product] Design is everywhere. From magazines and newsletters, to websites, to our hynals, to DVD and CD cases, to bookbags, to computers and electronics (Macs and PCs alike, cell phones, mp3 players) -- even Dept. of Motor Vehicle forms (South Carolina's are much better than Wisconsin's).
Even something that hasn't been "designed" (hasn't gone through a structured design process) has a design to it; usually, in such a case, a crappy design.
Often it doesn't take much effort at all to make something look good (or even just make it look not bad), it's usually just that people don't think about it. That's too bad, because whether you like it or not, you're making an impression on people about your organization (church, group, company, etc.) with your printed materials (or other product). For better or worse, people are now very used to seeing eye-pleasing products everywhere they look.
In my humble opinion, churches should follow suit. And not just for evangelistic purposes either. (This can be done easily without the church becoming too worldly)
At least that's what this amateur print layout designer thinks.
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Posted On: April 05th, 2008 at 5:53pm by Anna Joy |
Yes and no. :)
There's looking good and then there's good design. And yes, there's quite a difference. Good design takes into account certain "elements" of design, which you've probably learned by heart and can spout off at any given moment. You can make something look decent without employing good design. Target sells good design. Walmart has designers but their packaging is not always designed well.
What I'm saying is that if churches continue to put out bad bulletins where information is not easily communicated to other people, or bad church signs, or bad whatever, then they'll start to lose attention. Evangelistic purposes are some of the best reasons to update church design.
Design is a complicated business. Have you read Bucher's old Ink and Circumstances from Step?
Thanks for basically agreeing with everything I said.
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Comment on entry entitled "What an Interesting Sense of Humor He Has"
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