Versatility in Branding

A logo cannot simply exist on its own. It’s suppose to hold it’s own, but it doesn’t exist in its own space. It has to be applied to business cards, stationary, sides of trailer trucks, window fronts, clothing tags, the list goes on.This implies that there other graphic forms that accompany said logo, how does your stack up? Have you done exercises to determine the flexibility of your logo? This is what we call branding. Attaching anything to your strong logo, must be cohesive to all pieces ever created and will be created, and add meaning to the existing identity mark.

In my very humble opinion, Target has one of the most flexible identity system I have ever seen. Their current campaign on tv and print is “Life’s a Moving Target”, and it’s so effective because of it’s simplicity. Present the need, provide the solution. It not only showcases their simple logo, but their simple philosophy – “life moves fast, shop at a store that has what you need in no time at all.” Love it.

Original Source (link)

Life’s a Moving Target Commercial:

Latest Project: Relevant Magazine Ad

Full Page Ad in Relevant Magazine for DTS

Context. Context. Context.

Design is all about context. If anybody else says otherwise, they don’t know what they are talking about (look at their portfolio if you don’t believe me). As a designer, your primary concern always revolves around getting to know your audience and how they might perceive your message. After all, the medium of design is to deliver a message, hence, The medium is the message (thanks Marshall).

Whether you are a large-scale advertising agency, or a small 3-person shop, the tool of contextualization is very important to have. Christian ministries, churches, organizations and seminaries/colleges all share a unique message – the gospel of Jesus Christ. We all play our part in bringing Him glory, but we must be very careful about how we share the gospel of Jesus Christ via our message strategies.

What special thing sets you apart as a church/organization/ministry/seminary/college? 

As a designer for Dallas Theological Seminary, I understand that the mission of the seminary is to train up godly servant-leaders for the proclamation of Jesus Christ worldwide. But that isn’t our distinguishing mark that separates us from the rest of the seminary crowd, they all do this! It’s our trademark Th.M. degree, which is different, simply by the sheer number of credits one needs to earn in order to receive the degree. As one admissions counselor here has put it, it’s your typical Min Div, plus an applicational/practical component. It gets you ready to serve in the ministry that God has called you to do.

How do you market something like this? What must I be aware of, contextually? 

Recently, I’ve had two full page ads for magazines come across my desk. One for a more conservative, older crowd and the other a more youthful and current topic type of magazine. Could I have designed one ad and stuck them into both of the magazines and call it a day? Sure, why not?

But is that good design? Good design implies that you are constructing a message so that it can be easily and clearly understood. The older generation might not understand the use of minimalism in a piece, and therefore miss the entire message. On the flip side, the younger generation might not understand why things have to be spelled-out, when all they want to do, is think for themselves.

In either case, the message is not intended for that demographic, and then it bombs. Construct two different pieces. Make sure they apply to their contexts, but also that they tie together in some form (same logo sizes, same font, similar color palettes, etc.). That way, when a person picks up both magazines, they can see that your message is the same throughout, regardless of the context. This is the power of branding and careful design (a later post on this).

Communicate using context, wait, and then expect results

By utilizing the tool of context, we can produce great designs that deliver clear and engaging pieces of advertising. Contrary to belief, advertising is not of the Devil. In fact, overlooking the person you are trying to reach, that’s the real injustice here.

A teaching tool that Jesus frequently used was the parable. The thing about these parables was that for those people that lived when Jesus did, it made sense. Jesus was including certain cultural practices and traditions in these parables, that only these people got! It’s only with hindsight and history that can enter into these parables and understand them for ourselves. Jesus used context as a means to teach and reach people. We can use the sample principles and apply them in our external communications.

Concluding Thoughts

So, as you think of your church/ministry/organization/seminary/college’s unique message, remember the context of those people whom you are trying to reach. Remember to create pieces that have cohesion across contexts, so that your branding becomes strong and uniform. It’s a lot of work, a lot of pre-planning, revisions and edits, but in the end, it will be the best thing you will have done to ensure that our message – the gospel of Jesus Christ – successfully goes to the ends of the earth (God will accomplish this no matter what, but we still play a part in it, somehow).

 

Identity

Christian. Asian-American. Creative.

Ethnically, I’m Taiwanese. Two byproducts of this identity are a strong work ethic, which is proportionally tied to the amount of pressure one feels when exercising said ethic. My parents are first generation immigrants to the United States. As my Dad recounts to us children, “When I arrived in the US, I came with a few dollars in my pocket, and a dream, that was it.” This is the story of my parents, along with a vast majority of others who immigrated during that time too. If my Dad did not work hard at learning English, then he would not last in this country for very long. If he did not attain a level of success, then he would return to Taiwan a failure, shamed by his own father. If he didn’t try his hardest to assimilate to American culture, then he wouldn’t achieve success (by success, I mean the American Dream success, which is different than the definition of success in the Bible). So naturally, with his elbows dyed black from grease, and his knees weak from the hard work he has put in, these values fell upon me, along with the pressure to do better than him. My dad, by American standards, has done really well for himself. He’s managed to acquire a large house in the suburbs, save up for retirement, and put three kids through college debt-free.

Inherit within the Asian community is a drive for success, this manifests itself in you becoming a doctor, lawyer or engineer – you don’t have another choice. Naturally, these positions are prized among societies because of what you need to know in order to perform the job. They are also higher paying jobs, which plays a part into Asian parents being taken care of during retirement.

But, why is this any relevant to this blog? What does this have anything to do with Arts and Christianity?

As a product of the previous generation, it’s imperative to understand how their culture impacts you, positively and negatively, as a Christian creative.

Right from the start, I picked a profession that doesn’t merit favor from the hardline traditional institutes of parental consent. And to add insult to injury, I became a believer in Jesus Christ. I was going to “give my life away”, as the rhetoric goes.

So the double whammy of being a Christian Creative, seeking to further God’s will on the earth by creative means. Could it get any more antithetical to the standard American Dream? Could it be any harder as a Christian Asian-American? Daily die to self, pick up my cross and follow Jesus.

The more and more I got involved with Christian ministries, churches, organizations, the less and less people were interested in high quality standards in the arts. They viewed art purely as a utilitarian component, a means to an end. It was with this discovery that I realized the uphill climb for the elevation of arts within the Church. This requires much work. Enter in my cultural values.

On a personal level, I am committed to provide the best of my abilities to the Church. Whether that’s my day job as a video editor/graphic designer for Dallas Theological Seminary or for my freelance business. This commitment is not only biblical, as my gifts are for the edification of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27-28), but also rooted in my cultural values, to work hard.

There are many people out there engaged with this type of thinking, Collide Magazine, Relevant Magazine, STORY:Chicago, ECHO Conference, Passion Conference, Catalyst, North Point Media, the list goes on and on. These people don’t need to be Asian-American to understand the value of hard work, but from a personal level, this cultural value has inspired me to implement the culture that God has purposefully placed me in to bring Him glory through the gift that He has also equipped me with. 

If you’re an Asian-American Creative reading this: the work you’ve put in to get recognition from your parents is not in vain. Even if they don’t notice your sacrifice to get the skills you need to do what you love, God sees it. God has equipped you with a very special skill set to see and interpret the world around you with a different set of eyes than of the world. Come to Jesus Christ. In Him, you will find perfect satisfaction, that does not need to be earned, but rather given without anything you can provide. You can be still be creative, in fact, you’ll probably be more creative knowing that you have the Holy Spirit indwelling inside of you to create more.

Inspirational Sources

As a practitioner of the creative arts, inspiration accounts for 80% of the final product. 20% of it is good ol’ fashion elbow grease hard work.

I’m constantly on the lookout for anything that might peak my visual interests, places like Abduzeedo, along with ffffound and numerous feeds in my Google Reader. (If you’d like a comprehensive list, leave a comment with your email address and I’ll send you one).

I’m always looking at textures on the side of buildings, street signs, company logos. Anything to get my mind jogging and thinking in a new perspective. I’ll turn my head to the side to look at something. I’ll lower my body to get a closer look at flowers, animals, or the chewed-up-spit-out gum.

There’s also another reservoir for creativity, my past. Feelings, emotions, memories from days past. Sounds I might have heard when I was 7 while at the park flying kites with my little sisters.

Where do you get your source of inspiration? Are you a process oriented person who uses the process to spur on inspiration? Are you methodical? Go-with-the-flow kind of creative? Are you one of those people who can just turn it on, and let it fly?

Christians, do you pray routinely before starting a project? During the project? After the project has been complete? Do you allow the Bible to speak to you visually to gather inspiration?

I know that Ephesians 4:11-13 doesn’t explicitly say that Christ posited the position of Creative in the job equipping list, but I’d wager (if I were a betting man) from Exodus 31 that  God did indeed have in mind creativity as a spiritual gift. This, to me, gives me greater inspiration and hope that what I do isn’t for vain/naught. What God has given as a spiritual gift is for the unification of the church until the Lord returns to Earth, and I believe every word of that.

So what is your inspiration? Leave it in the comments.

Happy Anniversary!

This coming monday is my wife and I’s first wedding anniversary! We made it a whole year! To commemorate this joyous occasion, I did what any other graphic designer would do, create a graphic and implement that across many mediums. Ha! For real though, that’s exactly what I did!

One morning I got up super early to photograph a ring tree that Holly bought for our bathroom (CB2 online). We never had a place to put our rings, and so ring tree holder! Problem solved. She loves the thing, as do I. Upon photographing it, I played around with some fonts and settled on Ostrich Sans, which has this wonderful font weight family that has thin, condensed, double stroked, etc. I used it on the “365″ “ONE” and “YEAR”. I used Raleway for “HAPPY” and “ANNIVERSARY” for something with a bit more width and proportion. (Disclaimer, I’m a HUGE fan of The League of Movable Type, I think they do phenomenal work there!) I also added a text treatment on “YEAR” by intertwining the letters around the ring tree holder, mimicking our love for one another (cue sappy music).

I started with something of the print variety and made a card:

And then of course I designed for the iPad 2 my wife just got:

And of course I had to design for my new iPhone 4 that I recently acquired: 

And lastly, I had to design for my MacBook Pro, obviously.

Tune in next year for a revamp of the wedding anniversary design!

 

 

 

 

A Lesson in Brand Equity (and how Christians should pay attention)

As I’m finishing up a web advertisement campaign, a few thoughts on how the broader culture has used web advertisement and how Christians should pay attention.

As I’m surfing through sites, I’ve been more keen in noticing how these small pieces of web real estate look, feel, and react. There are some that are Flashed based and will animate. There are some that are static, but full of dynamism via color. Still others that are stoic, empty and pale. Each trying to differentiate themselves from the page that they live on.

From what I can deduce, I believe that each piece is trying to achieve one of two things;

1. Communicating a message about the company in which it is advertising and
2. Trying to establish a feel and look of the company (brand equity).

As I was browsing through Brand New’s website, I notice towards to top of the page a placeholder for ads. I kept refreshing the page to see the various types of ads and what each one looked like.

Case Study #1: Mail Chimp

MailChimp is a website for companies and individuals to send out very uniquely designed (and well made) email newsletters.

Notice that in the banner ads the word “email” does not exist. Nor does “subscriptions” or “easy to use”. It’s my own theory that the designers over at Mail Chimp understand that this ad was to be placed on a logo rebranding blog, and that the target audience would be designers, illustrators, artists, marketing personnel, etc. And by knowing this information they tailor made this ad to

1. Communicate to designers that they too can be creative and
2. by showcasing that they are design savvy, they, too, belong in the discussion of good design.

By understanding the context, MailChimp was able to craft an advertisement that capitalized on both message and brand equity, and they did it, seemingly, without much effort.

This brings to me next point, Christian web advertisement.

Most of the time, When I hear “Christian” and “Design”, I think of this:

Stock photography, book covers that seem to glow, one word descriptions of a book that is suppose to shock me. These ads communicate their message, albiet crudely, but do nothing to create brand equity.

Sadly, this is the type of stuff out there that scream “Christian” Which, thankfully, many Christians (CFCC, Collide Magazine, Already Been Chewed, etc.) are currently trying to eradicate. I’m of the persuasion that sacred and secular has no boundaries, they are one and the same. We are not yet perfected, continually growing from one degree of glory to another. I believe that Christians, specifically Christian graphic designers can produce amazing work. We can utilize the techniques illustrated above. Adam and Eve were put on this earth to cultivate it, let’s pick up our shovels (in this case, our tablet pens) and continue doing the work, until Christ calls us home.

Oh and btw, there are some great Christian web ads out there, albeit these too also don’t contribute to the secondary purpose of web advertisments (*Sigh). Like this one (found on Justin Taylor’s Blog):

*Disclaimer: I offer negative remarks solely for the purpose of constructive criticism. If you are the designer or the person responsible for those ads, I apologize if I have offended you in any way, I mean no personal damage to you.