Jessy's Wedding Invitations

This project was forever ago! I had the awesome privilege to design Jessy's invitations and other wedding stationery. She's an amazing woman. I love her and her family. Her personal style made this project tons of fun.

Here are a few shots of the whole invitation set together:

Here is the invite card:

Directions:

R.S.V.P. card:

Program (front and back):

Menu card:

Kristin and Some Twins

Here's some work I did recently that I never posted.

First, logo and business card design for Kristin Lynch. I designed and she got them printed online...Vista Print, I think. Definitely look her up if you need Web Development or other technology solutions. She's pretty awesome. Here are the cards:

Front:

And back:

Second, this is a baby announcement I designed for my friend Kelly's sister. Kelly took the pic and it's amazing...i love it. Luckily, her sister Kim is funky and cool, so I was able to try out a more modern design. It turned out great, I think:

New Invitation Design

DEPPENcover

Originally uploaded by DanielleSuzanne

(Click to photo to see more)

I just finished up some awesome wedding invitations. There was a lot of last minute drama to get it done, but my printer came through for me! They always do.

I absolutely love this design, and if I could do my wedding over again this would be my invitation.

Not only do I love the design, but I love the bride. I was so honored to work on this. I can't wait to complete to rest of the designs for her special day.

Love you, Megan!

If You're an Artist in the Church and Hate Your Job

I wrote an article for Collide Magazine about artists in the church. I'm bringing it up here because I wanted a place where people could dialogue through the comments about it, if needed.

Here's the article.

Let me know what you think.

Why I'm Disagreeing with Seth Godin

:::DISCLAIMER::: I love Seth Godin.

Today, Seth had an interesting post about design that hit close to home. Check it out if you haven't read it.

Here is what I agree with:

• Having "beautiful powerpoint slides, handsome business cards, clever bio photos and a decent website" is really important.*
• If you hold meetings, you should learn how to make a good PowerPoint.
• Someone who is trying to figure out how to design a good PowerPoint presentation will never be a gifted or breakthrough designer.

*If you're not a designer, you can't make them good enough. You can get yourself taken seriously in a presentation, but that's about it (and that's if you're lucky).

Here is why I disagree:

• He says it takes less talent now to be a good designer. I don't even know what this means. How could it take less talent to be a good designer? Because it's easy to find something you like online and rip it off?
• Seth is perpetuating the popular notion that mediocre design is "good enough." Sure, it's good enough if you don't want to be taken seriously. Most professional designers won't even design their own logos because of the challenges. 
• Great design is based in great research, education and a great eye. You can learn formulas from a book, but you can't learn how to be an artist.
• What is "breakthrough?" Does that mean better than mediocre? I guess. We all have different levels of what is "good enough," so maybe we should leave it to the professionals to decide.

I'm annoyed. The end.

Obama vs. the Colonel

Just thinking, since everyone and their mom is suing everyone else's mom over Shepard Fairey's Obama poster, maybe KFC should jump in.

I mean, hello:

Communications and Web: Unleash Breakout #1

With Suzanne Swift (@suzanneswift) and Joshua Blankenship (@blankenship).

I've never done this before. Here I go:

• Their job is to handle branding, communications, and web.
• They also have IT people on their team.
• Newspring is almost 10!
• Web is just an extension of Communications. It's the same thing online in a way that makes sense. (@blankenship)
• Newspring is very simple. It's helpful because there isn't much to communicate about.
• They're a branded house, rather than a bunch of brands.
• Make sure the visual represents the cultural.
• You all need to figure out who you are. If you don't know who you are and what your culture is, it will be really difficult to communicate in a cohesive way. You want people to know where they are.
• If you're doing something that doesn't support your mission, you need to take a hard look at that (@suzanneswift).
• They have leadership that champions their style of communications. Top - down, they are very simple.
• Specific next steps are "them."
• What is the vision of my leadership?
• If you're constantly fighting with your leadership over branding, web site, etc., sit down with them and figure out what their vision for your job is. (@blankenship)
• They've made their standards available to staff and specific volunteers, so they can be empowered to use everything correctly. They've picked champions in each dept. to help.
• newspring.cc/brand to download the style guides
• They didn't want to be brand nazis, they want to be a support to the ministries at newspring.
• Help them focus on doing ministry, not promoting it. AMEN!
• They don't operate through a filter of "fair."
• If you give people too many options, they freeze. 
• @blankenship looked at web traffic and redesigned by popularity. A fairness mentality would do a disservice to people who are trying to know about Jesus.
• If we promote too much and all at the same level, it makes it very difficult for people to make a step.
• Know what your role is in your church. Their role is supporting ministries. Understand where you fit in and how you can support them.
• Define what a win is for the ministry you're promoting. (@blankenship) The win isn't how the site looks, it's people signing up.
• We don't have time to do everything. Accomplish the ministry's mission first.
• WHAT IS THE WIN?
• (side note: these two are REALLY passionate...THAT'S a win)
• Get out of the way and remove barriers. The more excellently we do what we do, the better. If we can do it and make great artwork, that's great, but isn't our ultimate goal.
• Clear communication with the people you're serving is key (deadline, expectations, etc.). As you build relationships, that gets easier and easier.
• They aren't thinking about what they need to tell you. It's on you. (good one @suzanneswift)
• If you have an antagonistic relationship with your staff, do some soul searching about what your role is. (@blankenship)
• If you don't have people skills, I would rethink the role that you're in. (@blankenship) 
• It's easier to work with people you like. (seems obvious, but it probably isn't)
• It doesn't get easier as you get specialized. The bigger you grow, the more you're doing, and the harder it is. (@suzanneswift)
• (side note: they must have awesome internet service)
• It's a learning process and it's good.

Q&A:

• Budget and Outsourcing (vendors): It's about relationships. They've had a plotter and they aren't going to do it anymore. Part of what makes it work is clear expectations. 
• They do 6 month budgets.
• Multisite Comm. Strategy: strategy is minimal. people come when their friends invite. They empower their people to invite. They don't flood the community.
• Internal Communication Tool? Just email and come see us and hangout.
• Delivery to other sites: video is upload and downloading through FTP. it depends on the content. campuses aren't doing different things and everything filters through them.
• Communicating to Volunteer Leaders: volunteer director has a blog, newspring church blog posts announcements. 
• Anything mass communications goes through them. They do not send snail mail unless absolutely necessary. They also won't do phone stuff again.
• Notice for things needed:  It depends, but they like 2 weeks, and get excited with actually getting 1.
• How do you coordinate what goes into print and what happens on stage (graphics, etc.): They don't brand events or specific things, but they do brand series (AMEN). Because they're simple, there aren't many places or people involved. 
• Series stuff: Series planning is usually 5-6 weeks out. Designed in 2-3 days tops.
• Their designs don't go through the pastor. Hasn't happened since 2002. They trust their people to do their stuff and be awesome.
• They only send e-news to people who want it. They drive people to the website.
• Moving away from print and toward screen.
• They do a lot of business card sized invite cards to empower their people to invite. For big services like Easter, they ticket.
• We just call things what they are. Don't create logos and use these fonts and colors.
• How do you get other people to "get it?" They need to know your heart and that you truly want them to succeed. "Don't use that font." vs. "Let's work together to make this awesome." Point them to people who are doing it well and compare it to what they're doing (ex: apple).
• Best way to renew the graphic identity of a church: it's huge. make sure you have support from your leadership. If you have the budget, hire.

If I could sum this up for my communications people in two words, I'd say, "build relationships."

Oh, and here is their awesome chalkboard wall calendar:

I Made Myself a New Blog Header

I'm not sure what I think of it. Let me know what you think!

The Outsourced Associate

I just wrapped up an initial project with a brand new client who I absolutely love! I've never met him, but I know him through email, and I'm pretty sure he's a pretty incredible guy. He just passed the bar (w00t!) and is starting a business and launched a web site to serve existing law firms. Genius idea. Here is the stationery set I designed for him You can see a few more at flickr):

Congratulations, Josh!

Two Announcements and, Hopefully, Many More to Go

I just wrapped up these two projects. The first is for a couple with a newly adopted daughter, using the photos I posted a while back. The other is for a dear friend who just had a baby. She took all of the pictures and emailed them to me. I edited them a bit and put it together. Both of these have been a joy to work on:

I'm currently working on an announcement for Morrow John Piper, which makes me more happy than I can explain. I can't wait to have it finished.

2008 Communications Olympics

I think the fact that I can stay up for all of the "prime time" Olympic coverage and have work to do through the entire thing says something (bad). If I didn't love what I do, it would be a nightmare. However, I love strategic planning, designing, and implementation. I have been loving this last couple of months!

I just wanted to take the opportunity to give some Grace people a sneak peak at what's changing. Of course, if you don't go to Grace, you can still look, it just might not interest you as much. Here's some of what the communications minds (derek, rachel, dave, and me, basically) have been up to:

(apparently I have no time for good photography at the moment.) We have updated our logo and general look to fit who we are and are becoming as a church. Hopefully, I captured it well.

With that comes a web site redesign/reorganization that makes me so excited I can't stand it. It's going to be an amazing online experience. I can't wait for everyone to see it (and use it!). I've never done so much research in my life. It will all pay off when it launches, though. I'll be sure to give you a sneak peek at that, too.


p.s. The #1 place I want to be right now is Minneapolis. :::praying, praying, praying...and even hoping a bit.:::

5 Inspiring Men

Here are five men who have been inspiring and/or guiding my work as of late (whether they know it or not). I shouldn't hog them. Check them out:

1. Matt Donovan: logos/identity, creative process, photography, and for leading me to the next name on my list
   
2. Joshua Blankenship: brand, strategy, taking an entire organization through a huge transition and living to tell about it
   
3. Abraham Piper: words, blogging
   
4. Seth Godin: communications, marketing
   
5. David Choate: design, fun with type, pushing limits
   

Tomorrow? You guessed it: the women.

Macs Make Everything Look Awesome

My number one design issue is that my MacBook Pro makes everything look beautiful. Pretty big problems, right? Something happens when I look at my work on a PC (u-g-l-y you ain't got no alibi, you're ugly, yeah, yeah, you're ugly). It's ridiculous.

If graphic design were a dressing room, Mac monitors would be the skinny mirror.

There, I said it.


(Flipping gamma).

Cara and Alan

caraopen2, originally uploaded by DanielleSuzanne.

Wedding season rocks. Cara and Alan have been so great to work with. I've loved every minute of the process with them. Their invitations have arrived at their guests' homes, so here they are for you to see. I'm sorry they are so dark. I need to re-shoot them for sure. Eek.

(click the picture to see more...dark and horrible photos...what was i thinking?!!?!?!)

Jamie & Bryan Invitation

Jamie and Bryan, originally uploaded by DanielleSuzanne.

I finished this invitation about a week ago for a couple I met through work. I have always told myself that I wouldn't recycle an invitation, but when I met them, I knew they would love what I did for another wedding (Blythe and Pete!). I was slightly obsessive about making it different, and I think I accomplished that. I really love it. Click the above links to see more pics of the set.

I am also finishing up a few other ones (yay Cara!), and I'll post those after the first guests receive them.

I really do like doing this. I'm itching to do some baby announcements, though (ahem...I think you girls know who you are). ;-)

I Need This

FINE. "Want," whatever.

Purchase here.

(Via design crush. Her blog is great. Check it out!)

Also, I'll post 40 Clove of Garlic Chicken stuff after my friend uploads pics to her flickr acct.)

Photoshop Disasters

I have really been enjoying the Photoshop Disasters Blog:





Check out more here.

THIS JUST IN

I think I finally understand and appreciate Photoshop.

(Please stop reading if you don't care about graphic design. This will bore you to death.)

I've never been a fan, mainly because I think people over-use it and also use it incorrectly. Adobe thought out their product line really well, and some people never make it past Photoshop. It's a tragedy. I mean, I get it. You only have a certain amount of money to spend...fine, get it...but don't spend five years with Photoshop without trying the other applications.

From Adobe:

• Adobe® Illustrator® CS3 software allows you to create sophisticated artwork for virtually any medium. Industry-standard drawing tools, flexible color controls, and professional type controls help you capture your ideas and experiment freely, while timesaving features such as easier-to-access options let you work quickly and intuitively. Improved performance and tight integration with other Adobe applications also help you produce extraordinary graphics for print, web and interactive, and mobile and motion designs.
• Explore more creative possibilities and experience new levels of productivity using Adobe® InDesign® CS3 page layout software. Built for demanding workflows, InDesign integrates smoothly with Adobe Photoshop®, Illustrator®, Acrobat®, InCopy®, and Dreamweaver® software; offers powerful features for creating richer, more complex documents; and reliably outputs pages to multiple media. With its sophisticated design features and enhanced productivity tools for streamlining repetitive tasks, InDesign CS3 lets you work faster and better than ever.
• Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 software sucks.

In a nutshell:

• Illustrator is for...ahem...illustrating (logo creation, drawing, etc).
• InDesign is for page layouts (If you are stuck in the MS Publisher quagmire, this is the app for you. It's very close...but SOOO much better).
• Photoshop is for, well, PHOTOS (if the base of your project relies on a picture, use it, but you would probably do well to use Illustrator in tandem, IMHO).
  

Until yesterday, I only used Photoshop to manipulate photos...and by manipulate, I mean play with the brightness/contrast. For some reason, I decided to embrace it for a huge project I'm working on (17 billboards that i THOUGHT were due today, but they aren't sue until MONDAY, grr). It really worked out well. I love the end results. And...gasp...I love layers.

Will I use Photoshop more? Probably. But, I will always consider it the cheap whore of Adobe's Creative Suite. My stubbornness alone will keep me from fully embracing it. Plus, I'm against prostitution...unless it gets you an iMac.

Sorry!

I've really been neglecting my blog lately. I haven't had time for much. Things were starting to slow down until the beginning of this week. Blah blah.

Anyway...I just wanted to let people know that this awesomeness exists (and that I want 100):

danielle.ttf

I just turned my handwriting into a font! You should, too. I mean...if you're into that kind of thing.

(via swissmiss)