Worship Graphic Designer?
6 Comments Published by Camron Ware - Visual Worshiper February 10th, 2009 in UncategorizedI’ve heard of this situation many times now:
A church has a full-time “graphic designer” on staff, for the sole purpose of creating custom media for the worship service. But what if that person creates something that is really cool in the graphic design world, but it doesn’t translate into a worship setting. Maybe it’s the wrong color for the worship element; or too busy, or too still. Whatever it is, hopefully that person is humble enough to listen to the worship team around him, and change the media.
Hopefully, the worship team around that person ACTUALLY sees that something should be changed, and actually does something about it.
I don’t care how cool that graphic is that you made for your blog. Let’s make it fit for worship.
Well never mind the fact that it is cool in the real world, what about when no one else can do it so when it gets done everyone must just be thankful and privileged to have it – even though there is not creative about it, just a jumble of color and stuff.
This is the threat when there arn’t people with the time or talent to do the job, but someone must do it. And no one wants to say it’s terrible or make the hard call.
When it’s a tool to enhance Worship then it must be excellent and relevant.
well, that’s my opinion
Phill
Asking people to create outside of understanding strategy and how they fit into the overall story is setting them up for failure. And so the “terrible” conversations center around things like “I don’t like it” rather than how it doesn’t meet a mutually understood objective.
It always comes back to Mission > Activity > Facility. (A Craig Janssen phrase). Your core mission should drive what you do and what you do should drive what you need to facilitate it. If that is clear then the discussions are easy to have because they aren’t about aesthetics.
I completely agree! God desires excellence from us in EVERYTHING we do. But we have to take in account of human error, and that Christ transcends even the most atrocious of worship background, song, lighting scheme, video etc… Now i’m not say let all of our creative strivings go to hell. But I am saying that I believe if the ‘designer’ is moved by Christ, then the work they put out will be used in some way form or fashion. I mean look at Picasso…. His stuff was considered crap!
I have to humbly admit that everything i produce is absolutely perfect and is used in every worship service because i am the media director and noone else has any say.
After that being said.. allow me to add that I AM TOTALLY KIDDING!!
I do think that even though a designer may produce something astounding and ground breaking, it doesn’t mean it fits the:
A. message of particular service
B. the demographic of the congregation
or
C. the message of the church itself.
I do believe that the Designer should certainly be capable of creating something that can be used in any mainstream media. Any church that is fortunate enough to have someone that can create that level of work should be thankful. But the designer should not at all let that get to their head because God has certainly placed them in the position and given him those certain talents and gifting.
But along with that a church staff also should understand the way a designers mind works and give the direction desired or we can just go WAY out in left field with some things. Also they should understand that “I don’t like it” doesn’t really go a long way with a designer.
Not too long ago i did a video intro for our service and someone on staff actually said “I hate it… NO…. I REALLY REALLY HATE IT!”
Now granted it wasnt what that person thought i was i was going to produce, but it was exactly what i said i was going to create, and since no direction was given, i created what i had proposed. Of course we did show it at a service and had a GREAT response but once the senior pastor said that he loved it but it just wasn’t OUR church, i understood.
So i think i went on a tangent but i do agree that us as designers should certainly take the CONSTRUCTIVE criticism of our leaders and do what is best for our family.
I’ve been designing lots of stuff for a long time and been involved with the odd bit for our local church. After giving my life to Christ, I’ve had to re-evaluate a lot of what I do and how I do it. Some conclusions I have come to.
Design is a creative process for which the satisfaction of when it “clicks” is basically the driving force behind most designers. So when it clicks, and the reaction is negative, we (I) tend to fall back on “I’ve been doing this for x years bla bla bla” in my mind anyway – That is pride.
On the other hand, I believe people are given talents and resources by God to do certain things well. Combined with passion, it is a powerfull force.
So first thing to do – Leave your EGO at the door, focus on the fact that you are a tool in the process of reaching people for Christ.
Second – get all the relevant facts and stick to them in all discussions. Avoid opinion and emotional decisions. There are certain things in design that work and some that don’t and designers might have a better eye for it, but shouldn’t discount the fact that they may not see the wood for the trees.
Third – Always do your best!
I’ve run into this many times. Sometimes it’s hard as a designer to create something that EVERYONE likes and thinks is appropriate. I think it’s important to have someone that is in charge and makes final calls on things like that, such as a senior designer, or someone of that status. Design is so subjective- Even in art school professors will give you a B on something that everyone in the class thought would be an A , and these professors often times can’t give you a precise reason why they deducted points- Its just “I dont like it.”
what do ya do.