Design Extravaganza!

Almost two years ago I was asked to fill a sudden vacancy as the Project AmaZon webmaster. It was the first role I accepted here at PAZ after language school. After I accepted, I soon discovered it would involve completely designing the website from scratch, and it would also involve me learning lots and lots of new programs in order to accomplish that task: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, WordPress (which powers this blog and the news page for PAZ), Dreamweaver, Flash (pain!) to name a few. Over time I’ve also done a number of design projects for various people, events and projects. My “Design” folder has been growing especially during the last couple of months. So, just for kicks, as the first post on this blog with the “Design” tag, here are a number of recent designs and the stories behind them. Don’t forget to click these to see them full screen!

1000 by 2014/PAZ Leadership Conference 2009

For my first large design project for PAZ after the PAZ website, I was asked to make a logo for Project AmaZon’s 5-year action plan “1000 by 2014” – our goal to have 1,000 churches planted by the end of 2014, doubling our size! An awesome goal like that needs a big look, so we went big – as in global! 🙂 In the end, I developed the logo, t-shirts, a huge banner (shown below), folders, DVD covers and wallpapers to download at Project AmaZon’s website (click to read more). Needless to say, it was a lot of work, but very fulfilling to see Brazil’s most affective church planters so fired up to go do this great work! Now there are t-shirts like this all over the Amazon basin, worn by people doing the Great Commission!

The photoshop file for this huge banner was over 1 Gig! That’s a big banner! Written on the banner is part of Matthew 8:10 where Jesus marvels at the faith of the Roman centurion. The heart of the conference: to do great things, we need great faith (and apparently a great big banner doesn’t hurt either).

Recently I revisited this theme to make a wallpaper listing the 75 communities where we (PAZ) want to plant churches this year. It can be downloaded here.

The Victorious Family Conference

One of the things that my in-laws, PAZ directors Jeff and Becky Hrubik, are known for are their excellent family conferences. They are often invited to speak on this very important subject. Who better to teach, really, than a missionary family with 4 kids, each whole-heartily serving the Lord?! This conference happened just weeks after the big PAZ Leadership conference, and here’s the DVD cover. Kind of makes you wish you could understand Portuguese to hear the excellent teaching, doesn’t it? 🙂

Igreja da Paz Central

Soon after the two conferences, pastors at our central church began to ask me to design various artwork for them as well. First up was the cover for a pre-marriage class the church will be offering.

I was soon after asked to come up with a new style for their Sunday messages, Weekly Leadership Training, and for Conferences. Here they are. These are DVD covers, so remember you’re looking at it like it was already open (the front is on the right, and the back on the left with the spine down the middle).

Do you see that picture of Central Church on the back of two of those DVD covers? I took my camera to church with me every time I went to church for 2 months before I got this picture – the lighting was just amazing! Soon after these I got a request for a fun project – the DVD jacket for the children’s Christmas program. Yes, it was already several months after their Christmas program, but none-the-less they wanted jackets- and these are the only kind of “jackets” anyone really needs in the Amazon Basin.

Incidentally, the only snow that kids see for Christmas down here is on this cover.

É um Novo Tempo (It’s a New Time)

My brother-in-law Bruno, a Brazilian who married Ruth’s sister Beth and whisked her away to São Paulo, is a pastor and worship leader at his church which uses the exact same MDA system of cell groups and one-to-one discipleship that all PAZ churches use. He recently put together an instrumental CD (much like my second CD Unbound) to go with a new theme at their church: “It’s a New Time.” The “New Time” refers to a time of the intense seeking of God through prayer and worship, and this CD will be a catalyst towards that end. Bruno called me about 2 weeks ago in a panic- the designer he had lined up for the CD artwork dropped out at the last moment. He wanted something simple but eye-catching (isn’t that what every wants?). He was very happy with the end result! Thank goodness! So, first, here’s the front/back of the CD (once again, as if it were open).

When you open the CD, here’s what you see:

Take out the CD, and you see this: a heart with the signatures of all the members of the church saying “I’m a part.” Bruno had this great idea of putting this behind the CD!

And when you pull out the insert and open it, here’s what your eyes fall upon:

Project AmaZon

I end with the first two design projects I ever worked on for someone other than myself. The first was PAZ’s website, https://www.projectamazon.org. Designing a website is really more like 95% programming your brains out and 5% designing. It involves coding, video editing, learning Flash (run and hide!), php, css and losing sleep. Did I mention lots and lots of writing – so much writing. And then translating everything to Portuguese! Then proof reading. But the final result is great- a venue for continuously showing the exciting things God is doing through PAZ! It’s a thrill to be a part of it!

Os Corajosos

My first project after the PAZ website and the last one I’m sharing with you in this post is the logo for our cell group. This poster also appears in an article about our recent cell group multiplication. We started the cell group (a multiplication from another cell group) in January of 2008 with a handful of people and now it has grown and multiplied twice for a total of 4 Corajoso Cell Groups! This is one of the latest versions of the logo, and it’s based off of Exodus 17:8-16 (click to see passage in new window) where the Israelites – on their way to the promise land – are attacked by distant relatives, the Amalekites. Moses stood with the staff of God in his hand held high. As long as he held the staff, the Israelites would win, but when he lowered his hands, they would lose. Therefore Moses had some help: a guy on each side of him holding his hands in the air for victory! This tells us that:

1. We need God – we can’t be victorious alone
2. We need each other – we can’t go it alone

And so we are the Courageous – courageous to face whatever life throws our way.

Hope you enjoyed and were encouraged by this small look into a part of our lives! I’ve just learned a new program as well: Adobe Indesign – a powerful document maker. The newest version of The Paperback Reutter is just around the corner, so make sure to sign up for it if you don’t already receive it. Just contact me with your name and address and you’ll receive it in the mail in a couple of weeks!