Taking it to the Strip

I saw this interesting art yesterday from a Seattle designer and had to share it. His name is Kaleb Coleman and he is using not only art but the medium to tell his story. Here is what Kaleb said about the campaign.

It was a viral project based off of a political topic, and implemented into the city in any way shape or form using of course our skills as designers. Going off of the concept of “family values”, I decided to focus on primarily reaching a the male audience in Seattle. The first concept was sets of stickers for placing on condom boxes within stores. The second concept dealt with coasters to be planted within strip clubs, saying things like “Do you remember what your wife looks like?”.

Santa can kill you!

Here is the scariest reminder of what Christmas isn’t. I think Santa can eat me.

HT: 22 Words

Tutorial: Working with Old Paper

I have seen a lot of designs that are made to look like they are printed on old wrinkled paper. But the problem is that typically they do not match the paper. It looks like perfect clean text and art on old beat up paper. So here is a simple way to make you art match the paper.

Step One: Find your paper.
iStock is the easiest place to find a high volume of art for this. But you can always to the DIY method and scan it in yourself. Once you have the art, bring it into Photoshop.

Step Two: Add you art.
Once you have your paper as a background you can add in your artwork. Lay it out how you want the final to be.

Step Three: Get you multiply on.
Use the blending mode “multiply” to make the art look like it has been printed on the paper. Multiply takes out all the white from the image or text.

Step Four: Copy a layer.
This part is pretty easy, here it goes. Copy the paper layer, and move to the top. That’s it.

Step Five: Let’s all select.
This step is the key to making your art look real. Zoom in on your art, and find the darkest place that represent the folds or creases in the paper. Go to your top menu, click on Select, then choose Color Range. With the eye dropper tool select your darkest place on the paper. You can adjust the Fuzziness to get the desired effect.

Here is how it should look when you are done.

Step Six: Text work.
Your text will not match the art so you will need to work on that now. First you need to make sure you rasterize your type, or merge your type groups. Once you do that add a Gaussian Blur to the type to match the blur of the paper and other art. Make sure you do not overdue it though, it can look too blurry.

Step Seven: Nothing, you are done.
That’s it, you are done. One thing you might want to do is save your file.

I hope this helps you. Taking the time in your art will make all the difference. It is the details that can make something that is good become great.

The Idol of Marketing (part 2)

When dealing with marketing a church there are many areas I love, and many that I have problems with. To start out I want to say that I believe marketing can be a great tool used to glorify and proclaim God. But it can also become an idol that we place before God. I want to look at who we market to and how we do it.

Now I understand that all churches are different, so this will not apply to all, but this is true for the average church in America.

The 35 year old male is the most coveted prize to be won for the church marketer. He has 2 kids, an attractive wife, likes football and reads Maxim magazine (And no, I will not link to it.) This person has heard of church, and will go on occasion during holidays if his wife makes him. He finds church to be boring, feminine and doesn’t understand why he has to sing love songs. This person is what the church marketer will spend all his time and money trying to reach.

So how do we typically reach him? One way is to show him things he likes, as to make him understand that church is no different than what he is used to. We show attractive men and women, with big smiles and nice clothes. We do parodies of TV shows and movies so he understands that we all watch these things. We let him know how awesome our kids programs are, and how fun his children will have. We make sure that everything has a masculine feel to it, so he understands church is not for women only. And last, we inform him how short the message is and how rock the music is.

From a marketing standpoint this all makes sense. You are breaking down barriers to a product he never understood. You are giving him easy options to choose. But from a biblical standpoint I see many flaws with this model.

Where is God in any of this? If you read above you will see that He is not mentioned once in the marketing. Man and entertainment are placed before God in marketing. We trust more that we can get people to church with our flash then we trust that God will do what he says.

With all that said, how then do we market? How do we still speak to the 35 year old male and still place God above everything? We will be diving into this topic more in the coming months, but wanted to start by opening up the conversations. Am I completely off base, or should we be looking for a new model of marketing?

“What Christmas Isn’t” Winners

Thanks to all of you who submitted comments. They were a lot of fun to read through! Without further ado, here are the winners:

First Place - Lance

(Your choice of any two Not Art. Gospel. posters and a set of our fancy new Christmas Buttons.)

Bad Gifts = Good Prizes

This is a reminder to submit your worst gift story for our “What Christmas Isn’t” Contest. We have had some pretty funny/pathetic/sad/depressing stories, but we want more!

Here is a sample of some of the stories. Read More.

Instant Karma’s Gonna Get You

Metlink, the public transport system in Melbourne, Australia, has recently launched a new advertising campaign aimed at encouraging riders to buy tickets when using their system.

We’ve all been there before. We shelled out the ever increasing fee for a ticket, rode the tram/train/bus around all day and not once were we asked for our ticket. The whole time we’re asking ourselves why we have to be so morally responsible and always cough up the dough when they guy sitting next to us never does!

Well, Metlink is taking as stab at telling its riders just why it’s in their best interest to buy a ticket, and this is what they’ve come up with: Fare Evasion Karma. Metlink’s website explains it like this, “…the advertising campaign reminds us that the universe is always watching and is ready to exact retribution if you cheat the public transport system.”

From a creative aspect this campaign is fairly clever and fun. The randomness of the funny/creepy “Karma Lama” makes me chuckle every time I visit the campaign microsite.

The issue I’m having with this all is how relaxed the transit authority is about embracing this eastern philosophy of cosmic Karma. The advertisers have boiled right and wrong (obedience and sin) down to the simple idea of “what comes around, goes around.” The statement from their website (”..the advertising campaign reminds us that the universe is always watching and is ready to exact retribution if you cheat the public transport system.”) definitely leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

It’s no doubt that we live in a post-Christian, post-sin society. What do you think about advertising like this? Has the pendullum swung too far the other way? Is society OK with anything but Jesus? I’m curious to hear what you have to say.

HT: Mark Sayers

the “What Christmas Isn’t” contest.

So the readers of this blog should all know what Christmas is and isn’t about. It isn’t about us, it isn’t about santa, and it sure isn’t about gifts. The thing is though that we all get gifts, and sometimes we get really bad ones. What we want to know is, what is the worst gift you ever received?

Now here’s how the contest works.

1. Submit your worst gift story in the comments.
2. Hope you win.

I will be picking the worst three stories on Monday, and the winners will receive these amazing prizes.

1st Place: Your choice of any two Not Art. Gospel. posters and a set of our fancy new Christmas Buttons.

2nd Place: Your choice of any Not Art. Gospel. poster and a set of our fancy new Christmas Buttons.

3rd Place: A set of our fancy new Christmas Buttons.

Why Can’t I Remeber? Oh Yeah, It’s Me.

I have tried to memorize scripture on several occasions, but all have been a failure. When all is said and done I have found that the reason I cannot do it is me. I do not put in the time and attention needed to let scripture sink in. I spend more time listening to music, or watching shows online then I do trying to memorize the Word of God. Typically I do not make new years resolutions, but starting in January I NEED to make this a priority.

Between Two Words has a great weekly memorization plan, and I suggested that if you are like me you check it out.

DOWNLOAD IT NOW!

Here is something to chew on.

You may doubt that you can do this, especially if you are older. But ask yourself this question, If I offered you $1,000 for every verse you memorized in the next week, how many do you think you could memorize? Yet God says of his word in Psalm 19:10-11, “They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Thy servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.” The real value of the word is far greater than $1,000 a verse. The question is, Do you believe this? Believing this will be the crucial motivation you need.

The Nativity in a Bus Stop

I don’t want to say to much about this art. It’s imagery, setting, colors and emotion say enough for it. The art was created by Andrew Gadd for the Church Advertising Network.

You can download the free artwork to promote your church this Christmas season.

Here is what Andrew had to say about this art.

“At first I didn’t like the idea of painting a nativity scene in an urban setting. However, once it was explained that it was to be designed for bus stops, it gave me an idea… this idea. The bus stop when simplified is like a stable. It is after all a shelter; a place people go to but never want to be. So where better to stage a nativity? How unlikely! The image reflects the environment it will be shown in, and therefore includes the viewer. Which is what it is all about.”

HT: CMS