Grad Studio Workbook

From the ground up

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 23:36:00 -0400

I’ve been waiting to do this project for years. I grew up attending Calvary Baptist Church. It’s been a delightful place to develop in loads of different ways. Sadly, like most not-for-profit organizations, CBC didn’t have a public face that matched its ethos. It got by with a cobbled together mishmash of unrelated parts, none of which was particularly poised graphically or conceptually. CBC didn’t need a rebrand. They needed a brand.

I didn’t begin with a list of collateral pieces to revise. I began by cataloging CBC’s various activity spheres and defining each’s purpose. I don’t believe anyone ever looked at those missions and asked questions like “why do we do that” or “could this be better”. I did.

A few words about what a graphic designer is, if I may. “Design” means creating a framework. Build it as big as a metropolis or as simple as a playground. The project itself determines a lot of the scale. This part is mostly conceptual. At this stage if producing visual artifacts can be avoided, it should be. This is pure design—uncovering basic needs and understanding what kind of emotional resolution they deserve. I’ve heard people say that if you don’t know what you’re aiming at you’ll never hit it. I don’t think that’s true. Sometimes you will. But you won’t know how or why and you’d be stupid to think you can do it again. Be an architect—have a plan.

But a plan isn’t enough. That’s where “graphic” comes in. Graphic designers shape solutions visually. Implement the plan by creating a tangible or semitangible interface between client and market. Graphic designers’ work is the codex everyone uses to decipher ideas and emotions (often even their own). Doing this well means means being a craftsman. Consumers aren’t invested in designers or brands or products. They’re invested in themselves. They want the best and the most. Quality and clarity connect with people as if you and they were the only ones in the room.

But back to this project. For CBC I worked from the ground up, assuming nothing. I met with the senior staff for several strategy sessions. We laid out all the goals and their current solutions. I often asked why things were done as they were done. Sometimes I recommended not moving forward but sideways or backwards. I assumed nothing and considered everything.

Identity Calvary Baptist Church is fundamentally people. Every...

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 15:20:00 -0400

Positioning

Basic logo

Color versions

Core colors

Brand type in consistent FLRR

Identity

Calvary Baptist Church is fundamentally people. Every not-for-profit is like that. Each one is a collection of likeminded folks who feel their or others’ needs are best met in the same way. Since CBC is people I wanted to keep their visual identity human and kind of tactile. Concretely speaking that meant using textures and lighting and details. Things people would look at and imagine running their fingers through. More about that in a bit.

Core identity for Calvary Baptist Church included considering what the church saw itself as. At this project’s inception CBC was poised to open a new wing of their building and aggressively pursued outreach. My assessment lead me to see them as growing—not static, not whizzing through pendulum swings. Growth cued me toward green. It’s the perfect mix of warm colors (which connotate high activity) and cool colors (which exude stability).

Textures became important. With green for a primary color and growth in mind I assembled images of nature, leaves and foliage. These primarily carried the weight of the brand. As support I picked out related images of wood in warm colors to maintain a natural feeling and to promote comfort, seclusion and closeness. CBC’s new auditorium included wood pews and intimate lighting. I mimicked that with supporting textures.

Greens and natural motifs led me to develop a logo based on a stylized leaf. The book at the middle references CBC’s belief that healthy growth is centered around the Bible. I kept the logo’s form simple to allow great scalability. Alternate versions include colors and textures common through the rest of the branding.

To reinforce my identity decisions toward change with heritaged stability I paired Proxima Nova with Baskerville for brand typography. Proxima Nova is modern, clean, and highly readable because of its high x-height and stubby ascenders and descenders. Baskerville is far better suited for paragraph reading because its older style letters are far more different from each other than Proxima Nova’s sleek glyphs are. Baskerville also does very well when used in italic for larger decorative phrases. The fundamental differences between Proxima Nova and Baskerville allow them to cooperate nicely.

For the web and for screens I used Proxima Nova (available in a web font) and Helvetica/Arial plus Georgia. Arial and Helvetica became my standards for slideshow templates used with projectors in CBC’s classrooms and auditorium. Some discerning eyes would spot clear differences between these common fonts and the true brand fonts used for printed media but most wouldn’t notice the difference.

(Click an image to view at full size)

Print Collateral One of my primary goals for this project was...

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 15:18:00 -0400

Business cards

Postcards sent to visitors

Weekly bulletin interior

Weekly bulletin exterior

Print Collateral

One of my primary goals for this project was that each piece be practical. Sometimes that meant restraint and sometimes it meant advocating inconvenient change. But usability remained paramount—for Calvary Baptist’s staff, members and outreach.

I designed business cards to be simple and direct. No unnecessary information and no minuscule type. They also reinforce what emerged as my approach to typography for CBC. I kept text flush left ragged right with generous leading wherever possible. This format eliminated delicately balancing copy and the formality inherent in centered text.

I approached postcard similarly. But this time personal connection was crucial. Though writing messages by hand is more time consuming I felt it was important enough to be worth doing. Visitors now receive a postcard from CBC after their first visit. Just a quickly jotted note thanking them for coming and encouraging them to return. The back of these postcards uses intimate lighting and large text to focus attention on a its simple message—thanks for being with us.

The weekly bulletin was its own monster. Most of its content had to be easily updatable so the format had to be flexible. I architected the information to be as clear yet bendable as it could be. The graphic front cover would only change with each calendar year and the notes panel next to it never had to change. The other two exterior panels saw mild change week to week but nothing as extreme as the interior.

When I began working on the interior I laid out the left half using static information while reserving the right for dynamic. On the right weekly announcements eliminated the need for mentioning a laundry list of items during the service each time (as had historically been done). The weekly verse changed but as with the announcements area I allowed enough space for full and lean weeks. An at-a-glance calendar kept only the most important events in front of members. This turned out to be the most popular feature of my redesigned bulletin among CBC’s members.

(Click an image to view at full size)

Slideshow template (Click an image to view at full size)

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 15:13:00 -0400

Welcome screen

Opening day graphic

Sample text-focused slide

Sample image-focused slide

Sample text slide

Missionary letters graphic

Seen but not heard

Slideshow template

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Website (Tour) Here’s a brief guided tour of my proposed...

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 23:48:00 -0400

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Website (Tour)

Here’s a brief guided tour of my proposed web presence for Calvary Baptist Church.

Website (Details) (Click an image to view at full size)

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 23:47:00 -0400

Landing screen

Landing screen with slideshow change

Directions

Sermons

Giving

Website (Details)

(Click an image to view at full size)

Visitor Kiosk for iPad (Tour) This demo shows how an interactive...

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:50:00 -0400

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Visitor Kiosk for iPad (Tour)

This demo shows how an interactive medium like iPad could be leveraged to provide a better experience and more information than print could hope to. To be clear iPads with welcome apps cannot replace people. They supplement them. Human connections are still what drive involvement in an organization. Every job I’ve had was good or bad primarily because of my coworkers and customers, not because of what I was doing. Being greeted and forming friendships is very important.

But anywhere new comes with a lot of new information to digest. An interactive way of getting at that same information at your own pace relieves the stress of trying to remember everything you’ve heard. The app I proposed includes a welcome page with information about the church and a greeting from the pastor. Next comes a visitor card to complete with information about yourself. This form allows taking a picture of yourself so members get to put a face with a name later. A touch map makes getting around the large building a little easier.

I imagine visitors being greeted at CBC’s welcome desk and lent an iPad to carry with them during their visit. That way no one’s breathing down their neck to fill out a form or pick a class. This places control of a new place in their hands.

My app’s look merges CBC’s newly minted visual identity with the iPad environment. Everything is a bit glossier with more white space. But textures, colors and fonts remain the same, as does details like text formatting and writing style.

Visitor Kiosk for iPad (Details) (Click an image to view at...

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:49:00 -0400

Landing

Welcome

Visitor card

Map

Visitor Kiosk for iPad (Details)

(Click an image to view at full size)