visual communication

Award-Winning Heritage Homes Hosts Art Auction

A "water-painted" photo by Adunate Word & Design

Photoshop actions are one of many tools in a designer’s box for creating communicative art. Here I’ve taken a photo I used in this post, merged it with two more photos, tweaked here, colorized there and with the help of an action—violá—I’ve brought spring’s watercolor to my message.

Now let me promote communicative art of another kind—real watercolors. Communication with real connection. It’s called Memories in the Making® and it’s a fine arts program designed for people with memory loss. Long after their words have faded, these loved ones reach out with a brush, canvas and watercolor paint to convey their thoughts. Heritage Homes, an award-winning health and memory care facility in Watertown, Wis., finds the program to be a meaningful bridge between residents and their families.

This Sunday, April 19, 5-7 p.m., Heritage Homes is hosting a Silent Art Auction for works done by its memory care artists. These are beautiful expressions of the person within and are accompanied by descriptive stories. Proceeds from the event will benefit memory care programming at Heritage Homes.

In the meantime, let me refresh a press release I wrote on Heritage Home’s award-winning program.

Heritage Homes Helps Residents Communicate with Art, Watertown, Wi

Drink Up! With Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama visits Watertown WI for Drink Up campaign

On Thursday Michelle Obama visited our little ol’ town of Watertown, Wisconsin. That morning my daughter called to say she was able to get tickets to the event—did I want to go?

Of course!

Politics aside, I’m a big fan of the First Lady. I like her choice of initiatives and she’s a very classy lady. My daughter and I figured we’d be reliving high school gymnasium days in the remotest of bleacher seats, so imagine our delight when we found ourselves in real chairs, in the very front row. Yes, I actually did take these pictures!

Michelle Obama and Eva Longoria visit Watertown WI for Drink Up campaign

Anyway, Michelle Obama, along with actress Eva Longoria and Lawrence Soler, the CEO of Partnership for a Healthier America, was here to kick off a new health initiative; the Drink Up campaign. It encourages people to drink more water for better health.

Watertown, WI chosen as city to kick off Michelle Obama's Drink Up campaign

Perhaps they chose Watertown because of its name. Or maybe because we’re home to two major bottled water distributors, Wis-Pak and 7-up Bottling Company (also major soda distributors, coincidentally).

Most likely, it’s because in 2010 Watertown was recognized as having the best tasting water in the state.

Michelle Obama visits Watertown, WI to promote Drink Up initiative

Encouraging Americans to drink more water certainly has its challenges. It’s not the most exciting product, after all. And then there are those critics who, no matter what a First Lady does, will automatically disapprove. But Michelle Obama splashed water’s health benefits well (one of her many humorous puns) and reminded us that it doesn’t matter where you get it, from the tap, a water bottle, a water fountain—just drink more water.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this campaign takes off. There’s a great simplicity to it, from the purity of drinking water (it’s not even something you have to buy!) to the clean lines of the Drink Up logo and the brevity of the First Lady’s message.

Keep your eye out for the Drink Up brand. And, yes, drink more water!

 

Visual Communication is an American Right

Wisconsin State Capitol and flags

In case you haven’t noticed, my wonderful state of Wisconsin is in a bit of turmoil.

I’m being rather facetious here, because unless you’ve been vacationing on Mars since February 11, you’ve certainly witnessed much more than you want of Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget repair bill. But no matter from what side one views this standoff-watched-round-the-world, everyone agrees it’s become one of great passion.

It’s also of historic proportion.

Each week as I photograph protesters, I can’t help thinking of the images we see in history books—images of early labor unionists protesting for safe working conditions, women suffragettes marching for rights to vote and civil rights activists standing up for human equality. In all those photos, people visually communicated their message with signs.

Isn’t it blessed that we live in a country where we have the freedom to do so?

Here’s a small sampling of the collective communication going on in Wisconsin (I have to admit, in spite of my journalist’s education, my photos are a bit one sided. I was unable to be in Madison the day Walker supporters marched).

we need more than free hugs

 

people over profit

 

my mom is a teacher and she deserves respect

 

AFL-CIO

 

post-it notes on doors

 

elevator construction local 2

 

greed is why we need unions

 

IBEW local 14

 

iron workers local 383

 

national nurses united

 

open these doors

 

painters allied trades

 

save medicaid

 

keep our futures safe

 

sweet on wisconsin

Church Design Matters

Church design matters…at least hundreds at the HOW Design Conference thought so.

In a recent posting in Church Marketing Sucks, guest blogger Michael Buckingham writes of his exciting opportunity to present a church marketing and design topic at the HOW Design Conference. For those of you unfamiliar to the industry, HOW is a leader in graphic design publications and conferences. It’s not exactly the conference you’d expect to host a church-related topic.

Buckingham writes that he anticipated “maybe a half-dozen people” to show up for his portion of the conference. Instead it was standing room only. And not only did people come, they discussed, asked questions and stayed afterward.

How exciting is that?!

This is an awesome affirmation of God’s hand at work. It’s great to see people recognizing the need for quality graphic design in church communications. And it’s fantastic to know we can learn from what normally is an extremely secular industry and apply it to our spiritual mission.

God works in wondrous ways!

Blogging: Cyber-Savvy Outreach

Ah, the world demands so much from churches, eh?

You’ve published a website and are feeling somewhat caught up with modern technology. But wait, a website is now so…well, not quite passé, but let’s just say…expected. As a church, what could you now be doing to reach out with the message of Christ?

Blogging

Blogging is one of the latest social phenomena for connecting people, along with MySpace, Facebook, Flickr and other ever-evolving online communities. Trying to keep up with technology can leave us feeling lost and out of date. But before you scoff blogging off as just another distraction from the one needful thing—God’s Word—take a moment to learn how easily it can spread God’s message faster and farther than ever before.

Just what is a blog and how does it differ from your church website? Short for “web log,” a blog is a regular posting of information. It’s often written in a more personal tone and entries are posted daily or weekly, with the most recent entry listed at the top of the page. The author of a blog is a blogger. It’s readers can randomly happen upon the blog while online or can subscribe to receive regular updates. Readers also have the opportunity to post comments, thus adding to the sharing of thoughts and ideas.

This may all be information you already know, but according to a November 2007 Church Marketing Sucks poll, there still is a slow percentage that is completely unaware of this technology.

Why should this be disturbing?

Churches are notorious for expecting members to conform to traditional ways of worship and communication. Connecting with younger generations, particularly, has long been one of their most difficult challenges. Blogs offer a direct line of communication in a format that has become mainstream for anyone under the age of thirty.

Churches use blogs in as many different ways as there are churches. Some use them to communicate congregational events to its members. Others use them as an outreach to wider audiences. A simple search for “religion” on WordPress shows hundreds of ways writers use blogs to reach the masses. “We have the world at our fingertips and we can do a whole new kind of evangelism,” writes Rev. Ken Gosnell in his website, where he also describes four ways blogging can change a church.

How to get started

If you can write, you can blog. Blogs are published online using simple content management programs. You don’t need to know html, php, ajax or any other geekish language! Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad and WordPress are some of the many blog publishing programs available. Overall, they’re easy to use and self-explanatory. Best of all, most programs are free and available online.

So, what are you waiting for? Get going on your blog today! Send me a comment, link the world to your blog and spread your message of Christ!

Form vs. Function: Churches too?

Form and function. This is a catch phrase we hear quite often, but what exactly is it? How does this worldly concept apply to our spiritual endeavors?

Form is beauty. Function is utilization. Form is a fine lace scarf. Function is how well, or not, it keeps me warm on a cold winter day (which by the way, we’re getting quite a few of here in Wisconsin).

Many argue which is holds greater value, but, in reality, they are of equal importance and dependent upon one another. This is especially true in visual communications. We need an attractive newsletter to capture the viewer’s attention. We need functional words to maintain that attention and convey our message.

Many also argue that we don’t, and shouldn’t, need such “entertainment.” It’s God and his word that work in our hearts, right? Of course, this is true. But it’s also true that God gave us creativity, intelligence and reasoning. He instructs us to use them to his glory.

In Biblical times Jesus used parables—earthly similes—as tools to convey his heavenly message. He did this because our intelligent minds are also clouded by our own sinful feebleness. Visual communications can also be tools—important tools—for spreading the saving gospel of Christ.

If God created humans to appreciate beauty, then our communications must be well-designed and appealing. If God created us to be intelligent, then our words must be well-crafted and comprehensible. These are tools for getting Christ’s message through to our feeble minds. So, yes, form and function certainly do apply to church communications.