Blog

(Joshua Blankenship is the Design Director for New Spring Church where he handles overall design, brand and web strategies.)

Big idea: if you don't value design, then you don't love people.

What is design? It's not just aesthetics, Photoshop or the last step in a process.  Design is every decision made about an experience, product or service.  Design is decisions, so everyone is a designer in some way.  People can contribute in their specialized area. For example, people with no web design experience could give useful feedback on website usability.

Think of the Apple Store.  Every aspect of that experience is designed from the fonts to the layouts to the actual products. Likewise everything in a Borders (RIP) was designed, too. The difference?  Good design is about alignment.  Apple has a consistent voice throughout the entire experience.

Bad design causes dissonance. You walked into a Borders and couldn’t find a the book you wanted.  Neither could the staff. That's a problem.  For your church, there's dissonance if you have a pastor who speaks more traditional and your website sounds youthful and playful. People are not being communicated to in one voice.  The more voices that exist, the more chaotic it gets. It's hard to feel welcomed in a church where there's chaos.  There’s enough of that outside the church where people and companies are always trying to get our attention.

What is love?  It’s an intense feeling, deep affection or personal attachment. Love is patient and kind.  It doesn't boast.  It's not arrogant or rude.  (Read Corinthians.)

• Love equals action. It's one thing as a church to say we love people, but we need to put that into action when we serve them.
• Love is patient.  You have to realize you're not normal. Designers are probably different than their end users. If we design for ourselves, we're missing out on a lot of people who visit our site.  We have to be patient with people who aren't like us.  Love is patient because good design takes time. Time is often lacking in a church staff setting.  You have to be patient with staff and yourself if you're having a hard time designing something.
• Love is kind. Kindness is not niceness.  It's a concern for others. The design and layout of Microsoft Word isn't kind. There are so many things to click on.  Consider church directional signage. Even if it's simply designed the code words your use for various programs can be confusing.  Instead of using "igniter," use "students." It's easier for people to navigate. The best design removes user burden.The opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy. Bad signage may not hate me, but it's apathetic to if it's useful to the user.  It may look awesome, but isn't functional. You have to differentiate pretty from useful.
• Love doesn't envy. You learn from watching. But when you look at someone's work with envy, there’s a tendency to copy. If you just copy, you won't understand the decisions and strategy that went into it. All you're copying is the final step. You can also end up with a product that doesn't serve your goals and people. Copying skips understanding. When you look for inspiration, look at lots of things.  Then you won't be as tempted to steal.
• Love does not boast. It's hard not to boast about the work you're doing. We don't know everything. Boasting now will hurt later.
• Love isn't arrogant. Your job is to serve people no matter what you do. Consider others better than yourself and humble yourself to serve them.
• Love isn't rude. Talent is not an excuse for rudeness. That doesn't mean there isn't room for tough discussions in the creative process. Talent equals stewardship. If you’re good at something, it's a gift from God. Be a good steward of that talent.  Don't be a noisy gong but a servant class.