PIXL Designs

We’ve been talking about our design experience with Pleasant Hill Baptist Church all week. Today we are exploring color. This is such an important aspect of design. Many people go with something that looks cool, versus something that complements their client on multiple levels.

We chose a burgundy and white color scheme after visiting the church and noticing a faded maroon carpet. We wanted to bring this color to life online and provide a rich experience that didn’t get in the way of the content. Thanks to Standard Theme, changing up the color was extremely easy via modifying the custom.css file.

Designers need to remember that little details such as color can be the key to a well-received design. The last thing you want is a first-time visitor or guest to visit a website with bright green and blue colors and walk into a sanctuary with maroon and white.

When working with Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, we wanted to use a few unique tricks of the trade. One of these was using the iPhone for the church’s homepage photo. Often I place quality over the cool factor, but the iPhone is very capable and the Photoshop app is simply amazing. The trick was finding the right time to shoot the best picture.

As a freelancer, you want to make sure you build flexibility into your schedule. And you also want to try and capture the moment versus scheduling a forced-moment. So one afternoon when I was driving home from work I realized the sun was perfect for a photo. I swung by Pleasant Hill since it is near my home and snapped a few photos as the sun was setting through the trees. I think the effect was great!

The beauty of being a freelancer that exists for local churches is you can do something like I did. Working within your element and community provides you with an advantage other businesses wouldn’t have. This is what drives us and we are excited about the possibilities with investing in our future!

When the iPad was introduced, Amazon’s Kindle faced immediate extinction in the eyes of many. Interest in the Kindle dropped nearly 40% and buyers began to hold off to see if the iPad would be the better investment.

Amazon had a problem.

Life presents many challenges. It’s how you, your church, or your business respond to those challenges that separate you apart from others. So let’s look at what Amazon did:

First they recognized the problem. It was hard to miss with sales declining and publishers demanding more control over their pricing.

Second they began to work towards a solution to the problem. Sure they were hurt by Apple’s move and frustrated. But they couldn’t stop it so they had to work towards a solution.

Third they created a solution that wowed many and I think rivals Apple’s own iBookstore on the iPad!

So what can this teach us? Amazon recognized the problem, began to work toward a solution and then created a solution that went above and beyond the problem, presenting it with new opportunities and renewed interest.

Don’t just settle for solving problems. Create solutions that present new opportunities that can create momentum in life and business. This is true success and that is the real way to problem solve.

This would normally be an awkward Friday’s post, but this is too awesome not to share!

Church planting has been a hot topic the past few years. The fastest way to grow a church is to branch out and plant a new one. People like to be a part of something new. Something different. And church plants often have success… at first.

Marketing correctly is essential for church plants, just as it is for long-standing churches. If you have a cool idea and vision, that alone will not sell people on buying into your church plant. Just because you have a postcard with your Web site, doesn’t mean people will take action to visit. You need to have a clearly defined message.

This is where churches often fail. They think ‘As long as I preach the Word, the people will come.’ While it is true, people want to know what separates you from any other church. Why are you different. Why should they be a part? These questions should burden you enough to market effectively to the people you want to reach.

And don’t say you want to reach everybody. You can’t do this. You need to find the type of people you want to reach, and do your best to reach them. Are they traditional, career types? Are they young, artist types? Are you wanting to reach people familiar with church? Or are you wanting to reach people simply passionate about life? Defining your scope of reach is not saying no one else can enter the doors, but it is saying This is who we are. This is what we believe. This is why we exist.

Now of course, these thoughts are all over the place. There is really not a whole lot of defining answers going on here. But, as we put our ideas out in the open and share with each other I think slowly but surely we’ll compile a collection of solid advice that can be useful on many levels.

I am going to deviate a little bit, but not really. Hillsong Church in Australia is an amazing influence for worship music around the world. But this past year their passion for creativity has, in my opinion, gone through the roof. This video is actually about their 2010 vision. I chose it as a part of Creativity Week because of the amazing production work. I hope you’ll take a moment and watch it while appreciating the way the music and video blend together to form a perfectly orchestrated piece of art.

Here is an amazing example of creativity and originality found through stop motion art:

Today we are featuring what I consider to be one of the greatest projects ever on YouTube. In 2006, MadV released a video asking people what it meant to be human. He compiled their responses into his One World video. This was one of the first times we saw a completely original idea go viral.

This week we’ll be giving some glances at projects that inspire us or that we think are amazingly creative. Here’s the first—a seatbelt commercial (watch it all the way through for the full effect):

We often hear the phrase, “less is more,” but what exactly does it mean? 37signals explored this in a blog post that resonated with me. I think it does imply that more is better, when the opposite is often true—that less is better. I think we need to apply this concept to our designs. Quit worrying about trying to achieve perfection, worry about trying to do better with less. The problem with “less” is many people interpret this as “I can work less and make more money.”

This is not what we’re saying.

You have to work hard in order to make money. So why complicate your work by doing things you don’t understand or don’t have the skillsets to achieve. I’ve often heard that you should never turn down a design project because you can outsource to someone who can do the things you cannot. This is crap. How can I uphold my design distinction and brand if I’m outsourcing?

Now, before you jump on me about how outsourcing is a great way to grow your business, keep in mind the focus of PIXL Designs. We aren’t growing a million dollar company. We have a mission and a vision that is about relationships and integrity. Working full-time in addition to running a freelance business doesn’t enable us to branch out wide and try to have this huge company so many want. To us, less is more. The less distractions and nuances we have, the better we can become by focusing on our strengths.