Presenting some work from over the year

Click here for a larger view of the slideshow, including captions.

When I was in Michigan last month I created this slide show with some of the projects I've worked on this past year. I've posted it here for those of you who weren't able to come or who don't live in Michigan. Hopefully this will help give you an idea of what I do from day to day (and month to month, sometimes!), and the variety of ministries I get to be involved with.

Design is Funny

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One of the more fun things I've been doing these past couple of months has been creating and designing 2100's "Infographic of the Week."

Infographics are basically just visual ways of displaying information. Sometimes they communicate real data but others times they are used to express something humorous. Our infographics have been the latter, and our aim is to show the humor that can arise when you intersect faith or InterVarsity's ministry with campus culture.

The one we created this week was especially fun and funny. Since Easter is so late this year, we thought it would be fun to see how Holy Week and Finals Week are different and similar. Surprisingly there is a lot of overlap! ;)

To view past infographics, or to follow our future infographics, make sure you go to our Facebook page and "like" us.

Making information understandable

part of my job as a designer is to make information understandable. the beauty of design is that we can take a fairly complex set of ideas, and organize it into something that you can look at and quickly understand all the main ideas. (well, good design does this anyway. it's a work in progress for me.)

i worked on these 2 diagrams recently for International Student Ministry. the first diagram shows the level of satisfaction of a person who encounters transitions in moving from their home to a foreign culture, and back again. in both cases, there is a cycle of fun, flight, fight and fit responses that happen throughout the experience.

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this second diagram is a widely used model that helps us see what happens whenever anyone is in a situation where more than one culture is involved (which is nearly all the time, actually). it shows that you can either approach these situations on a green line (desired) or red line (not desired). how you approach will largely effect how you respond, although there are certain aspects that are inevitable.

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we made both of these diagrams into 2-sided bookmark that will be sold at an upcoming conference. i'm looking forward to helping communicate these two ideas to people so that they can learn and grow in engaging new and different cultures. as people who are called to be a witness to the world, these are important things to know and understand!

Enter In

 I recently designed this logo for this year's regional staff conference for my old region, Great Lakes East. The design concept came from the idea of a gothic rosette window, with a 'trinitarian' allusion. The theme "Enter In" refers to coming into God's presence in prayer. The conference will revolve around prayer and hearing from God an authoritative vision of where He is leading our campus ministry.

This process ended up being a lot of fun. I've never worked with rosettes before and I realized there are endless possibilities with color, shape, and lines when you have something with so many aspects of symmetry. Those artists in that era of architecture and art were super smart!

my interpretation of a gothic rosette as a logo

these were a few of the other designs i had mocked up for the client

example of a real gothic rosette window design

Speaking

Tonight was the first of four consecutive days of public speaking for me this week. I got to share about my ministry at my church's young adults fellowship group meeting. I think it went well, but already I'm beginning to feel nervous about the rest of this weekend's events!

Please pray for me over the next few days!

• Friday night: I'm speaking  on Nehemiah at Asian InterVarsity's large group meeting (in Ann Arbor). Pray that God would speak through me and that the students will receive God's Word and be challenged to take risks for God's mission. 
• Saturday afternoon: I'll be sharing with many from my support team and hosting a dinner for them at my family's house. Pray that it will be a time of mutual blessing as I connect with those who pray for and support me in my ministry. 
• (Pray for God's strength for my mom as well, who has been busy cleaning and cooking to help with this event, I thank God so much for her!) 
• Sunday morning: I'm sharing briefly in all 3 services at my home church, Chinese Bible Church. Pray that church members would be encouraged to see how God is working through InterVarsity.

Thank you all for praying, I am so grateful for each of you!

Topics?

I've been told that in order to have an effective blog you need to post regularly and often (at least 3 times a week). Yikes. I think I'm usually proud of myself if I am able to post twice a month.

I don't think I'd have enough work/projects to post more than once a week. So what other kinds of things should I write about here? Does anyone who reads this have any ideas? Here are some that you can give feedback on:

- reflections on Scripture I'm reading/studying
- art or design that I find inspiring
- media reviews (books or movies that I'm reading/watching)
- photography (once in a while I like to pretend that I am a photographer)
- tips and tools for design (which I will probably need to steal from other people who actually know what they're talking about)

Anything else?

Testimonies from international students

 

I designed this banner for their group as well.

Remember the ICF logo and shirt I designed a few weeks ago? Here's a short video with testimonies from that student group. It is exciting to see that international students are hungry and open to the Gospel of Christ, and God is changing their lives through the work of InterVarsity!

Note: you'll need access to Facebook to watch the video.

Click here to watch