Last weekend, I went hiking in the Ouachita National Forest with a friend from church. It was my first time on that particular trail, but thankfully he had hiked this trail multiple times and knew it like the back of his hand, or so I thought. I started to get nervous when he stopped in his tracks and said, “I’ve never seen this bridge before.” He crossed the bridge and ventured on a little further. “I don’t remember passing through this open area.” We figured we had missed a fork in the trail, so we crossed back over the bridge and backtracked for a mile or two. No sign of a turnoff or any other indicators of another trail. We were forced to go back to the bridge again. At this point, we had hiked nearly 3.5 miles of detour, with nothing to show for it. What would have helped us avoid that unexpected pain? A guide who had brought others along that trail dozens of times. A map of the entire trail, with a “You Are Here” indicator. The reason I’m sharing this story is: My friend thought he remembered the trail, but there were critical things he had missed the first few times. Whether you’re hiking a secluded trail or rebranding, it’s smart to get expert insights and a proven roadmap before you waste time on detours and roadblocks. Thankfully, after exploring a bit more, we realized we were on the right path after all. We ended up having a great trip.

Brands are like bodies. Everybody has one, but it takes discipline and consistency to build a healthy one. I recently saw a 15 second video that highlighted how simple something like getting in shape can really be. The three steps he lays out are: Eat 2 meals a day with 100g of protein in each. Don’t eat other stuff. Lift 3 times per week and add weight or reps over time. Put in those terms, getting in shape is simple - just eat right and exercise. Creating and cultivating a brand identity is a lot like that. It’s simple in theory, but it takes consistency and effort.

Recently I’ve been watching a sci-fi TV show called “Severance.” The show follows “severed” office workers at a large corporation who have had surgery to divide their memories between their work and personal lives. Believe it or not, I think there’s a hidden gem in this idea that applies to church branding. Hear me out. Think about the average member of your church congregation. Does he ever consider his belonging to your collective body Monday through Saturday? Are your shared beliefs on the tip of his tongue during the week, outside the walls of your church building? If not, then you might have a church of “severed” members. This naturally occurs in modern life, but it’s something we can and should counteract. In the TV show, severed employees can unify their two identities through a process called “reintegration.” The good news is, there’s a way to “reintegrate” the identity your people have at church with their identity outside your walls. The way to do this is by cultivating a healthy brand. A church brand that is sticky and memorable can remind your average member of his belonging to a local church body, even as he goes about his rhythms of daily life. What are you doing to help your members avoid being “severed?”

Finding a designer to hire for a project comes with unexpected and paradoxical challenges. Unless you have a personal connection to a someone specific, you’re judging your options based on a stranger’s published work. Paradoxically, you’re forced to make aesthetic judgments of their style and fit before you actually hire them to help with your aesthetics. The best designer might not be the one whose style resonates with you the most. The counterintuitive truth is, the best designer might not be the one whose style resonates with you the most. Okay, so how can you evaluate a designer more effectively? Here are a few ways off the top of my head: Success stories on similar projects Clearly defined process Familiarity with your needs Pricing The thing is, if you’re trying to just make something you like, the subjective approach works just fine. If you’re trying to make something that will solve a problem or communicate an idea to more people, objectivity is critical.

Tending your brand is so much deeper and wider than using your logo. That’s because a brand is much, much more than a logo. Look at the image below and tell me, do you recognize the brand it belongs to? Of course you do! But wait, there’s no logo to be found… That’s because Chick Fil A doesn’t need to put their logo on everything for you to know it’s theirs. The emotions and feelings they’ve created are more than enough to identify them. This is done with interior design, photos, colors, textures, and font choices, which are a critical part of what we call “branding.” The logo is the “tip of the spear” in a brand. The logo is the “tip of the spear” in a brand, but the other branding elements, the “shaft of the spear” are what should be doing the heavy lifting. They’ve curated a style that gives people a sense of joy, trust, and cleanliness. Here’s the question: Did Chick Fil A stumble upon their style of branding by accident?

For most churches, their brand guidelines could fit on a single sheet of letter-sized paper (if they have brand guidelines at all). However, I’ve spent enough time in the design industry to know that large companies need brand guidelines which are much richer and more complex. So, I wasn’t surprised when a tech company called Zapier released their massive, 100-page book of brand guidelines to the public. Why so extensive? Isn't that overkill, even for a large tech company? The reason Zapier has such an extensive brand guide is because they have an extensive brand scope. Let me explain. Zapuer just has one main logo and their color palette is relatively simple. The complexity comes from all of the different places that branding is going to live. Let's say you have vacation homes in Hawaii, Alaska, and Texas, and you live in each for a few months out of the year. You'd probably have different clothes you wear, a different time of day for your walk, and different for guests. The number of places your brand will live determines how many guidelines you need. If you’re printing promotional pieces, posting on social media, and creating video content, your church would probably benefit from some basic brand guidelines. This makes sure each part of your brand gets distilled with instructions and visuals to be straightforward and easy to use (even for someone with very little design experience). Do you know someone who needs a set of guidelines for their existing logo and branding? Just in the month of April 2025, I’m offering a brand guidelines creation service for just $299 to any church who is happy with their look, but needs help making it more consistent. If that sounds like you or a pastor you know, send me an email and I’ll get your church into the queue.

Okay, so the title is a little hyperbolic. But picking colors really is one of the most mysterious and notional aspects of branding. That’s why today I want to help demystify this part of a church rebrand. Demonstrating intentionality is arguably the most important part of any church rebrand, and that applies not just to color but to every design choice. If you can show a proven, meaningful process was used, it can generate tremendous buy-in and overcome objections. In this post, I’ll overview that proven, meaningful process. We’ll look at where to find good colors and how to harmonize them, ultimately creating a pleasing, God-glorifying palette. A color palette built with this process is hard to argue with! Where to Find Good Colors The short answer is: in God’s created world! I recently was listening to this podcast episode about color, painting, and art (not as boring as it sounds). The guest, Forrest Dickinson, talked about how Scottish tweed makers will go out into the countryside, capture a swatch of colors from their environment, and use those colors in their designs. What’s stopping us from doing the same thing? Find or take a photo of your church building, its surroundings, or something in your environment that fits the aesthetic you’re going for. This is going to be your reference image. How to Harmonize Your Church Colors Color is light. And much like sound, it has different wavelengths that represent different parts of a spectrum. When those wavelengths align in certain patterns, they harmonize. A great place to start is by choosing what I like to call “Core Colors.” Your core colors are the duo, trio, or quartet that glue your whole brand together. Start by choosing a light and a dark. This could be white and black if you’re going for a very bold and edgy vibe. I like to choose an off-white or pastel from the highlights in my reference image and a dark color from the shadows. Then, choose one or two more saturated colors between your light and dark in terms of brightness. These should be more vibrant and pop a little more. Type out your church name in a Word Doc or in Canva. Make the background one color and the text another color from your core color palette. Try different combinations for the text and background. Is the text readable in most of them? If not, you may want to adjust the values until they have better contrast. If you follow these steps, you’re more likely than not to come up with a pleasing, Christmas-honoring harmony of colors that will be functional in print and digital spaces! Try it for yourself.

Every church does some printing in house, but who do you pick for professional printing services? I’m a big proponent of using a local vendor, but not just for the typical “shop local” reasons. This will save your church time and money and give you better results. So, here are my top three reasons to choose a local vendor: 1. The Value of Physical Proofs In my years as a graphic designer and art director, the importance of getting a physical printed proof from a vendor has become more and more apparent to me. If you’re printing anything with brand colors or photography, you have a lot riding on color accuracy. Here are the cases I recommend asking for a printed proof (sometimes called a “match print”): Prominent interior displays Something you’re printing a lot of Semi-permanent banners or signs 2. Access to Experience If someone is running a successful print shop, you can bet they have technical knowledge of how to get their customers the best results. What type of paper to print your bulletin on, how to set up your artwork for a vinyl banner, or which bumper stickers are the easiest to apply? Most local print shops will be more than happy to answer your questions, if you just ask! 3. Cost Savings VistaPrint and other online print services may be easy to use, but they charge a premium price for that convenience. Between shipping costs and upcharges for every add-on, they’re often the more expensive option for churches looking to print materials on a budget. These are just three of the reasons I recommend churches use a local print shop whenever possible. If those weren’t enough, other reasons include investing in your community, getting consistent quality, maintaining a relationship with a local business, and having someone who can help if a print job goes wrong.

Balancing high standards with inclusivity in the life of a church can be challenging. For example, not everyone may have the skills to sing in the choir or play an instrument during worship. How can we maintain quality without relying solely on professionals? Here are three categories you can use to think about this topic: 1. The Talented Specialist God has put people with unique gifts and talents in every church. We should use them! If you have someone in your congregation who specializes in exactly what you need - they’re probably the best choice. 2. The Willing Volunteers Then there’s a grey area of things you COULD do in-house. At my church, we’re redoing some fencing around our AC condensers outside the building. We’ve gotten bids from professional contractors, but we also have guys with lots of construction and welding experience in our congregation. Those guys could probably get something decent put together in a couple weeks. It’s a decision between spending the extra money on a professionally built fence that will look more beautiful and last longer, VS doing it ourselves with a shorter expiration date (and probably less beautiful). 3. It’s Out of Your Wheelhouse Finally there’s the category of things that would be wasteful and fruitless to NOT hire a pro. A lot of churches don’t have the expertise to set up a sound system from scratch, file their taxes, or to renovate their sanctuary. When I work with churches on a rebrand, I do my best to make sure they can take the reigns when we’re done. Branding takes ongoing intentional effort, so I give clients a toolkit of graphics, colors, and fonts they can use right inside Canva (did you know churches can get Canva Pro for free?). Conclusion All that to say, I think there’s a level of excellence that each church has to decide if they want to pursue on a case by case basis. If you have someone in your congregation who does it all the time, the decision is pretty obvious. Conversely, it’s easy to hire a pro if nobody in your church would even know where to start. The 2nd category takes more wisdom to decide on the best course of action. Often these situations call for a hybrid approach, hiring a professional to get you started so that your volunteers can eventually take over.

Building, creating, and doing business is how many of us are called to glorify our Creator. By building businesses and influence in every sphere, we’re carrying out the dominion mandate and bringing more of creation under submission to Christ’s lordship and rule. This is true whether our work is in law, construction, medicine, or design. I love serving churches because it’s a chance for me to reflect God’s creativity and what he is already doing in each local church body to advance his kingdom. All this while pointing back to the timeless truth of the gospel. Sometimes that looks like symbolism in the logo itself, and other times it’s the overall feeling of reverence, optimism, or hospitality that you can bring out through other visual elements. My work has gained attention from secular designers from time to time, and I don’t think they quite understand what it is that I do. They don’t see how working with churches can be profitable. The truth is: it’s not the most lucrative market. I price projects at below what I believe the value is, but even then many churches aren’t willing to spend ministry dollars on branding. That’s okay with me because I’m able to pour myself even more into other projects that ARE a perfect fit. Because of this approach, I’ve gotten to have those conversations with my peers about why I continue to work with churches. I’m driven by more than just money. If this were all taken away tomorrow, I would still praise God for it. I feel invigorated and fulfilled by the work he has called me to in this season of life, but I know it is a gift and that the next thing he leads me into will result even more in my ultimate good and his ultimate glory.