Dialogue + Time = Success

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Joe Cavazos

One of the many things that I love about my job is the opportunity to work with the different departments at the church. Student ministries is something that is close to my heart and I try to help out as much as I can in helping them visually communicate to their specific audiences.

The project above is a mail-out piece I did for our high school ministry. The computer time it took to finish this project was longer then most, but totaled out to about a days work, not including tweaks and changes during the proofing process.

I really enjoy seeing projects go from concept to finish piece. My favorite part is always the actual design work but in order for that to go smoothly there are several things that most happen outside of the computer.

I remember meeting with the high school staff and listening to them tell me why they wanted this piece. There first idea was to do a calendar of some sorts to hand out. While this was a good idea, we began to think of the events that would be this calendar. Some of the events didn't hadn't even been finalized and would have to push production back. With further dialogue we agreed that we didn't want this to be content heavy.

By the end of the meeting we both narrowed down the goal of this project which was: to create a save the date mail-out that would be cool enough to hang on a student's refrigerator at home.

The other key ingredient to this was time. Normally we have a two week turnaround. Which by most standards isn't very long. This was a project that could have been done quickly but I'm thankful they gave me plenty of time to finish it.

The whole project from start to finish took almost two months. It's not like we work on it everyday but this help to give me the freedom to experiment with the layout and time to let it sit. For me, I feel I can push a project more if I'm able to walk away from it and come back to it later.

The end result was great, they were happy and so was I. The projects that get me are the ones that I have regrets about, the ones that I wish I could go back and tweak some lighting or another element. With this one as soon as It rolled off the printer I was content.

Lion, Ox, and Lamb OH MY

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Joe Cavazos

It's another "normal" week at PVC. Found out Monday morning that our office was going to be remodeled into a new nursery. The new office they are setting up for us is going to be darker and further down the hall. So I consider it it a win win.

In the middle of all this I was reminded that we are starting a new series this weekend and hadn't heard anything on what it was about. Mitch soon filled me in on the details and gave me a graphic that one of the teaching pastors used before. I wanted to changed it up, but still keep at as close to the original concept, since that is what the pastor liked.

The series is going to be "Perspectives of Jesus" and keying in on some of the symbols used in describing Him such as the lion, lamb, ox and eagle.

I've been wanting to created something with this particular style for a while. I'm really happy how it turned out, I have to give some props to the design peeps (you know who you are) that gave me some needed critique and push.

Below are is a screen shot of the original images I used to create the final piece.

40 Cover Design Under 1 Minute

Posted on February 11, 2010 by Joe Cavazos

This has been a crazy week so far. I had about three days to layout a 64 page devotional booklet and get it to press. It was three days of copy-paste-format over and over again. The bright spot in this project was designing the cover. I have been wanting to try out, what I call, a word art style (not to be confused with word art in Microsoft word) for a while.

This devotional booklet is going along with the Lent series starting Ash Wednesday. The teaching pastor hook me up with forty key words he was using during this series. I had the idea in my head and really like how it played out. The time lapse below took three hours in real time.

Upsidedown Graphic Available For Download

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Joe Cavazos

This is a graphic I did several months back for our Jr. High Dept.. My brother, Oz, sketched the type which I then used as the foundation in photoshop . The .PSD version of the file available for download here.

Blitz Series Worship Guide Layout

Posted on October 23, 2009 by Joe Cavazos

One of the things we like to do here at PVC is keep things fresh. Worship guide layouts are changed about 5 - 6 times a year. In a effort to cut down on print costs I needed to come up with a guide that we could print 2-up on a 11in x 17in paper instead of just one per sheet. The finished folded piece came out to 7.75 in x 4.75 in.

The indesign exchange file is available for download here.

XLR8 Graphic Timelapse

Posted on August 28, 2009 by Joe Cavazos

I created a new logo for our middle school student leaders group this week. The youth pastor liked the logo but ask if I could spice it up a bit. So I made this my "special" project. Total man hours was about 6 stretched out over 4 days.

If you look at the time-lapse video you can see I started one direction and ended up going another. Well, last night I couldn't sleep and I started thinking about this design and wondering how I could push it some more. I laid there photoshopping in me head until I fell asleep. Unfortunately all I could remember this morning was glass. I'm not %100 happy with the way the it turned, but sometimes you just have to move on.

Love Wins Worship Guide

Posted on August 23, 2009 by Joe Cavazos

For the new "Love Wins" sermon series I decided to change up the layout of our worship guide. The finish size is a 7in x 7in square. This layout openned up the spacing and I was even able to bump up the text size a bit. There is a huge promo area to highlight key events that require more attention then just being in the upcoming events section. I really like the simplicity of the layout and the ease of one fold.

I've made the layout template file available here. It should work for both CS3 & CS4.

The PSD file of the cover is available here.

iPhone Pic Project Turns 30

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Joe Cavazos

It's been 30 days since I've started the iPhone Pic Project. It took a while to get use to taking pics everyday, now it has just become second nature. My favorite types of photographs have been taking everday objects and them shooting in a different perspective.

Some consequences of creativity:

Creativit leaks, I've notice I've been able to be more creative in other areas of my work.
I've met another great iphone pic photographer, Mitch Bolton, you can follow him here or check out his pics here.
A couple pics have inspired some of my designs.
It has helped me to pause more.

Upsidedown Axis

Posted on July 31, 2009 by Joe Cavazos

It has been a very productive week here at PVC. I was able to spend some time working on a couple of projects for our student ministries. One of the things I enjoy the most about being a church creative is having the opportunity to work on projects with different audiences. It makes every week here exciting. One minute I'll be working on a men's retreat booklet and then next galaxy art for the High School department.

Here are a few projects I worked on this week for student ministries:

For The Sake of Creating

Posted on July 15, 2009 by Joe Cavazos

For the most part everything I create has a specific purpose wether it's to announce a event, communicate a series or setting up a photo-shoot for graphics.

After listening to Chase Jarvis talk on Consequences of Creativitylast week, it made me question myself. When was the last time I created something without expecting anything in return, just for the sake of creating? Sadly it has been a while.

I was also challenged by Barton Damer during his session at the Gurus Conference. He talked about having creative outlets apart from the daily work grind. One such project he is involved in is Art for Hurama, in which he is colabbing with designer Promise (Tangeman) Wurzell. Barton explained having projects like this helps him get through those times his designs are changed by the stakeholder involved.

Just this last week I worked on a piece that didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. As a designer I have to except that more ofthen then not artwork will be tweaked into something that I may not love. So for my creative outlet I've decided to start the iPhone Pic Project. I'll be posting pics of the day for 365 days. I don't expect these to ever get printed or publish, but I just want to make art. Not for anyone to critque or add a tagline to, but just to create. I'll be posting them on twitter and flickr, you can subscribe to the rss feed here.

So that's what I'm doing, now I would like to know what you are doing for the sake of creating?

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