Today I ate a burger (Number 15 burger in Texas) at one of the funniest restaurants I’ve ever been too. I kept cracking up at all the signs. Most of them would not have been appropriate in a church setting, but there were a few that would be tempting to install. Everyone enjoys a little slick humor in the form of a sign, but I’m not sure I’ve really noticed such signs in kidmin… or in most churches for that matter. I guess that many of these signs tend to border on the side of inappropriate, but that’s not always the case. So I’m curious, have you seen or do you have such signage in your church/kidmin? These would be signs that deliver smiles to adults and even has a disarming affect for those who are tense about their first church experience. Church should be fun, right?

Well over a year ago I started Front Friday and I think I only posted two or three times. So, let’s just say that this is a very infrequent blog day. However, someone passed this along to me a few weeks ago and I thought it would fit perfectly for “Font Friday.”

When doing any design work, picking the right font is key. So, here’s a fun little chart that will help you in picking out the right font for your project.

A few years ago I started a monthly post where I published what my desktop looked like. Mostly, it was about creatively changing things up to keep the juices flowing. I’ve fallen out of that habit with a desktop that changes more on a quarterly basis. To make things worse, my desktop always tends to get very cluttered.

So, I’m submitting to you my September desktop. I don’t know what it means, but if fit my mood today. You can get your own September dektop design here. You’ll notice a handful of icons/files on the right. I’m sorry Jonathan Cliff, but that’s the best I could do for right now. Ha!

Last night I was cleaning up and my wife asked me what I was doing? I said, “cleaning up my desktop.” She replied, “Are you cleaning up because of the comments your friends made today?” My reply…. “yes!”

So, it’s good to have people in your life that give you a hard time… not because they hate your guts, but because they love you enough to pick on you. I’m glad I have a lot of people who like to pick on me… a lot.

Here’s why you would want to use Donkey Design.

1. He’s fast. Really fast. I’ll tell you more about that below.
2. He’s affordable. Really affordable. I was quite amazed by the prices when I saw them at first.
3. He’s a ministry guy. He’s worked in the church for many years, so he knows about budget constraints, timelines and what you’re trying to do. It can be hard working with a secular company that doesn’t get what you’re trying to go after.
4. He’s really, really good. When I first opened his design guide… my jaw hit the floor. He’s a gifted artist.

So, if you would please help me by commenting below, I’ll even publish a little directory of T-Shirt vendors to share with everyone. When you’re planning to print your next ministry shirt, you’ll at least know what your options are.

Here are the questions:

• So, what’s the name of the vendor you use?
• What’s their website?
• What’s their phone/contact info?
• Do they do oversize prints?
• Do they print over seams?
• Anything else worth noting?

* I’m looking for high quality operations here… an outfit that can print thousands on demand. If the vendor you use is really small scale or the quality is lacking, don’t submit them. Thanks!

So, below is the front and back of the postcard we designed. We ordered 1000 5.5 x 8.5 high gloss, two sided cards. So, what do you think?

• We got the art from Orange (we’re using Chase the Light curriculum)
• I used Cartoon Speech Collection from iStockPhoto.com.
• I used True Type Fonts “Unmasked BB” and “Crash Landing BB” from 1001fonts.com

We tried to create an energetic and fun card that was simple and too the point. Because we didn’t have a graphic artist available to complete this task, we used resources available to us… like the art provided by Chase the Light curriculum resource.

I’d love your feedback.

When I first saw it, I didn’t get it? Huh? “Sorry, I’m a Mirage.”  What is that supposed to mean? Oh, a mirage is typically when you think you see water but it really isn’t there. Kind of like this broken water fountain. Someone could have easily made a “sorry, I’m broken sign” or even just a simple “out of order.” No, they went with the snarky way of communicating that you weren’t getting any water from this fountain. It was fun and memorable, something that signs should be, right Matt? The only problem with this sign is that plenty of people won’t get it at first glance. It requires just a little bit of thought. Maybe after someone tries to take a drink, they’ll get it. But again, that kind of fits into Austin’s culture… where the sign is almost mocking the person who doesn’t use their brain and tries to take a drink. Maybe I’m thinking too much into this sign, but I loved it.

Here’s a better close up!

Over the years, I’ve used a variety of sources for design. I’ve worked at churches where we’ve had graphic designers on staff (my favorite). I’ve worked at churches where I had to do the graphic design or I’d rely on a volunteers. The great thing is that there are more and more resources where I can buy an element from one website and tweak it.

What if you needs something built from the ground up? A new logo or banner? Well, you should totally check out 99 designs. What I love about it is that it lets the market decide the price. What I mean by that is that you totally get to crowdsource your project from a handful to dozens of designers and they essentially compete for your business? How much does this cost? Well, that’s up to you. If you don’t have a lot of money, just list what you can afford. If a designer wants to do it for that price, they’ll submit artwork and you rate, give feedback and eventually pick the submission you like the most. In the end, you pay them what you said you would from the beginning. If it’s something really simple, you can lowball and maybe luck out with 2 or 3 designers who are willing to do something (but you might not like what you get). If it’s a very important project, you might want to offer more money and end up having 50-60 designers presenting their best work to get the job.

Here’s what I like so much about this concept. I’ve paid $200-$300 for a logo before. In the deal, I’d get 4-6 concepts that I had to choose between. I’ve always been satisfied, but I was always worried. What if I didn’t like any of the concepts? In these cases, I’m at the mercy of the design company. With 99 designs, I’m always in charge.

Oh, one other thing. They’ve got hundreds of pre-made designs that can be customized for your kids for 99 bucks. How cool is that. Check out the video below for a good overview of the process.

CreationSwap from CreationSwap on Vimeo.

How would I use this font again? I think that if I was doing any kind of media relating to school (like a back to school event), I’d experiment with this font in white on the image of a green chalkboard. Can’t you see it?

You can also see this font as the title of my friend Ryan Frank’s blog here. I’m telling you, I’ve got an eye for fonts.

This font can be downloaded right here.