Mar
19Casual Friday - Retirement Plans?Posted by ANDREW | 0 comments

If you don't already have any plans for retirement, might I suggest...

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Mar
18Mocked to Crowned: New AdvancedMinistry TemplatePosted by RAY | 2 comments

In preparation for Easter, we have launched our latest AdvancedMinistry template -- "Mocked to Crowned". The design begins with a hand-drawn image of the mockery that Jesus received and then proceeds to show the subsequent scenes, finally leading to Jesus being crowned with glory and honor (Hebrews 2:9). You can view a preview of the animation sequence here.

As usual, all AM 3.0 templates are fully customizable including the ability to change the number of columns, colors, fonts, etc. If you would like to use an enhanced version of your home page, edit your template, click the Layout Tab and choose "Show All Columns (Enhanced Home Page)". Resource files for the new template can be found in the "Download Materials" menu under "Template Resource Files".

To change your template at any time, login to your AdvancedMinistry account and select “Choose My Template”.

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Mar
17Embedding Uncategorized Media FilesPosted by RAY | 0 comments

One of the items that has been requested a lot over the last few months is the ability to embed audio/video files (within an AdvancedMinistry website), without having to categorize them.

For example, Church X has two media categories: Sermons and Featured Speakers. The youth pastor of Church X wants to upload a Flash Video file to AdvancedMinistry and embed it within their ministry section. Before today, the only way to do this would be to upload the file, categorize it (in either Sermons or Featured Speakers) and then embed it within the Youth section of the website. As of today, you can now upload a file, and categorize it under “Don't Put in any category” and then embed it.

For instructions on embedding videos or audio files, click here.

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Mar
16Show & Tell: Church of the HarvestPosted by RAY | 2 comments

Welcome to Show & Tell, a weekly feature that focuses on the work of ministries within the Electricurrent and AdvancedMinistry clientele.

This week's feature is Church of the Harvest, an AdvancedMinistry client located in Olathe, KS. We always love it when churches and ministries come up with creative ways to use AdvancedMinistry. In the case of Church of the Harvest, they have created a unique homepage that focuses on pointing users in the right direction using a series of images that are updated on a regular basis.

You can read more about their ministry by visiting www.churchoftheharvest.org.

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Mar
15Case #MMM004 – Misrepresentation of Low Resolution Images as High Resolution ImagesPosted by DEREK | 0 comments

This is a crime we face quite often in our office when working on print projects. Many times we will be working on a project and a client will have some photography they want utilized. We say; “Great, please send it!” When it arrives, the fun begins.

A while ago I wrote a post on this call Resolution Revelation which I recommend you read to get the bulk of what you need to know about this matter.

But in short, all you really need to know is one thing. If you are wanting to use any images (jpg or tiff) and the file size is under 500KB in size you are in jeopardy of committing this crime. This is especially true if your wanting to use the image(s) at a large size. But if you want to be safe, 1-2 MB is best to start with. Really at the end of the day any image can be used, how good the finished piece looks is the only thing that will suffer.

So before you send images to a designer or agency to be used, look at the file size and gauge if the quality is good enough. If your still not sure, open the image and be sure to look at it at 100% the size. If you can see individual pixels or any blurriness, you will need to find a better picture(s).

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Mar
12Casual Friday - Anyone Else Remember This Gold?Posted by ANDREW | 0 comments

FYI - This is not the original video by the band dcTalk for this song, but it's the only thing I could find on YouTube that had the song. Enjoy.

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Mar
10New AdvancedMinistry Template: The Narrow GatePosted by RAY | 0 comments

We are pleased to announce our latest AdvancedMinistry 3.0 template entitled "The Narrow Gate" (view preview), modeled from Xpiritmental Wallpaper #66.

As usual, all AM 3.0 templates are fully customizable including the ability to change the number of columns, colors, fonts, etc. If you would like to use a simplified version of your home page, edit your template, click the Layout Tab and choose "Show All Columns (Simplified Home Page)". Resource files for the new template can be found in the "Download Materials" menu under "Template Resource Files".

To change your template at any time, login to your AdvancedMinistry account and select “Choose My Template”.

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Mar
09Show & Tell: SEND InternationalPosted by RAY | 0 comments

Welcome to the first edition of Show & Tell, a new weekly feature that focuses on the work of ministries within the Electricurrent and AdvancedMinistry clientele.

This week's feature is SEND International, a missions organization that serves in over 20 countries throughout the world.

We have had the privilege of working with SEND for the last couple of years on branding and web initiatives.

You can read more about their ministry by visiting www.send.org.

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Mar
08Case #MMM003 – Impersonating the Color BlackPosted by DEREK | 0 comments

Monday Morning Misdemeanors is a series of weekly posts written by Graphic Designer, Derek Gyssels. In this series, Derek is going to hone in on a number of common problems that crop up in graphic designs and then give you the tools to avoid them which will give your designs a professional polish.

This case is a little obscure, but I know there are a handful of you out there that are going to appreciate me covering this. This topic is a bit of a nitty-gritty detail but it is also one that can cause quite a bit of grief if it is overlooked. It is a bit of a head scratcher, but the color black needs to be treated with some care in your design projects, especially print projects. Let's start by looking at a few fundamentals.

All design projects can reside in a number of color modes but the one we are concerned with is CMYK which stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. What you need to understand is that all printed materials, unless specified by pantone colors, are made by those four colors in various halftones and line screens. All four of those colors can have a value between 0 and 100 which is a range of intensity of application from least to greatest.

Now through no fault of your own, if you were working in photoshop and wanted to fill the background of your design with black your natural compulsion would be to set the black value to 100 and all the other color values to zero, however this would be wrong. That result would give you a very dark grey. If your looking for a black as dark as the night sky it requires a color formula involving all four colors (as seen in the image provided).

There was a time that this was a huge problem in the printing world because the software would display black the same way regardless of the color formula involved. Then Adobe made an improvement in their software to account for this making sure that a black with a value of only K100 would appear grey in nature (again see the image provided). This leads me into the first of two points I want to leave you with.

It doesn't matter what the black looks like on your screen, the numbers making up the black are king. If you're not sure about the values involved in a color, use the 'eye dropper' tool in Photoshop to find out what the formula is. The numbers are going to be fed into a computer or printer and those numbers will be translated into ink coverage so always keep that in mind.

The last point is only use K100 for type. If your have a print piece and there is a lot of black text at 10 or 12 point you should never us a black made up of more than one color. On a press the four colors are printed separately and the registration will be to hard to line up accurately and you will end up with some ghosting around your copy. The only time you can use a true black formula on type is for a large headlines of more than 24 points or so.

At the end of the day if you have any questions talk to your service provider and have them help you out. You shouldn't be on your own with this, especially if you're unsure about what your doing. Just be careful with the color black because if you impersonate it with the wrong values you could be disappointed in your final printed work. As I have learned in my career, once ink is on paper there is no going back. Don't learn it the hard way.

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Mar
05Casual Friday - IE6 FuneralPosted by RAY | 0 comments

As reported on CNN, a funeral was held last night for Internet Explorer 6 (better known as IE6). “Attendees were expected to eulogize the Microsoft browser by sharing remembrances, some of which have already been posted on the company's website – see www.ie6funeral.com.

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Mar
04Great Quotes - Volume 6Posted by ANDREW | 0 comments

"The early 2000's will go down as the MC Hammer of decades. It started out all confident and flash, and ended in bankruptcy. Then came the grunge era. The global economic meltdown might give us the distance we need to fully absorb the absurdity of dog jewelry, pimped rides and man-made island resorts in the desert. As a generation of young people cope with the double-digit unemployment, they might embrace a new set of values that are a break from the past. A break from status that can be bought and mortgaged. People may once again start looking for things that are 'real'. Status may once again have to be earned. I'm already seeing a lot of people wearing plaid."

- Barry Quinn, executive creative director, brand design, Juniper Park

I love this quote. In no small part because plaid is in fact, making a comeback.

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Mar
03Don't Know What You Got, 'Til it's GonePosted by ANDREW | 0 comments

For the last couple of days I've been carrying a cold around with me and among the other unpleasantness of a good virus, the one thing most noticable over the last day and a half has been the fact that I lose my voice if I talk for a while.

It gets frustrating too for a guy who's job it is to communicate all day. But my situation pales in comparison to what I just read about film critic, Roger Ebert and the cool new technology in his life. Click here to check it out.

Once you get back from visiting, reading and viewing that link, I'm guessing at least some of you are also immediately thankful for the voice that you take for granted each and every day...and it's true, we all do it. Our voices are an amazing tool for us to communicate with and we take for granted that it will always be there...that we'll always have a chance to use that wonder of communication to clearly convey the thoughts that we want to.

But what if you were to lose it? What if you weren't able to communicate using your voice anymore? Would you regret how you had used it when you had it? Would you wish you'd done more with it?

I think the same attitude needs to be taken with all our communications, personal and organizational. Don't treat what and how you communicate as just something that's a throw away. Value it. Treat it with respect by communicating well. Don't let neglect lead you to regret. We have a plethora of communication options these days - let's use them for all their worth to communicate the greatness of our God and His calling in our lives!

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Mar
02"Hi, I'm Mike"Posted by ANDREW | 0 comments

Last week I wrote about the “Own the Podium” program that the Canadian Olympic Committee, VANOC (Vancouver Organizing Committee) and Canada's sport federations established back in 2005 which involved greater funding for our athletes than they had ever had before and also provided a really aggressive goal for the athletes.

Thing is, it just wasn't us. It isn't a Canadian thing to go around chanting, “We're #1! We're #1!”.

Then, halfway through the Olympics, the “Own the Podium” program was rescinded because it was clear that there was no way that we would actually end up winning the Olympic games which quite frankly, was embarrassing. So, even though after the program was rescinded our athletes went on an unbelievable run to win the most gold medals by a country in the history of the Winter Olympic games, our bold strategy at winning the Olympic games outright left us with a bit of mud on our faces.

Enter the closing ceremonies and at one point, a small, kinda shaky guy in glasses, jeans and a sport coat stood in the middle of the ice and said: “Hi, I'm Mike”.

BC Place erupted with cheers and applause.

“Mike” in this case, was Michael J. Fox, one of Canada's most famous actors having starred in shows like Family Ties, Spin City and Boston Legal and films like the Back to the Future trilogy. But what many know him for today is his courageous battle with Parkinson's and advocacy on behalf of finding a cure for that disease.

So here's a guy with a lot to brag about if he wanted, but instead, he kinda humbly, almost sheepishly gets out on the ice of BC Place and introduces himself to a global audience as if we were all standing in his front foyer and he was welcoming us individually.

And immediately, I was struck with the thought that the reason everyone was cheering was not just because it was Michael J. Fox, but it was also because that in that demure statement, he embodied so much of who Canadians are. We identified as a nation and we cheered at how refreshing it was to just be ourselves along with Mike down on the ice.

But that kind of identity isn't just a Canadian trait. It's a human one.

Wouldn't it be refreshing if we would just drop all the pomp and circumstance around our brands (personal, corporate and organizational) and just approach the people we interact with in our personal lives and at our work by saying our own version of “Hi, I'm Mike”?

It's a long way from “Own the Podium”, but it goes a lot longer of a way to creating trust and a lasting positive brand impression.

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Mar
01Case #MMM002 – Abusing the SpacebarPosted by DEREK | 2 comments

Monday Morning Misdemeanors is a series of weekly posts written by Graphic Designer, Derek Gyssels. In this series, Derek is going to hone in on a number of common problems that crop up in graphic designs and then give you the tools to avoid them which will give your designs a professional polish.

This crime is certainly a petty one but it is one that I want to call attention to nonetheless. For some reason in high school keyboarding classes we were taught that it is correct to put two spaces after a sentence. This was a lesson that I carried with me into my college years in graphic design, where I was taught that this practice is actually incorrect. So what's the deal? After having been taught both and having implemented both practices, I live by what I was taught in design school. Let me give you a couple of reasons why.

From an aesthetic point of view, it looks better to use one space instead of two. When you leave two spaces after a sentence you end up having little holes in your blocks of type. This is especially true if you are laying out a brochure with some large blocks of body copy. The image at right demonstrates this.

Another reason to not use two spaces is space itself. If you happen to be type setting a large report or book, you end up saving pages worth of space. Over the course of a 100 pages of type you can save hundreds of spaces which can end up saving a few pages by the end of the report or book. To be honest with you, most of the copy we receive from our clients comes with double spaces, and we remove them. My coworker type sets books and says its not uncommon to save well over 500 spaces from a book's worth of type.

At the end of the day, its going to be your call as to whether or not you push the space bar once or twice after a period. The graphics police aren't going to write you a ticket, but I suggest that it is more professional to use single spaces. Any knowledgeable designer or agency you provide copy to will remove double spaces. Truthfully, double spacing is more of an old-school, typewriter-era practice.

So stop abusing your space bar and start loving your designs!

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Feb
26Casual Friday - I Dare You to Pray ThisPosted by ANDREW | 4 comments

There's nothing casual about the message in the video above other than the fact that it's a lot easier for me to post a video than to dream up and type out a coherent post late on a Friday...so happy casual Friday to me :)

But being the Friday that I get paid, I'm about to walk out of the office and head over to the bank to cash my paycheck. As I do that and by God's grace as I go through every day that He grants me on this earth, I want to be thinking about the challenge in this video.

I want to encourage you to do the same.

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Feb
25The Numbers Sometimes LiePosted by ANDREW | 1 comment

Although I didn't have designs on this, and the inspiration for todays and yesterdays posts came from entirely disparate sources, this post is actually closely tied with the thoughts I shared yesterday.

Back in October of last year, Christian Computing Magazine published an interesting article that contained statistics indicating that the most used portion of church websites is the “I'm New” section - pages related to people attending for the first time, those who are looking for service times or locations, those looking for other information about the church and its beliefs and doctrine, or those who have no knowledge of Jesus Christ.

I think a lot of people would read the statistics supporting that article and even if it's only in the back of their minds, presume that they indicate that churches are doing a great job at outreach on the web. However, just like website hits aren't a measure of a sites success, but rather quality of those hits are, this statistic requires qualification.

The truth of the matter is that “more than 80% of the current growth registered by Protestant churches is biological or transfer growth – very little of the growth comes from penetrating the ranks of the unchurched.” (George Barna, Grow Your Church from the Outside In)

That's a critically important piece of information to consider because it makes you ask the question, 'Are the “I'm New” sections of our sites truly representative of us doing a great job of serving those outside of our church communities, or are they just examples of us serving a modern desire to jump from church community to church community?'

If it's the latter then these stats, although valuable, become more of an argument to change or adjust the strategy than they are a statement of web usability success.

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Feb
24Quality vs. QuantityPosted by ANDREW | 0 comments

It's disconcerting that in 2010 we still have to talk about this, but the fact is, we do, so here goes:

The number of clicks that you get on your website is not the measure of success of the website. You have to begin to consider the quality of those hits.

Is the person hanging around on pages, are they coming back again and most importantly, are they 'converting' (a.k.a. taking some measurable action on the site like signing up, donating or filling out a contact form)?

You could have 1,000 hits an hour but if they aren't converting or gaining something valuable from you in the experience, then they aren't a sign of success...in fact, quite the opposite is true.

Google Analytics can help with that so think about using that free tool to help evaluate the state of your site.

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Feb
23We Own the Podium?Posted by ANDREW | 1 comment

Back in 2005, the Canadian Olympic Committee, VANOC (Vancouver Organizing Committee) and Canada's sport federations established a very aggressive program (especially for Canada) called 'We Own the Podium', which was meant to inspire Canadian athletes to push harder than they ever had before and set Canada up to win the Vancouver Olympic Games.

Yesterday, only half-way through the Games, the Canadian Olympic Committee rescinded the program acknowledging that there was no way Canada could win...a fairly embarrassing thing to have to concede.

As I was driving home from Toronto yesterday, I heard the announcement and some commentary on a local radio station and I was immediately reminded of a rule of branding that I have come to have great respect for but isn't appreciated by many:

Self-aggrandizement is a dangerous and most often unsuccessful communications and branding strategy.

For years, companies and organizations loved to set themselves up as the #1 in their industry or area of service, but that strategy doesn't have legs, especially in these days of blogging and Twitter feeds where customers have voice to mass audiences in moments.

People don't want to hear you tell them you are #1, they want you to make them #1.

We rationalize ourselves into thinking that by saying we are #1, the internal team of the organization will be motivated and use that challenge to move forward and actually become #1. But imagine walking into a party of people you'd never met and saying, "Hey everyone, you should come talk to me because I am the best." Ridiculous right? And yet, this is exactly how many organizations choose to position themselves.

Spend your time making the people that you serve #1. Do that, and you'll not only be first in your hearts and minds, but more importantly, you'll be first in theirs. That's effective branding.

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Feb
22Case #MMM001 - Gross Misconduct with Drop ShadowsPosted by DEREK | 1 comment

Monday Morning Misdemeanors is a series of weekly posts written by Graphic Designer, Derek Gyssels. In this series, Derek is going to hone in on a number of common problems that crop up in graphic designs and then give you the tools to avoid them which will give your designs a professional polish.

Before I get started I would like the record to show that I myself am a former and rehabilitated drop shadow abuser. This has been an issue I have noticed for a long time but it seems in the last few weeks my attention has been drawn to how often drop shadows ruin a design. A long time ago, before I even knew graphic design as a job option, drop shadows were hard to produce for graphic pieces. Then in the early/mid 90's technology and software advancements made them achievable with a few clicks of the mouse. Since then, drop shadows have become as prevalent in design as cheese hats are at a Green Bay Packers game, and not to mention, just as stylish.

What is the actual infraction here? Most times it's one of three things to do with the application. For an example I will draw on something I saw in a menu at a restaurant two weekends ago.

Issue 1: Whoever had designed the menu took the time to take pictures of most of the menu items and crop them out to place them into the menu. Then they foolishly thought to add drop shadows in what I will assume was an attempt to make them "pop" (a term I really dislike) or add some dimension. The problem here however was that the pictures were shot from a 3/4 angle so the drop shadow actually served to make the food pictures look like flat cutouts floating off the page.

Issue 2: The second problem with them was the colour of the drop shadow. There was a nice background to the menu and the colour of the drop shadow did not mesh well with it. My guess was that they just used the default black that Photoshop or other design apps provide you with when you first apply the style. To correct something like this think about your own shadow on a summer day on the grass or the sand at the beach. While your shadow is for the most part a black/grey elements of the environment play a role in the final colour of the shadow. Light bounces all over the place influencing colour. Thats why your shadow isn't solid black, because other light reflecting from different sources in the environment reduce how dark the shadow is. This leads nicely into the third infraction.

Issue 3: The edges or "feathering" of shadows is a major issue as well. Again, let's imagine you're outside on a summer day. Have you ever seen your shadow with a big fuzzy edge? I don't think so, because neither have I. If you are adding a drop shadow to something like a well-lit plate of food you should have a drop shadow with a fairly crisp edge.

All three of these problems originate from a single issue, “auto styles”. Most applications give you the ability to simply add styles to layers or objects but those defaults don't do work for all scenarios. As the designer, it is up to you to adjust your settings to make things work. A lot of times your design would benefit from a custom shadow using layers, filters and blending modes. But that is a whole different ball of wax and I believe points to a final issue.

Drop shadows are best used for flat objects like a book on a table, photograph or any other object your looking at from directly above. Drop shadows are also great on menus or boxes in website design that you're simply trying to add a little extra emphasis to do. Occasionally you can even use a drop shadow on type if the type is on an image or busy background, but even that takes some caution and finesse.

So there you have it, a fairly simple over view of drop shadow use and abuse. I would be happy to answer any questions or comments, simply leave one on this post and I will reply.

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Feb
19Casual Friday - TassimoPosted by ANDREW | 3 comments

So, we're friends right?

I mean, if you were to stumble onto something that pretty much changed your life, you'd drop me a note wouldn't you?

Well, it's on the basis of that mutual care and concern for each other that I bring you today's post.

You see, I've been a coffee drinker for a number of years now. Admittedly, I have tried to stop drinking that beverage on a few occasions over the past year for a number of reasons, but of late I've found myself once again succumbing to it's Siren call. I had designs on another attempt at a cold turkey quit, but as of yesterday, I fear those designs have been replaced with an even greater commitment to the bean beverage.

What happened to cause such a drastic change in my approach to coffee? In a word: Tassimo

We often compare new inventions as being the best thing since 'sliced bread'. Well, move over bread, because now you are just the distant relative (a few times removed) to the new measure of best inventions.

For those of you who aren't familiar, the Tassimo machine is a modern technological wonder. Within about a minute of addressing the machine, one can have a perfectly controlled and brewed cup of steaming hot coffee in his or her hand. There is no argument over how many scoops of grinds need to be added to the machine, you simply place the drink disc in the machine, your cup in the dispensing area and hit go. It's so beautiful and easy, just thinking about it has caused my eyes to glisten.

Do I have what amounts to an unhealthy relationship with coffee and now this new coffee-making machine? Perhaps.

But for you coffee lovers out there who share in my desire for a quality cup of Joe each morning, late morning, early afternoon, late afternoon, and evening (and late evening), the Tassimo will be a life-changing experience.

Consider it my gift to you.

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