September 3rd, 2010 by Matt Haff
I recent post by 8BIT with their iPhone 4 background inspired me to be a little creative myself. While I don’t really classify myself as a graphic designer I still like to dabble in it from time to time.
So for all you 12Stoners out there, here is an iPhone background for you!
July 14th, 2010 by Matt Haff
Turfismo is behind-the-screen politicking that transforms the home page into a patchwork of tiny fiefdoms. You can see this on any website that has more than one person calling the shots… Every individual ministry or person is battling a fight to the death over getting as much space on the home page as possible for their cause. This is just another case of having the right motive but not the right method. Before you fall into the grasp of this free-for-all take a deep breath and use your experience (or others) to tell you what the home page should really look like.
Keep in mind that the home page is mainly for visitors.. people that already go to your church are willing to dig a little deeper. If it doesn’t relate to the majority of people then it doesn’t belong on the home page.
At 12Stone.com we keep a good balance of about 6 different messages on the home page through the use of a graphic slider. I would still like to simplify it further but for now this is where we are at. Three of the graphics are always present – Current Series, Campus Locations, and Children’s Ministry. The other three graphics are up for grabs by whichever ministry has something big that relates to the entire campus.
May 27th, 2010 by Matt Haff
Movie Night
Last night we had a movie night for all the middle & high schoolers that weren’t attending a graduation ceremony. For a week or so before the movie we had a splash page that had information about the movie. We could have easily just added a couple lines to the regular 12Stone.com website about it however when it comes to students, they can tell when you’re trying and when you’re not.
It might seem a little silly to spend a couple hours on something like this, but it goes a long way to show the students that you really are invested in them and they aren’t just another kid in your youth group.
Summer Camp
Another example is this year’s summer camp for student ministry. The topic is “Purple People” and like every year we took time to brand the event and setup a website to register for camp on. Again, we could have easily added this information to the student ministry area of the website.
The repeating idea no matter if it’s a one night event or the yearly summer retreat, it’s important to show the students that you are invested in them. If they believe that they are important to you then it leaves them more open to the message that you’re trying to get across to them.
Final Thoughts
What are your thoughts on the subject? Do you have a summer camp website designed specifically for the students? How do you show your that your church is invested through time & design?
January 25th, 2010 by matt
I don’t know what to say about this other than check it out for yourself… I’ve known about the 960 Grid System for a couple of years and I’ve only used it a couple times. Recently I used it when drawing up the framework for the new 12Stone.com website and it greatly helped with developing a good layout. It’s great because you can design on a proven frame without having to give a second thought about monitor size, fixed vs. fluid layouts and the like. It’s also very handy because they give you access to PDF print outs for 12 or 16 column grids as well as layered Photoshop files, etc.
So from one web designer to the next, use the 960 Grid System!
November 30th, 2009 by matt
12Stone has officially announced what we’re doing for Christmas this year. The past two years 12Stone Church has given away thousands of dollars to people in the community through giving away college scholarships, cars, paying utilities, etc.
This year is a little different, we are blessing all of the single mothers that attend 12Stone in three parts. The first part is an event on Dec. 18th for all the single mothers to come and have a nice dinner and their kids to have fun and play games while they get a short break. Every mother and child will receive a $50 gift. The second part to this is for the single mothers that can’t afford rent, utilities, a car, etc. we will be meeting with them to figure out ways to help take care of them. The third part of Kindle is every mother will get a Christmas card with a $100 gift card inside to give to another single mom that doesn’t attend 12Stone.
While there is some web stuff involved with this event, it’s not a whole lot. We made two pages for A Kindle Family Christmas. One page has all of the event information. The other page is for recruiting volunteers. Since we are serving about 1,000 single mothers and their kids we have over 650 volunteer positions open.
I’ve also designed an email newsletter design especially for Kindle so that any announcements that go out to the single mothers or to the volunteers would have a unified look and feel.
