Discovery Church Photography and Welcome Brochure

A few months back I had the honor of going out to Discovery Church in Simi Valley, CA to photograph multiple services and events. Loved the chance to see all of the incredible things they have going on, and the opportunity to meet their amazing staff and members!

Here's a look at the recently completed Welcome Brochure (cover plus inside spreads). It's very rewarding as a designer/photographer to be able to fully concept and create a piece with all of your own photography and design. The brochure will be included in a new Visitor's Packet, but also as a resource for members to give away when inviting others to check out Discovery Church. We're all so excited about how this turned out and can't wait to see the printed piece!

Phos Lighting and Electrical Website Design

Phos Lighting and Electrical, based in Tulsa OK, recently came to me with a request to redesign their website.

Main Design Challenge:
Merge two existing websites, one for Outdoor Lighting and one for Electrical Services, under one site and the Phos identity. The company started with only Outdoor Lighting services but have now grown to specialize in five different areas within the company that all needed equal emphasis when visiting the new website.

Here's a quick look at the newly redesigned Phos Lighting and Electrical website. You can also view the full website at www.phoselectric.com

Design and Photo Gear List

Graphic Design Vs. Photography Expenses

Graphic Design is certainly a less expensive field to keep up with. The 24" iMac that I purchased in 2008 has been great, although with 2011 tax deductions in mind, it was a good time to upgrade to the brand new 27" iMac. The only other major recurring expense is software, every other year I upgrade the Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium package, currently running CS5.

Photography can be quite consuming, always something more you just can't wait to get, and nothing good is cheap. One great company to look into that I've mentioned previously is AlienBees.com – I highly recommend their products and they are much more affordable than comparable products. 

Here is a full list of gear to date.. certainly adds up over time.

Computers and Software

• 27" iMac 2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 / 12GB Memory / 1TB Hard Drive

• 24" iMac 2.8GHz Intel Core Duo / 4GB Memory / 320GB Hard Drive

• 15" MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo / 4GB Memory / 200GB Hard Drive

• 1TB Hard Drive for Backups

• 500GB Hard Drive for Backups

• Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium

• Adobe Lightroom 3

• Slideshow Pro for Lightroom

• Firewire Compact Flash Card Reader

Photo Gear:

Camera Bodies, Lenses, Flash Cards

• Nikon D700 Camera Body

• Nikon D200 Camera Body
• Nikon 16mm f2.8 Fisheye Lens
• Sigma 20mm f1.8 Wide Angle Lens
• Nikon 50mm f1.8 Lens
• Sigma 24-70 f2.8 Lens
• Tamron 90mm f2.8 Lens

• Gear Bag - holds 1 camera body, 5 lenses, 1 Flash Unit, and cards
• 1 - Lexar 4GB Compact Flash Card
• 2 - Lexar 2GB Compact Flash Cards 

• 1 - Lexar 1GB Compact Flash Cards 

Lighting
• Nikon SB900
• Nikon SB800
• 2 - AlienBees B800 Studio Flash Units
• 1 - AlienBees B400 Studio Flash Unit

• Radio Popper Remote Triggers - 1 Transmitter & 2 Receivers

• AlienBees Vagabond 2 Portable Power System

• 3 Light Travel Case
• 1 Light Travel Case

Light Modifiers
• 86" Silver Parabolic Umbrella with White Diffusion Cover
• 47" Foldable Octobox with a Grid

• 35" Octobox

• 20" Softbox
• 22" High Output Beauty Dish with White Diffusion Cover
• 2 - 45" White Umbrellas (shoot through and reflective)

• UBR White Shovel Background Reflector

• 1 Large, 2 Small Collapsable Reflectors (Silver, Gold, White, Diffusion)

Stands and Backdrops

• 9' Dove Gray seamless paper backdrop
• 9' Thunder Gray seamless paper backdrop
• 9' White seamless paper backdrop
• Premium Heavyweight Solid Muslin - Black 10' x 12'

• 3 - Heavy Duty Light Stands
• 1 - Small Light Stand
• Wescott 6.5' Boom Arm with Counterweight
• 12' Background Support System with Travel Case
• Reflector Kit Mounting Arm

"Love God. Love People." Campaign | Discovery Church

This week I'm excited to be heading out to Discovery Church in Simi Valley, CA for a multi-day shoot, covering the youth services, women's and men's events, and Sunday morning services. The photos will all be used on the website and in a new visitor's brochure we are currently working. My favorite projects are the ones where I am able to do the photography in combination with the design work, so I'm really looking forward to sharing the project once it's complete. Until then, here's a look at a new campaign recently completed for Discovery Church called "Love God. Love People." that will be used in various print and video elements to really emphasis the heart and mission behind the church.

Recent Projects: Pearsons Ministries Part 2

As a follow up to the last post, here are a few recent projects completed for Pearsons Ministries International. The first two items are for the upcoming "BEHOLD" conference (main promotional artwork and a billboard design). You can also check out www.BeholdTheLove.com to view a beautiful video created by Matthew Kurth. The last two items are cover designs for two recent message series by Jeremy Pearsons.

Can't say enough about Jeremy and Sarah Pearsons... unbelievably loving and gifted people, both on stage and off! Check out their full website at www.pearsonsministries.com.

Catch22 Branding | The Young Adult Gathering at Northwood

Here's a quick look at a recent Brand Development project I completed for Catch22, the young adult gathering at Northwood, in Fayetteville NC. Projects included: logo design, stationary set, postcards, pocket invite, banners, shirts, table cover, web splash page, and slides. A big thanks to Tommy Chester over at Northwood for being so great to work with and getting all of this completed well before the Launch Event!

Sammy Morris Football Camps | Photography and Design

Just recently finished a photoshoot and design work for Sammy Morris Football Camps. The camps are led by Devin Lemons, former line backer for the Washington Redskins, and Sammy Morris, running back for the New England Patriots. They have been a ton of fun to work with and gave me complete control over the design and photography from start to finish... love clients like that! Below are several images from the photoshoot and a look at the poster, brochure and website designs.

All images © Rebecca Siegrist and MorrisLemonsInnovations. Unauthorized use prohibited.

Additional rotating images for the large spotlight area on the main page:

Logo Design

I was making updates to the C1 Design website last night and ended up browsing through some of my old projects. I've had so many great clients over the years.. so many great projects that I'm thankful to have been a part of! Below are a few of my favorite logo designs from the past several years, as well as a few links to where I find a lot of great logo design inspiration. If you have other great logo design sites, please share them here as well!

LOGO DESIGN INSPIRATION:

logolounge.com
This site is on the top of my list. You have to have an account to access the entire site where you can search through thousands of logos, but there are some free areas to browse as well.

brandsoftheworld.com
You can actually download the Illustrator vector art for most of the logos here, very helpful if you want to analyze how a logo was created.

logopond.com

A Website Facelift

Personally I like change, just for the sake of change at times. I rearrange furniture, repaint wall colors, change out my desktop image, and change work environments (Barnes & Noble, Starbucks, backyard, etc.)... keeps things from getting stale (love Webster's definition: "tedious from familiarity").

When it comes to a website there is typically a large investment of time and money up front to establish the look and framework. If designed and programmed well initially, the layout and functionality should work for years to come, so a complete redesign should not be necessary, nor would it be financially smart. However, I love a website facelift and often recommend for my clients to do one yearly. Small changes and updates, made within the existing framework, can add new interest and life to an existing site, all for a much smaller cost than a complete redesign. If a return visitor notices even small changes they are likely to browse through your entire site again, reinforcing your brand and content in their memory.

Below is a simple example of a facelift I recently worked on for the Northstar Church website. First image is the current website, second is the updated version.

Northstar "Big Top" Design

Just finished the artwork and a 4"x4" folded invitation design for Northstar Church's "Big Top" series/event coming up next month. Fun project to work on and I really love how it turned out. Here's a sneak peak at the invite...

New C1design.com Website + Slideshow Pro Highlight

Finally finished the C1design.com website redesign and updates! I'm not a web programmer by any means so it's quite the effort for me to do my own website. Still a few rough edges to smooth out but if you have feedback or suggestions I'd love to hear them.

Just to note, I do not do any of the programming on my client websites. I bring on one of several trusted programmers to work with... I keep my personal focus on continually growing in design and photography.

Slideshow Pro - Slideshows in a Snap!
Slideshow Pro is a Flash based slideshow application for creating and displaying slideshows.. without having to know or use Flash! I used it to create all of the slideshow galleries on my new site. Best part, it was only $35 to download the Adobe Lightroom version! Check out their website for all of the application options and uses: slideshowpro.net

Texture Use and Overlays + Free Downloads

Whether doing design work or photography, I love using textures. In design, when done in a subtle, appropriate way, it can add depth and interest to an otherwise flat and stale piece. Recently a client and friend of mine, photographer Kimberly Jarman, asked me to work on an update for her blog background. Instead of the typical full page "repeating pattern" background, I used a mix of textures over a gradient. Both Kim and I love how this turned out! You can view her full blog at www.kimberlyjarman.net.

Texture Use in Photography
Years ago I started to notice different fine art photographers use of texture and began working with some on my own photography. I love the way it can transform an image into an art piece, create an aged look, or simply something unique. Below are a few examples, showing the original photo and the textured version. These were all created using either one simple texture overlay in Photoshop (typically the Linear Burn, Multiply, or Overlay Blending Mode) or in some cases I used multiple textures with additional dodging, burning or edits to the image.

Free Textures
Whether you're looking for textures to include in design or photography here's a free, high-res texture to download (shown in the first image set above): Click Here for Free Texture Download


Also, a simple Google search for "Free Textures" will bring up dozens of freebies online... here are just a few that I've used:
Free Textures on Flicker
Free B&W + Grunge Textures
CGTextures.com