CHRIS YOUNG

Chris Young is a designer from a small town in Arkansas. If you saw him, you would never guess he is a designer because he’s also a cowboy. He loves riding horses, working on his old Ford, and anything involving the outdoors. His degree project focuses on bringing designers and Christian organizations together to improve their design. With improved design, their outreach and impact could be on a larger audience.

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“FRANKLY, CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS NEED DESIGNERS.”

Small churches are facing a design crisis. Some lack the resources to dedicate to design; others merely remain slow to adapt to an increasingly digital world. Particularly in small towns, churches serve as social pillars, providing social connections and charity work, but these critical institutions lack the design tools needed to expand and support their following. Without their small local churches, many communities would fall apart.

Chris Young was led to this topic through his passion and calling to serve the church. His upbringing in a small town in Arkansas helped him realize the dearth of design within those small town churches. Some of these churches are dying off because they are not reaching new people or connecting to the younger generations. In the wake of COVID-19, they find themselves in need of new, non-traditional methods to reach younger audiences.

Establishing and maintaining a presence on the Internet and social media can help a church more effectively communicate its values and eliminate harmful stereotypes. For instance, most people only interact with their church on Wednesdays and Sundays, but social media can help integrate a church’s teachings more fully into its followers’ daily lives. Even brief touchpoints can be meaningful. Over half the world’s population uses social media, so it presents a great opportunity for a church to expand its audience. Social media is the ideal medium for a church to spread a message of acceptance, meet new followers where they are, and welcome them with open arms. This is where a designer with expertise in the web and social media becomes critical — if these tools aren’t used effectively, they’ll be of little help.

To bring designers into this community, they need to meet pastors where they are. Most pastors are busy but will make time for a conference once a year. Chris’s prototype is to have a booth and TED Talk at these conferences. It will be at these conferences where pastors will be the most willing and able to learn about the importance of design for their church. It is also a great place to form relationships between designers and pastors.

To bring designers into this community, they need to meet these pastors where they are at. Most pastors are busy but will make time for a conference once a year. At these conferences there are typically booths and TED Talks from booth proprietors. Chris’s prototype is an organization called Design Ministry that will have a booth and TED Talk at these conferences. Design Ministry is an organization that is focused on ministering through design work and relationships with Christian organizations. The booth will need to have multiple things to connect with pastors. One of the biggest things to bring pastors to the booth is a branding raffle. From user testing this idea would be very successful at being people to the booth. Once they come to the booth that’s when they begin to see examples of design work done by Design Ministry. There will also be some free things for them to take. These things could be objects like business cards, devotionals, shirts, etc. Another way of reaching people besides the booth is the TED Talk. The TED Talk will focus on the importance of design within the church and how their church could possibly have a designer on a tight budget. At the end of the talk, the branding raffle will be mentioned to encourage attendees to visit the booth. The overall goal of this prototype is to empower and improve design standards for Christian organizations. Eventually this prototype can expand to all non-profits.