Cool Post

So we took a group and went to Ikea. A couple things I learned that fall in line with church life.

I get to do life with amazing people! We had such a blast. The greatest gift I have ( outside of Christ is my wife family and friends!)

•     Make it easy, obvious and strategic._ Even though some of the people in our group had never been to an Ikea ( and it isn't a typical western shopping experience)  no one had any trouble getting into the experience and exploring all the store had to offer. Are the experiences and environments we are putting together for people to meet God in that easy to navigate?

• Good Signage Rules! Signs everywhere, you never have to guess where you are or whats up.=

• Design and presentation  really do matter. There is just something really cool in the way they set everything up and display it. Beats the heck out of walmart anyday! I love how you can go in and pick up and touch and smell and explore. Are we creating enviroments and spaces and places where people can explore God at their pace? In different ways?

Next month we are off to the Apple Store!

Played Relay today. Good fun with good friends for a good cause. It was hilarious watching people line dance to You Are Good and Your Love is Beautiful and the crowd scremed for an encore. God Rocks!

In light of Jason's comment on spinal tap I had to throw this up. At our rehearsal space for our worship team I use an old Gibson amp. I was all excited today when I realized it went to "11"...Todd our drummer pointed out that it goes to 12!

Cool Site!... A potpourri of logodom!

I'll never forget the first time I said that to a guitarist in a band I was working in. "Silence is a note too". He looked at me like I was nuts and then proceeded to Yngwie Malmsteen his way up down the neck, much like Strong Bad does here. Anyway silence IS a note and every artist and musician and designer and producer of church services or  Worship experiences should practice it. Kathy over at Creating Passionate Users has a killer post about it. Check it out.

  

Is by far my favorite DAW,Im a long time Performer user and some time Pro Tools have to user but I LOVE ABLETON LIVE. They just announced Live 6.

Has a blog. Always thought that he was drivel based on the songs I heard on the radio and saw on videos, but then I saw him on Letterman and some live stuff and MAN can that guy play!!!

Follow these design tips to avoid looking unprofessional. ( COMPLILED FROM MULTIPLE WEB SOURCES AND BOOKS)

No Centered Paragraphs

. Have you ever actually tried to read text that's centered?

No Decorative Fonts in All Caps

Script fonts (or most decorative fonts in general) in all capital letters is almost as bad as centered paragraph text.

No White Space

It's not always your fault, people want to cram as much information as possible onto a page. Sometimes you just have to know when to say no, though. A little white space space (with nothing in it) will go a long way to getting your information read.

Less is more

You'll pack more of a design wallop if you use just two or three fonts. You can even create interesting designs by sticking to just one typeface (a collection of fonts in the same family)

Don't Box Me In

Don't stick something in a box just because you think a page needs a "little something". Use boxes to emphasize important information, such as a sidebar or a pull quote.

Getting Spacey

Two spaces are no longer necessary, and are in fact distracting, with today's proportional fonts.

Tie Headings to Text

Headlines should be visually tied to the text they head. That means you want very little space between your headline and the following text, and a larger space between the end of the text and the next headline.

Reversal of Fortune

Reversed text (white text on a black or dark background) is a great way to draw attention to text It's usually not a good idea to reverse out whole paragraphs of text, and be especially careful when using serif fonts. Delicate serif fonts can become blurry when reversed out of dark colors, making it difficult to read the text.

Relying on Defaults

Programs come set with default fonts, font sizes, line spacing, and more. You can change defaults; in fact, you usually want to.

Proofread

Proofreading is more than just running spell check on your text. Spell checkers are great; they just don't catch things like its and it's.  You should actually read your text; in fact, you will most likely catch more spelling errors if you read your text backwards. In My case I AM A TERRABLE  SPELLER AND  PROOFREADER! So I have a system in place where I have 3 people check my work before it goes out. That way they are sure to catch the errors.

And Last but not least.

No Comic Sans.....ever  ....:) I know it's 11 but hey...it's my blog.

1. Be open to the best of what everyone, everywhere, has to offer; transfer learning across your organisation.
2. Get the right people in the  right jobs - it is more important than developing a   strategy.
3. An informal atmosphere is an advantage.
4. Make sure everybody counts and everybody knows they count.
5. The true test of self-confidence is the courage to be open.
6. Ministry has to be fun - celebrations energise and organisation.
7. Understand where real value is added and put your best there.