JESUS LOVES DESIGN

My name is John Emery and I graduated from Endicott’s School of Art and Design in 2010 with a degree in Visual Communications: Graphic Design. I first started work in the Christian realm designing t-shirts for my local YoungLife group. It felt right to be using my passion for something I really believed in. From there, I started volunteering my time and design to my local church, Harbor of Hope, which has now turned into a full-time position with them.

Things that interest me:

• Successful OR unsuccessful non-profit design work
• Leading worship
• Folk music
• Brewing beer
• Experimental churches filled with people that aren’t afraid to fail

My wife, Elyse, is also a designer who works for an environmental technology company. She’s a huge part of my inspiration as well as my critiques. She’ll pop up in the blog posts quite often.

As far as why I feel that Jesus loves design, Adam Lancaster (The Creative Manager at The Village Church) explains:

It’s not simply that art and design should matter to Christians in general or to the local church in particular, but that the right kind of art and design matter. Certainly, every organization must communicate effectively to create understanding among a particular audience, and every individual demonstrates a need for personal expression, but few value the importance of doing so in a way that is fundamentally aesthetic. The Church is a frequent offender…

Jesus continually used applicable and appropriate illustrations in His teachings, and why should we do any different? I do my absolute best to offer my church, as well as the larger body of Christian churches, the level of visual communication that they deserve.

I’m a small fish in a huge ocean, but so far, I’ve loved every wave.