The other week I wrote an article where I picked on pastors and church leadership a little when it comes to working with us not-so-easy-to-work-with designers.
Well it would just not be fair to let the creative fold off the hook in addressing issues when it comes to a healthy and functioning ministry relationship.
As stated in my article about the most overlooked church media the communication and understanding of the leadership for designers is paramount in effectively creating quality work for your ministry. To take it a step further – I would be so bold to say that most of the issues in this relationship are often caused by the designer or creative volunteer.
Many of you may already be arching your back and getting offended by that statement – which only serves to prove my point. We have a tendency to take things too personally and never owning up to an issue in order to solve it. Instead, we dig our heels in and claim others just don’t understand design like we do. They may very well not understand – but that’s not the point.
I want to give you, the designer, a few tips to strengthening this relationship and how you can better work with your church leadership to accomplish great things for The Kingdom:
1. Leave the industry jargon at home
No one else cares that you know what a pantone color is and they don’t. Keep your industry jargon to a minimum as all it tends to accomplish is frustrating others instead of gaining their understanding.
When someone fills their speech with industry lingo it tends to tell me that they are insecure and feel a need to prove themselves and their knowledge to you. Your job is to help others understand, not impress them with your meaningless words.
2. Get to know their likes and dislikes
Admittedly this can be a long process of trial and error. The key is to not be afraid to fail and don’t get offended when dislikes are communicated. Take ALL feedback and apply it going forward.
You do not have to sacrifice good design to satisfy an individual’s taste, but in many cases with ministry leaders, you should take that into account as you help navigate everyone to a quality design.
The magic happens when you can build an understanding of a leader’s directive to a point where you seem to instinctively know what they want often times before they complete a thought. Just be patient though, you will have to suffer a lot of bumps and bruises to get there.
3. Don’t get attached, it’s not your baby
The most common issue I have witnessed with designers, both in ministry and in the market, is this strange attachment to something they created. I will admit I have been guilty of this as well!
When something you poured into gets ripped apart it can feel like a personal assault. Just breathe, take a step back and take the criticism in stride. It will be hard at first but pushing through this and not throwing up your arms in frustration will pay back in dividends.
After all, this is God’s Kingdom you are working to build, not your own!
What have you seen or experienced as a point of frustration of difficulty in the relationship between designer and leadership? How have you overcome it?
[…] Steve Mindrup shares three tips for how designers can better serve their church leadership: […]