TMC Creative Spotlight #1

As Easter weekend approaches, we sat down with our Media Director, Danny Bligh, to talk about his inspiration for creativity at The Market Church. Danny comes to The Market Church from Sioux City, Iowa where he grew up playing guitar in local bands and studying creative arts, communications, and media. 

How did you get in to graphic design, photography, and media?

I’ve been into art in some form or another as far back into my life as I can remember. It started when I was a kid in grade school, I used to draw little pictures of things for my classmates and charge them a premium of a quarter or fifty cents I think. That naturally progressed into graphic design when I was a teenager and Photoshop started hitting the mainstream. I wanted to make logos for the bands I was in - so that started happening in Photoshop. I got into photography as a hobby when I was around 22 or so - but never took it really seriously at all up until about 5 years ago or so.

How does what you do creatively incorporate into a church? 

I think it’s important not to separate general creative work with “church” creative work. I like to design things for the church exactly as I would for anything else. I think it becomes an issue when you get into the mindset of “oh it’s just for the church, so it doesn’t matter all that much” - I totally disagree with that statement. I think we’re called to always offer our very best - so a website or poster for the church shouldn’t be any different. As far as the actual creative process, it’s made pretty easy at The Market Church because our pastors (Greg and Adam) really just let me go with whatever I think is right for any given project. Having that level of creative control really allows me to play and come up with some stuff that we’re really happy with!

Where do you get your inspiration when creating a design like "PHENOM” ?

As far as designing for TMC, I’ve kind of taken a different approach with each year, going back to when I started creating all of their media a few years ago. The first year was the year of really minimal, simple lines and type. The 2nd year was the year of big, bold text and images. I think 2014 is going to be (from a creative standpoint) the year of very bold colors. So I knew right away that I wanted it to have really strong pastels. I started with a design that was heavy on Photoshop paintbrushes that I found, and incorporated big colors and paint splatters all over the place. The concept was right but I just couldn’t get there with these digital brushes (they always looked just a little too digital and not “rough” enough to me) so I ended up just throwing some water color paints down on a canvas and it turned out to be just right! Once I had that painting the rest came really easy!

Imagery for The Market Church Phenom Easter Service

What is your advice for someone who might want to pursue a career in graphic design or other Creative Arts? 

Great question! As far as simple pointers - I would say learn as much as you possibly can about all of the design and creative software that’s out there like Photoshop, InDesign, Lightroom, etc. Just mess around in those programs! Take a poster or album cover or something you like and try to make it yourself in Photoshop for fun. See how close you can get. That’s a great way to learn the tools and software that are available.  One potential issue is that Photoshop is so big, it can be approached in completely different ways as a photographer, designer or illustrator - so it might help to focus in on your one key area as you’re just getting started. I’d say this is similar for photography. It’s really crucial to know what the key components of your camera will do. ISO, shutter speed and f-stop. Learn those settings at a minimum and learn how they interact with each other. Just practice a ton! I feel like “practice” is the boring answer but it’s really true!