I was asked by our Youth pastors to design the lobby for their Overflow Youth Event. This project was so fun to brainstorm, plan and execute. Their theme was ‘Lawless- Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ.’ They wanted it to have an Old Western/Ranch/Bull-Rider feel, that’s also suited for teenagers, not little kids. That’s all they gave me. So I ran with that and came up with this!

There is a lot I could say to break down how I made decisions on this, but that’s for another time! However, the really awesome wood slab tables were also my design! I commissioned them to be built by another amazing church volunteer, Kent Webb.

 

I absolutely love decorating and designing spaces. I have friends and family ask me to help them design their spaces all the time, and I just can’t get enough of it. People ask me why I don’t do it professionally, and I say… because I just want to have fun with it!

Here are some interior design projects and other random design projects I’ve worked on and am proud of!

Over the past few months during quarantine, I decided it would be fun to pick a song to dedicate to some people in my life who mean a lot to me. I posted them on Facebook and tagged my loved one, explaining why I chose the specific song I did for them, and why I love them so much. It was fun! I have only done a few, but here they are! The first one is a song I wrote for my daughter, Annie. The two after it are covers, and the rest are covers I’ve done in the past that I wanted to share here as well.

Enjoy!

 

This song is called Time In A Bottle, by Jim Croce. I dedicated it to my Dad. This is my own arrangement.

 

I dedicated this song to the world. lol.  It’s a song by the Mammas and the Pappas called Dedicated to the One I Love.  This is my own arrangement.

 

This is a classical piece I worked up called Reverie, by Debussy. I dedicated it to my mom, the one who fostered my piano skills from 1st grade through 12th grade!

 

I realize that the way these last videos do not leave you with anything pleasing to look at. haha. Just listen I guess?? I’ve since learned how to capture better videos on my phone! Nonetheless, I am proud of these arrangements I put together. Every song you hear below is my own arrangement of the original song.

This song is an arrangement of Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. I played and sang it at church.

 

This is an arrangement of the song Door Number Two from the musical Waitress, by Sara Barielles.

 

This is me working on the song If I Ain’t Got You, by Alicia Keyes. You’ll enjoy the chaos that ensues with a house full of dogs and children! The life of a parent!

 

This is You Say, by Lauren Daigle. I didn’t change much about this one to make it “my own.” I just learned it as close to the original as I could.

This is our most recent series. We played off the Netflix message that pops up on your TV when you’ve been watching something for a while with no activity. The idea is to use illustrations from TV shows and movies to drive home Biblical truth. Every story borrows from THE STORY.

Below is the Bumper video and graphic for this series. There are graphics shared on social media that break down each movie/TV show that’s being discussed, but I didn’t have anything to do with those this time! However, I did design the logo! My friend and former co-worker, Josh Hughes, took my vision for the bumper video and brought it to life!

 

I also attached some images of the newest stage design below. This set is quickly becoming one of my personal favorites! We decided it would be fitting to have a TV wall for this series, given the title and the content. So, we went to work!

I asked our favorite build team volunteers, Keith West and Aaron Prestito to build me some large stands that could hold two TV’s (one 50″ and one 32″). I came up with a design, and they went to work!

I decided I needed 8 TV’s. Four 50″ and four 30″. We had one 50″ TV at church that wasn’t being used, so I nabbed that one first. Then I found 3 more 50″ TV’s at Walmart for only $230! After I had the big TV’s figured out, I moved onto the small ones. I posted a request on our Reality Church Facebook page for small flat screen TV’s that could be borrowed for the summer. I quickly acquired 4 that were perfect.

Once the stands were assembled, welded, spray painted and placed on wheels, it was time to attach the TV mounts. Once those were attached, we mounted the TV’s in a pre-determined design. That took a really long time!

Then came the fun part… I had to figure out how to display images and motion graphics on the TV’s in order to give the set the look we wanted! I called my good friend, Will Muff, who is an expert on all things TV and projection. He said we could buy a fancy switcher designed for TV walls for $5,000… ummm no. When we determined that was too expensive, he told me about a Roku channel he stumbled upon in his research that just might work. It’s called QuickESigns and you can program displays on as many TV’s as you want to through your account.

So, I had to buy a Roku device for every TV that wasn’t a smart TV. Then I had to download the QuickESigns channel on every TV. We had to label each TV so we knew which one we were controlling on the QuickESigns website. I programmed each TV to play something during worship, and then switch to another presentation during the sermon. We tried it out on week one with our fingers crossed… and it worked so well! All the work and brain power paid off!

Here’s how it looked during worship and then during the sermon. The designs on the TV’s during worship are motion graphics, which you can’t see in a still image. You still get the idea!

 

Survival Mode was a series we planned in the wake of Covid-19. We knew people would be struggling mentally, physically, spiritually, and relationally because of this pandemic. Our desire was to help provide some tools to have thriving relationships in the midst of WAY TOO MUCH TIME TOGETHER!

Below is the graphic we designed in an attempt to make something ‘homemade looking’, as well as the bumper videos we shot for each week of the series. These videos star my brother, Andy and Wyatt Johnson makes some small appearances. I wrote and directed the videos, and Sam Senser shot and edited them. We make a really excellent team!

This is Episode 1 of Survival Mode Hacks, with Andy.  DIY TP 4U

 

Here is Episode 2 of Survival Mode Hacks, with Andy.  DIY Grocery Store

 

Episode 3 of Survival Mode Hacks, with Andy.  DIY Zoom Meeting

 

And finally, episode 4 of Survival Mode Hacks, with Andy.  DIY Online Masters Class

 

Our stage design for this series was not anything connected to this specific series. When Covid-19 began, we put together a stage design that would look good on camera since we could only have services via video. I love the way the set looked though!

The Hope Chronicles is the name of a series we put together. The project title and overall concept for this series was my ‘brain child’. We had never done a series that spans out over 4 months, with each month acting as it’s own mini-series (4 weeks long); each having it’s own bumper video and individualized graphics, while keeping the over-arching theme of HOPE. It was so much fun to see this entire series through from its birth to its completion, and to direct all the creative pieces within it. Out of all the sermon series I have directed creatively, this is the one I am most proud of. The whole project fit together like a glove and all the pieces came together so cohesively, creating a very unified, thoughtful, engaging, and memorable sermon series.

Below are the title slides and bumper video for each individual mini series. The artwork was done by Karien Breidenkamp, a volunteer from our church who specializes in line art and graphic design. The videos were written and directed by me, and shot and edited by Sam Senser. They both did a beautiful job capturing the concepts and keeping the feel cohesive.

This first mini-series is titled Beyond Me. The series is about learning to live beyond our own small bubble and perspective, and to realize our place in a much more hopeful, amazing, true and ancient story. My oldest son and his best friend are the talent in this bumper video! I absolutely love the way it turned out.

 

This next mini-series is titled, End Game. It is a study on the book of Revelation. The two talents in the video are a couple of our church member’s kids. They are so adorable and did a fantastic job!

 

This mini-series is titled, The Things That I’m Afraid Of. This one is a really heavy, really important series that addresses mental health awareness. The talent in this video is my daughter, Annie.

 

This last mini series is titled, Joy. It was presented in the month of December and turned out to be a very fitting and joyful series to end out The Hope Chronicles! The talent in this video is my best friend’s daughter and her family (in the background at the beginning).

 

We also made door hangers to disperse around our neighborhoods and promote the upcoming series! Each mini-series had it’s own door hanger. Here’s an example of one of  them! The graphic and pertinent information changed when each new mini-series began. The door hangers were dispersed two weeks prior to each mini-series.

Finally, as the icing on the cake, we designed booklets that our members could take notes in and hold onto as a keepsake. They turned out amazing and many of our members used them diligently. The first image is the front cover. The next three images are an example of what each mini-series provided in the booklet.

I know I said, ‘Finally’ already, but there is one more thing… our stage design! We had banners made for each week of the series and proudly displayed those on stage. They created a really neat backdrop for the band and others presenting on stage. One of our volunteers, Keith West, built the vertical lights out of PVC! It was a fun project!

This is the Bumper Video we made to go along with Absolutely Free, the sermon series. Andy Butler and Jeff Butler (also my brothers) are the talent in the video. I wrote the script and directed it. Sam Senser did the video work and editing. We were so happy with the way it turned out! It’s perfection!

 

This is the stage design we came up with. The cross in the center is made of real wood and was designed by one of our volunteers, Aaron Prestito. The lyrics are being projected on the center cross beam, which turned into a meaningful effect that people really enjoyed and appreciated. The chandeliers were made by another volunteer, Jerry McCoy. We added flameless candles on candelabras under the center screen to add another texture of light. To finish off the set, we added standing Edison bulbs to the exterior of the stage, and brought out a piano shell to put our Nord keyboard in. This was an all-time favorite stage design for many of our church members!