Interview with Cameron Smith

Cameron Smith is a talented Graphic Designer and Photographer from Peoria, Arizona. I came across his work when I joined one of the most influential groups for Christian Designers on Flickr, the Church Marketing Lab. In today’s interview, we talk a little about Cameron’s design background and his reflection on how churches can use design and marketing successfully. Enjoy!

1.Welcome to INSPIKS, please introduce yourself. Please tell us where you’re from and how you got started in the field of Graphic Design?

I am Cameron Smith, Visual Ninja and Creative Catalyst. I used to consider myself just a Graphic Designer – but as my work, responsibilities and surroundings have evolved…. I had to come up with something new. I was born and raised in Southern California and recently transplanted my family to Arizona. I’m a self-taught designer, as I suspect many of your readers may be, and I’ve been working professionally in this field for 7 years. I stumbled upon Adobe Photoshop 5 about just over 10 years ago while attempting to help my church youth group create some flyers for an event. The rest, as they say… is history.

Encounters

2. How were you led to become a Christian and how does your faith in Jesus Christ impact the way you approach design.

I accepted Christ at the age of 16 and I’ve been on this journey now for 18 years. My youth pastor at the church I grew up in led me to Christ. He played a profound role in mentoring me as a young Christian and a leader. I believe that the call of working in full-time ministry has been placed on my life; and my work as a designer in the Church is the fulfilling of that call. My relationship with Christ comes first in everything I do and there is no exception when it comes to my design work.

Valley In-A-Can

3. Tell us a little about your job as a Graphic Designer for Christ Church of the Valley (CCV).

Let me start by saying… I LOVE MY JOB! Christ Church of the Valley has given me an opportunity to grow in leaps and bounds as a designer and a leader. I work on a team with 2 other designers and we work together to create the visual representation of CCV. My role has evolved over the past four years in several different ways. As mentioned earlier, I no longer see myself as just a Graphic Designer – I’m a thinker, a leader, a creative solutions provider, an art director and idea generator. None of those things are “required” of me in my job description, but CCV has allowed me to use all of my gifts in every capacity available. I have a deep passion for the Church and I’m committed to seeing lives changed through the work of CCV and especially our team.

The Stand

Generations

4. What are some of the things that help a church to successfully use graphic design as part of the worship experience or part of their marketing/outreach strategy? What are some of the challenges you face?

First things first, if you want your church to successfully use graphic design in your worship experiences or marketing efforts – you HAVE to have complete buy-in from the top down. Our leadership completely understands the value of strong visual communication and I think that is vital to a successful usage of graphic design on a church-wide basis. If you’re a lone ranger and you can’t get your leadership to support your efforts… it’s going to be a long, uphill battle. As it relates to our worship experiences at CCV, we want to make sure that as soon as someone walks through the doors of our worship center – they feel completely comfortable and have a genuine encounter with God. I believe the visual connection from the sermon to the screens and print materials helps to raise that level of comfort. We want to eliminate any doubt or any opportunity for them to second their decision to come to church. We believe providing a strong sense of visual cohesiveness is one of the ways to make that happen.

Jonah

5. To date, what is your favorite piece of artwork that you have created? What motivated that design and what was it’s main focus?

It’s definitely not easy to pick a favorite. There have been several pieces that I’ve created over the years that are favorites to me in different ways. I guess if I HAVE To pick a favorite… it would be my Jonah piece. When thinking about the direction for this piece… we wanted something epic, modern, and relevant. With a bible story, like that of Jonah, it can often come off cliche and played out – we wanted to make sure that absolutely would not happen with this series. I’m also pretty sure this was my first design with a 3D typography element and it was a lot of fun working on that aspect of it – definitely something I want to try again in the near future.

Andy Frank CD Art

Andy Frank: Shine For You - CD Design

6. You are not only a great designer, you are also a very good photographer. How did you get involved with photography?

Thanks for your compliments. My love for photography also came about in an accidental way, I suppose. My friend, Eric Cotter (who is also a stellar photographer ) turned me on to the idea of buying a DSLR camera about 6 years ago. I picked up a Canon Digital Rebel and began shooting pictures just to shoot pictures. I never started out in photography with the intention of doing it on any sort of professional level…. I was just looking for another way to express myself creatively.

I started a daily photo-blog and entered several of my photos into weekly themed contests. This was a great outlet for me creatively… I was able to refine my craft, learn how to be inspired through photography and develop a new discipline. Since then, I’ve been able to establish myself as a freelance wedding and portrait photographer, while still maintaining my full-time gig as a visual ninja.

Francis Chan

Catalyst West Coast

7. How do you use your knowledge of photography in your designs?

Having the ability to take good pictures has been instrumental in several of my design pieces. There are a lot of times when using a stock photograph simply just won’t work. Using original photography can often take a design from good to great. My piece for Christmas a few years back “The Arrival” is a great example of a design that probably would not have had near the same impact if we had used stock photography.

8. Who are your favorite artists? What impresses you most about them?

There you go… making me pick another favorite! Since you asked… here are the names and links to a few artists that keep me inspired and impressed on regular basis. In no particular order, of course…

• David Choate
• Patrick Fore
• Bryan Clark
• Ryan Skjervem
• Juliet Towner
• Joe Cavazos
• Promise Tangeman

You may have never heard of these designers, but they are all absolutely stellar designers who put out top quality work on an everyday basis. I’m often more inspired by the designers in-the-trenches of the Church, than I am by the big-name-designers of the world.

2010 Mothers Day

9. Where do you go to find design inspiration? What are your favorite websites?

As cliche as this may sound… I try to find inspiration in everything I see. I also have a pretty deep addiction to collecting print materials from wherever I’m at. Whenever I’m out and about and I see a brochure, flyer or print design that impresses me – I’ll snatch it up and add it to my collection. I refer back to this collection of pieces on a regular basis to get inspiration for my design work. As far as websites go, I often visit places like INSPIKS.com (of course) Smashing Magazine , Six Revisions and various other online design magazines.

Summer Chill

10. Thanks again for providing INSPIKS with this opportunity to interview you. Any final thoughts for our readers?

Thank you for this opportunity. I’ve been a BIG fan of INSPIKS for quite some time and it’s a privilege to be featured here.

Hmm… my thoughts? Well…I guess the first thing that comes to mind when I have a platform like this, is the idea of “inspiration vs. duplication.” Duplication over inspiration is a problem I’ve been seeing in the world of church marketing over the last several years… and it seems to be getting worse as time goes by. As designers, we need to learn the difference between inspiration and duplication. There is never a good excuse for duplicating the artwork of someone else. However, I think sometimes it’s unintentional and we need to be aware of this. If you are committed to putting in the extra effort, working harder and developing yourself as a graphic designer – you will need to learn how to take inspiration from a design piece and make it your own. Put your own spin on it… give it YOUR asthetic… and in the end, you will be a better designer for it…. maybe even a visual ninja!

Wounded

11. Can people contact you for freelance work?

Yes. I’m always up for freelance work – in fact, I welcome it with open arms.

International Justice Mission

Where to find Cameron Smith on the web

• Blog
• Portfolio
• Flickr
• Facebook
• CreativeMYK
• Twitter
• cameron.smith(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)gmail.com

The Light