Interview with David Choate

David Choate is an extraordinary designer who works as Communication and Design Pastor for Table Rock Fellowship Church. David is one of the best designers working in the Church Marketing industry, he is recognized for his unconventional style, his great use of Typography and clean layouts. In this interview we discuss David’s love for Graphic Design and how it relates to spreading the Gospel of Christ. This exciting interview will help us to learn more about his process, work, and inspiration. so here we go!

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

I am from Medford, Oregon. I have a beautiful wife, Samantha, and three great children. I work  at Table Rock Fellowship Church. I was originally hired to be the high school pastor, but when my senior pastor decided to introduce more design into the weekend services I thought it would be a good fit for me. After a lot of prayer I made the switch from high school pastor to communications director here at Table Rock Fellowship. I think it is one of the best decisions I have ever made, I love my job and my church.

2. Describe for our readers the circumstances in your life that lead you to Christ.

I grew up going to church but the gospel didn’t mean all that much to me. It wasn’t until the end of college that I was brought to a point of desperation. As I finished college I found out that I was going to be a father, my relationship with the mother was falling apart, and it really felt like my world was collapsing. At that time I got a job at Monaco Coach Corporation (a motor home manufacture) designing magazines. The editor, Randy Puckett, who worked with me on the magazines was a Christian and he began the slow process of leading me to a relationship with Jesus Christ as my personal savior.

3. Who are your favorite designers? How have they influenced your design style?

My favorite designers are all people who are better than me in areas I would like to grow. Many of them have different styles than mine, so they challenge me to keep evolving as a designer. This is by no means a complete list, but it is definitely a sample of artists I draw off of:

• James White: this guy is fantastic with color and light
• Abby Smith: she incorporates great textures with simple, clean design
• Jason Watson: he has got a style all his own and some of the best video work I’ve ever seen
• Promise Tangeman: produces great photographs, design, and fine art
• Sean Salter: a fantastic illustrator who is able to carry those abilities throughout his designs
• Ryan Skjervem: another great color and texture guy

4. Where do you go to find artistic inspiration? what are some of your favorite websites?

I find that I sift through flickr a lot for inspiration there are so many great designs and photos on that site. I also look at Impawards a lot. Some of the best design/typography artwork out there is found on movie posters.

5. When looking at your designs, two words always come to my mind, excellent execution! How much time do you put into planning your designs? what is your process?

Before I was a designer I was a teaching pastor, I think that seeing my designs from the vantage point of a pastor has helped a lot. For me design always starts with asking God for an idea. I ask God to give me a metaphor that I can use to communicate with. If I start designing before I get the metaphor everything tends to fall apart. It becomes form without function and the purpose of design is to communicate not to look good. For example, when Table Rock Fellowship was going to do a series on identity nothing really came together until we settled on the metaphor of the finger print. For our series, this icon came to represent the unique identity that God has placed within each one of us. Once the metaphor was settled I had a great foundation on which to design.

Finding the metaphor can take minutes, hours, days or weeks. That idea is very much a God thing and I can take no credit for it. It comes when He gives it to me. But when it comes I can usually crank designs out pretty quickly as it becomes a matter of execution and perseverance.

1. Two things that have been foundational in my design process are: looking at others work before I start my own and posting what I have up for critique.Look at others work: If you do what you’ve always done you get what you’ve always got. Looking at how others approach their designs breaks me out of my design ruts.
2. Critique: I owe most of the “excellence” of my designs to this process. No artist likes to have their work critiqued. But I have found that the more I am willing to listen to others opinions the better my final product is. A great site to post and get feedback for church related design is the Church Marketing Lab.

6. Tell us a little about your role as Communication and Design Pastor at Table Rock Fellowship?

For me this has become an ever evolving position. I see myself primarily as a designer, but in my current position I lead a team that involves a production designer, an administrator, and our editors. Our job is to take the message of our church, and its various ministries, and communicate it as clearly, consistently and creatively as possible. This is a role I am still growing into and I feel like I still have a long way to go.

7. What is the most rewarding part of doing Church Marketing? What would you say needs to be improved in that particular industry?

I love to communicate the gospel, so whether I am preaching on a weekend or designing for a sermon series I feel that I am using the gifts God has given me. Because I love to communicate. My current job is very rewarding, I feel like I am doing exactly what God has created me to do.

I think the biggest thing that needs to be improved in church marketing is our role as leaders rather than followers. The church, because we are empowered by the God of creation, should be the most creative power on the earth. However, many church’s produce design that feel safe, stale and unoriginal. None of these are attributes of our God. I believe the more church marketing is innovative, impacting and original the more it reflects the true nature of God and impacts those who encounter it.

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

I’ve got two. The first is a design called “One.” I feel like this is the best concept I’ve come up with. We wanted to do a series on marriage from Ephesians 5:30-33, and the idea was to talk about how God uses marriage to unite two people in the midst of so many forces that try to pull marriages apart. I wanted to create a design where both elements were represented: God’s ideal and the challenges we face. This is the design that came from the exploration of that concept. The thing I love most about this design is its simplicity. I struggle with less is more but this is one instance where I feel I got it right. The funny thing about this design was that it got cut at the last minute…so my best design has never been used.

The second design is called “Surviving The Storm.” This was a design I did for a sermon series on surviving the trials of life. I feel like this is the best mood I’ve created in a design. When I design I always want to take people to another place. For me, I felt I could step into the midst of this design. I felt I could feel the storm…and what better way to prepare someone to hear a sermon on surviving life’s trials than to take them to a stormy place.

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

Thanks for the opportunity to be interviewed! I am a huge fan of your work and your site. My final thought is not really about design but life. Nothing is more important than a relationship with Jesus Christ. Put Him first in your life and everything else will fall into place.

Where to find David Choate on the Web

• Flickr