MEGAN
STANTON
St. Michael's
communications revamp
the client
I had just relocated from Mission Viejo to San Diego and stumbled upon a contract design position. Upon further discussion, I found that the business was actually a church with a young new pastor. As we discussed their position, it became increasingly clear that he was in desperate need of a branding, communications, and marketing revamp/overhaul. They were looking for someone to bring them into the 21st century, and I accepted the mission!
the project
I got things started by revitalizing the logo and brand to emulate the history and community identity that St. Michael's is the oldest church in Carlsbad. It is a traditional Anglo-Catholic church, that still practices the same traditions/religion practiced in the early church.
In line with re-branding, I evaluated the church ministries and created logos for each of them. This gave each of the sub-groups of the church their own identity and a place to grow from. In addition, I branded all the church events with - on brand - graphical imagery, and carried the theme through all print and digital communications. This was done to help members get excited about the events and generate a large attendance, as well as draw those in from the outside.
Once I established a brand book, I then modernized all their internal printed communications and literature. Every piece of printed communication was revamped in Indesign to be in line with the brand, and built as a template to make the processes more efficient and easy for anyone to use. In addition, I created a welcome brochure that was shared with the public and potential members. Along the same lines, I designed a new member digest that highlighted the ministries and mission of the church.
During this phase I also revamped the strategy for their outdated black and white newsletter and transitioned it into a St. Michael's magazine. For this new direction I designed layouts to include full-page branded event posters and rich in-depth articles that gave a more submersive St. Michael's experience. I curated, designed, and at times wrote, for these quarterly magazines (such as the open "Creatives collaborating with the Creator" article below).
After branding and print where set up, I moved into digital communications. The first step was to restructure and redesign an outdated WordPress site. I created a site map where pages and information were ordered with simplicity and efficiency, based on most important information to least important, so visitors would have the best user experience. I rebuilt and designed the website on WordPress, with approved mockups.
With a beautiful and functional site in place I then created and curated a weekly blog calendar that was based on content from congregants and articles I wrote myself. I coordinated church events and religious traditions into the calendar topics, as way to promote activities and educate readers about the religious system at the church.
As this tool was happening, I created a weekly email campaign system that promoted the blog posts each week. This was a great tool for promoting events and important announcements, giving congregants a good digital snippet of what was happening at St. Michael's on a weekly basis.
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With the communications revamp complete, St. Michael's now has a new image, new templates/procedures that are based in the 21st century, along with a professional identity they can feel proud to share with the community.