Colorway (October, 2014)

colorway ART, CULTURE AND FAITH-CENTERED LIVING

COLOPHON Designer: Isis Voltolini Paper: White, coated, 32lb All slab-serif type set in Bree Serif Designed by Veronika Burian and JosĂŠ Scaglione, 2008 All sans serif type set in Roboto Designed by Christian Robertson, 2011 Photos by Hannah Beatrice, Linnea Gabriella Spransy, Elizabeth Weinberg, Shift.

colorway EDITOR'S NOTE

Colorway is a magazine about culture in the context of Christian faith. For young adults who work with or have a strong interest in art, music, film and design; but first and foremost, they seek to live Christ-centered lives. Exploring the relationship between art and faith, creativity and the belief that everything we know has been created and impeccably designed, Colorway is exactly what its name says. Since we can't see The One we live for, we try to point out the color in the way He made for us.

In this issue you'll find information on Kye Kye, the Estonian-born band that will win you over with their stunning music and heartfelt faith. You'll get to know the work of Linnea Gabriella Spransy, an award-winning painter that has had exhibitions from Brooklyn to China. Here, she talks about her inspirations, why she finds structure and chaos equally fascinating and how she (re)marries science to theology. And there's still more: the UK folk-worship band Rivers and Robots; the importance of design to achieve church growth; a review on the movie "Believe Me"and the presence of creativity in our daily life. Enjoy!

colorway OCTOBER, 2014

ART + DESIGN 4 New York Art Book Fair is the Art World’s Coachella

By Rozalia Jovanovic Appealing and amazingly created,

14

the fair was a great meeting point for artists

8 Freedom Through Limits

By Scott Andrews

A glimpse at Linnea Gabriella

Spransy’s inner world and a few of the things that influenced her as an artist.

20 The Art of Church Communication

By Rozalia Jovanovic

MUSIC

14 The Amazing Kye Kye

By Ryan Kristobak

Kye Kye set high expectations with their dreamy synthpop on the band’s 2011 debut, Young Love.

Now they’ve bested themselves with the stellar follow-up, Fantasize, a well-produced set that calls to mind Wild Ones and CHVRCHES

6 Rivers & Robots

By Lins Honeyman After two albums as a solo act,

Salford-based singer, songwriter and producer Jonathan Ogden has recently seen his project morph into a fully-fledged band

The importance of a good website

in the process church growth

LIFE 3 Creativity as a Part of the Christian’s Life

By Kerrie Hubbard

Have you ever wondered about your inherited characteristics?

2

FILM 23 Review: Believe Me Takes Aim at Christian Culture

By Cameron Strang

Though occasionally uneven, 'Believe me' is a slick, sharp -eyed satire.

Creativity as a part of the Christian's life

Have you ever wondered about your inherited characteristics?

By Kerrie Hubbard

M

any dream of being more creative. They are the kind of people who say they don’t have a creative bone in their body, they can’t draw a straight line with a ruler, and the creative genes passed them by.

They long to be artistic, but fear they won’t ever make the cut.

There is good news for those dreamers. According to the Word of God, they were destined to be creative. It’s their birthright. It’s in their DNA. Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...”’ What does it mean to be made in the image of God? For one thing, it means humans were created to create. The Bible unfolds with a flourish of creativity as God assembles the universe and all that it contains.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) The greatest artist of all time unveils his handiwork in the very first sentence.

Later, in Isaiah 64:8, God likens Himself to a potter and to Christians as the clay. The same God who creates new sunrises every morning and blows His breath into delicate flower petals each spring, chooses to identify Himself as an artist. If humans are made in the image of a creative God, where is all that creativity hiding? Many people have buried their creativity so deep, they don’t even know it’s there. It’s time to become more child-like and give one’s self permission play.

When children create, they are often lost in the moment, fully enjoying the act of creating. Their senses are wide open and they aren’t critically judging the outcome. They’re just enjoying the act of making something.

As children grow, they learn to be more critical and judgmental towards what they create. Often, the critical part overshadows everything else and their enjoyment diminishes. When this happens, it doesn’t take long before a child abandons their creativity all together, lamenting that they just can’t do it.

When the desire to create or be more creative comes, remember the Scripture confirming that all of God’s children are made in His image. Give permission to explore creativity. Abandon fears and jump in to a project.

Try something new. Take a class and learn an art or craft that’s of interest.

Suspend judgments to unbury some of that hidden talent.

Maybe that longing to create deep down inside is God helping his children become more like Him – the most famous artist of all time. With genealogy like that, believers can learn to do anything.

COLORWAY MAGAZINE

3

New York Art Book Fair is the Art World's "Coachella"

1

Appealing and amazingly created, the fair was a great meeting point for artists.

By Rozalia Jovanovic

A

s per Klaus Biesenbach, MoMA PS1′s director, the New York Art Book Fair had over 10,000 visitors on Sunday alone. It certainly felt like it.

This year’s fair, presented by Printed Matter, opened with a performance by Thurston Moore and closed with a show by Gang Gang Dance.

It was an epic event that had some visitors, including the Observer’s Nate Freeman, comparing it to Coachella, replete with novelty T-shirts featuring art world royalty, loads of colorful and affordable artworks and artisanal objects that had people advertising their “haul,” and plenty of room to just hang and listen to music, whether outdoors on the steps of the museum or within the special project rooms (well, at least one). Here are some of the wacky things that we saw (or that others saw and posted on Instagram).

4

1

One fan, “Sophia Richter,” commented on her Instagram feed: “If the art/lit world had a Coachella, this may be it.” Incidentally, the Observer’s Nate Freeman also commented that the fair resembled the music festival. Something must be in the air.

2

At $100 per jar, these “war pickles” at Karma offered edible art objects with apocalyptic undertones. This unique label asked, “Since it has been established that we are at war, let’s force a disjunctive opposition: Warhol or pickles?”

3

Thurston Moore performing on opening night of the fair.

4

Artist Andrew Kuo’s punny T-shirt of art critics Roberta Smith and Jerry Saltz was the sleeper hit of the fair. Even Lena Dunham asked on her Instagram account if anyone could get her one of the t-shirts in exchange for “chocolate, hugs (and money)”. No doubt, she got a lot of offers.

5

Guests had to remove their shoes before entering Iván Navarro’s site-specific installation “The Music Room.”

6

Hole gallerist Kathy Grayson shared her “haul,” which included a Scott Hug art zine and an issue of Toilet Paper.

7

The Nick Doyle book signing at Invisible-Exports.

8

Concert zine Showpaper had a great sculptural dispenser.

9

MoMA PS1 director Klaus Biesenbach doing stretches with art patron Agnes Gund in a rehearsal for a Xavier Le Roy performance.

ART + DESIGN

4

7

2

3

5

6

8

9

COLORWAY MAGAZINE

5

Rivers & Robots After two albums as a solo act, the Salford-based singer, songwriter and producer Jonathan Ogden has recently seen his Rivers & Robots project morph into a fully-fledged band.

By Lins Honeyman

W

hen Salford-based singer/songwriter and producer Jonathan Ogden started writing and recording under the Rivers & Robots moniker back in 2010, little did he know that his humble solo project would blossom into a four piece band only a few years later with a raft of live appearances and a healthy following under its collective belt.

Starting out as little more than an experiment, 'The Great Light' - an accomplished 2010 debut album - saw Jonathan produce an inherently worshipful piece of work that still sounds refreshingly different from much of today's modern worship fare and showcased some breathtakingly honest songs about his relationship with God together with an innovative electronica-tinged production style. Continuing in the same solo vein, Jonathan released the follow-up 'Take Everything' in 2012 to wider acclaim

6

MUSIC

and, thanks to a desire to play his now burgeoning catalogue of songs live, plans were afoot to really flesh Rivers & Robots into a full blown band.

With David Hailes (guitar), Nathan Stirling (bass) and Kelani Koyejo (drums) joining the ranks with Jonathan on vocals and keyboards, the Rivers & Robots crew are set to go into the studio to record what will be their first full band album. I caught up with the Rivers & Robots founder member to find out more. "Recording the new album is a bit scary for me because it will be the first time I've let go of the production side of things," Jonathan admits. "I'll find it hard to be completely separate from it and may find myself occasionally sitting in the producer's chair!"

I ask Jonathan to cast his mind back to when it all begin and to explain why he chose Rivers & Robots as his stage name. "After I did the first album, I didn't have a name for

the whole thing so I decided to come up with something that would sum up the acoustic folk/electronic sound of my songs. I went through lots of different names, Rivers & Robots ended up being the catchiest."

It seems deciding on the right name was only part of Jonathan's thinking behind the Rivers & Robots project. "About four or five years ago, I was asking God what he wanted me to do, where he wanted me in life and what my calling was - that kind of stuff," he explains. "I felt he was speaking to me about worship – I wasn't leading worship at church or anything like that at the time – but I ended up picking up the instruments I'd learnt as a child and started to worship God with them at home. As I was doing this, songs started to come out and I was learning how to do music production at the same time which led to me recording the songs on 'The Great Light' in my home studio.

"I never intended 'The Great Light' to go anywhere or do anything," confesses Jonathan. "I was just worshipping and working on my music production. Those songs were never designed to work in a congregational setting - they came from my own one-onone worship sessions - but people seem to be enjoying them and the fact that anyone bought the first album is amazing!"

Before long, Jonathan started work on a follow-up to 'The Great Light' using the same approach of undertaking all the songwriting and production duties himself. "The second album felt like a really big step up for me," he confides. "The first one was me figuring out what I was doing but, during the making of 'Take Everything', I felt God was really speaking to me through the Bible and the sermons I was hearing at the time. A lot of the songs on that album came from a place where God was speaking to me rather than just me writing a song about a chosen subject. Pretty much every track means something a lot more to me than simply just being a song because I was burning to write about things God had placed on my heart."

With Rivers & Robots being a solo venture for the first few years of its existence, I suggest the decision to recruit band members wasn't one that Jonathan took lightly.

"Turning Rivers & Robots into a band was quite a big move," he agrees. "As a solo project, I had complete control of how it all sounded. Putting the band together came about because I was thinking of doing live

appearances after I released the first album and I began to experiment with playing live along with loops and tracks on a laptop. It didn't feel quite right and the more I thought about it, the more I thought forming a band would be the best way to go. Before I recorded 'Take Everything', I didn't know any of the guys who are now part of Rivers & Robots but it was over the next year or so that everything started to fall into place. David, Nathan and Kelani have definitely added a lot to the whole thing. I still write most of the material but I'm now able to bring what I write to the other guys and we collaboratively build it up into a song."

Jonathan is keen to point out that the members of Rivers & Robots are not simply there to just make music and record albums.

"What we aim to do with Rivers & Robots is to worship God and serve him," he advises carefully. "Secondly, we want to bring the message of who Jesus is through our music.

There's a lot of new worship music coming out all over the place at the moment and it's amazing to see this but, at the same time, there's a lot of counter-worship rising up in the media and the world. This is the stuff that is designed to take all our attention away from God. As Christians, we should be people who focus their attention on God and are set apart from the world. Rivers & Robots are a small part of a global worship movement that is being raised up right now with the aim of glorifying God, declaring his glory and loving him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength."

"There's a lot of new worship music coming out all over the place at the moment and it's amazing to see this but, at the same time, there's a lot of counter-worship rising up in the media and the world. This is the stuff that is designed to take all our attention away from God. As Christians, we should be people who focus their attention on God and are set apart from the world."

Jonathan Ogden Also known as Oggy, Jonathan Odgen is not only the singer/songwriter and founder of Rivers and Robots, if you didn't think that was enough. He's also a Web Designer at The Message and a lover of all things creative, and runs the blog Typographic Verses. All of the band's graphic material, including lyric videos, album covers, website and stationary were made by him.

"Pretty much everything I do or love doing can be summed in two words; worship and creativity. And I'll take any chance I get to combine the two, whether that's through music, art, design or my world renowned skills as an interpretive dancer."

Be sure to check out his work at: www.ogvidius.com

From left to right: David Hailes (guitar), Jonathan Ogden (vocals, keyboards), Kelani Koyejo (drums) and Nathan Stirling (bass)

COLORWAY MAGAZINE

7

Rivers and Robots leading worship at the Shift. Weekend Away on late September.

8

MUSIC

Their new album, All Things New, came out in july and is available for download at http:// comeandlive. com for free.

At the end of the conversation, Jonathan confirms that things are most definitely on the up for Rivers & Robots. "We've already achieved way beyond what I imagined," he enthuses. "A few months ago, when we were playing at the David's Tent Festival in West Sussex, it suddenly hit me that just a couple of years ago I was sitting in my room writing and recording songs and here we are playing live to a big crowd. It's been amazing to see it grow and it feels like it's really going somewhere. I don't know quite where that is but that's what makes it exciting and I'm just happy to let God do what he wants to do."

All Things New With the firm foundation of the two strong solo albums, the expectations were high with their latest release All Things New and I can confidently say that they have met all of them and even exceeded these expectations in many places. When I first heard Rivers & Robots two years ago, what drew me to Jonathan’s music was the originality in the style and specifically the way he structured his songs. Regardless of what the rest of the worship scene was doing he always produced what he felt God had put on his heart and it always paid off. Pleasantly, with this album that remains just as true, and as a group they haven’t bowed to

the pressure of writing simple songs that churches can sing all around the world but sing their own song, in their own style and it sits in stark contrast to the sound of contemporary worship music.

Starting as they mean to go on, the album opens with the chilled anthem ‘We Have Overcome’, beginning with just claps and acoustic guitar it screams organic indie worship without ever feeling forced or copied.

Although it doesn’t give much description, the best adjective seems to be that it simple sounds very British – influences of bands such as Bombay Bicycle Club, Coldplay and Bloc Party reach you much quicker than any Christian music influence does and it’s incredibly refreshing!

Jumping in to the upbeat ‘Perfect Love’ followed by the charming ‘White As Snow’, it’s clear that one of Rivers & Robots values is quality, thoughtful lyrical content which firmly sticks to a specific theme. With each track they uniquely hold on to their indie roots whilst fully embracing the heart of worship music. Comparing the album to their past work, the production has also stepped up a notch, they may not be professionals but the quality of their music could stand alongside any major worship group and still shine.

On the topic of production the particular stand out track is the electronic/sample

based ‘Fall Down’. Luscious ambient vibes are littered with interesting sounds like guitar harmonics to create a unique interlude from the rest of the album which works beautifully.

Another album highlight is the song ‘You Hear Me’, a chilled acoustic track about prayer and how even though God knows our thoughts before we bring them to Him, He still wants us to come and speak to Him. Also, in a similar vein is ‘Keep My Fire Burning’ a gentle, intimate piece of worship that wouldn’t be out of place if sung beside a campfire. It’s in the songs like this as well as ‘Light Will Dawn’, and ‘Voice That Stills The Raging Sea’ where Rivers & Robots are really at their best.

Overall, this album really sets the bar high, and as a band they have produced a brilliant record. All Things New is coherent in style and the input and musicianship of the new band members really comes through in many beautiful and subtle moments of the album (such as the slide guitar on the final track) and they haven’t made the usual mistake of favouring a pop influenced overproduced sound. Already leading worship at a few events and playing more and more live shows these guys are sure to have bigger things in store and if they continue to stay true to their organic, indie, British sound they’ll definitely be turning heads as they go – this truly is must have music.

COLORWAY MAGAZINE

9

freedom

through

limits A glimpse at Linnea Gabriella Spransy’s inner world and a few of the things that influenced her as an artist.

By Scott Andrews

10

R

aised in the Midwest in a multilingual family speaking English, Swedish, and German, Linnea Gabriella Spransy received her MFA at Yale University School of Art, and now lives and works in Los Angeles. Her lush, densely layered, abstract paintings seem to hint at organic forms; their intricate ribboned gyres and swirls recall a plethora of art memories that course from the surface design of Asian ceramics to the decorative flourishes of Gustav Klimt. Yet, they are embodied by the obsession with the machine that has motivated artists such as Marcel Duchamp and contemporary creators of anime robots. Spransy, who is currently exhibiting a solo show of recent work at Hausmann Millworks, spoke with us about her own delight in mechanics last week from her home in California.

SCOTT ANDREWS: Your paintings contain multiple layers of very complex patterns.

Can you tell us a little bit about where the shapes come from?

LINNEA GABRIELLA: I use what I call “basic modules,” which are almost like letter forms: really simple shapes that are flexible enough to build on top of each other, but recognizable enough to be discrete units. I’m the one who delineates the rules and programs that I follow, but they are built so incrementally, that it kind of takes on a life of its own.

It’s a lot of fun because it becomes a way of generating surprises for myself. I sort of problem-solve myself out of that whole kind of intuitional, or emotive, kind of art-making that is not particularly interesting to me — it’s a quagmire, anyway. I make my work much differently than that.

COLORWAY MAGAZINE

11

SA: You are using rules and programs to make decisions, but there seems to be something biologic about the way the pieces unfold.

LG: The general principle is taking cues from how life behaves in the natural world. What it is attempting to do is occupy all the negative space, over, and over. … What I tend to think is that numbers of small units become complex, like ants or schools of fish. Simply stated, that is the whole project.

there is every sort of logic in the world behind it. The thing I love about music composition is that there are so many structures to keep in mind — scales, harmonies, and the like, that one can become thoroughly distracted from one’s creative intent. I don’t know, but I think we are conditioned, prone to it. Experience is something transporting the miraculous through simplicity, but we don’t realize that it is simple.

SA: The rhythms in your composition are very lyrical. Can you talk a little about that?

LG: There is a lot of musicality in my work. I am one of the few visual artists in my family — they are mostly musicians, architects, and engineers... When you layer enough scores and instruments on top of each other, there is this appearance of something really lush.

The combination of movement and layering can completely sweep you away and sound entirely other. But when you break it down,

SA: What’s the emotional process like for you in getting your artistic work done?

LG: Artists are notoriously emotional. I really don’t believe in an emotional-inspirational force that we can lean on primarily to lead productive lives. There must be more. This is in part what I mean by there being “Freedom

12

ART + DESIGN

"Art that truly does matter is a manifestation of the inner meditation of the heart and mind of the artist."

Above "Weak Potential Energy" Mixed media on paper, 2010 Right "Fissile" 48" x 54.5" Acrylic and Sumi ink on canvas, 2012

COLORWAY MAGAZINE

13

14

through limits.” In my work and my life, I commit myself to a pattern and give myself to it.

There is a sense of apprehension as it grows.

In my art, there is the “middle territory” of just going in and seeing it grow. Towards the last third of the process, I am legitimately taken aback at what I’ve made. It’s a discovery.

SA: Can you talk about systems colliding and how this plays out in your work?

LG: I have different categories of systems, some are based off of grids, some are linear, some are organic. They are very rigorous, but have different appearances. Sometimes in the same canvas I’ll have different systems interact or collide, competing for space. Then I’ll sit back and watch them interact. Sometimes it is really awkward, sometimes it’s really wonderful. It often takes 2 months to finish a piece, and I work on them one at a time. The truth is, artists love their limits, they create them for themselves. Some artists use physical restraints. It becomes a sport. If we don’t have limits of some kind, we paralyze ourselves.

SA: You once said that “part of the artist’s job is to keep you alert.” What does that mean?

LG: Another job an artist has is to communicate. That doesn’t mean we have to communicate to everyone. In attempting to communicate, it is incumbent on artists that we do our best to do so. I feel like I always have to say this: art that truly does matter is a manifestation of the inner meditation of the heart and mind of the artist. That's why you don’t have to do paintings of Jesus on the cross at all times. When you are committed to him, all of your life is saturated with it, and to search your inner self you can see something new and real: you can literally smell the Kingdom of God. Once communicated, people will either love it or hate it.

Top: "Elements of Complex Vector Space" (detail), mixed media on paper, 2010 Middle: "Quantized values of Angular Momentum", mixed media on paper, 2011 Bottom: "Fire As Fluid" (detail), ink on layer frosted Mylar, 2002 Left page: "Promethean Coil", 54.5" x 48", India ink and acrylic on canvas, 2012.

COLORWAY MAGAZINE

15

kyekye Kye Kye Kye set sethigh highexpectations expectationswith with their dreamy synthpop their dreamy synthpop on the band’s band’s 2011 2011debut, debut,Young YoungLove.

Love.Now Nowthey’ve they’vebested bested themselves with withthe thestellar stellar follow-up, Fantasize, a wellfollow-up, Fantasize, a wellproduced set set (Chad (ChadHowat Howatfrom fromPaper PaperRoute) Route)that that calls calls to to mind Wild Ones and CHVRCHES.

O

n almost a daily basis, my ego tends to exist in waves. One day, I feel confident and accomplished, all of my work and beliefs finally aligned on an upward trajectory; the next day, I am lacking and static, all of my efforts insipid. When sound-tracking the former, I tend towards braggadocio rap or gritty rock. I might start bussin’ or break out a twostep. For the latter, though, my go-to as of late has been Kye Kye’s “Fantasize.”

While Radiohead, Bon Iver or Yung Lean and his Sad Boys are obvious winners, “Fantasize” is less about listeners wallowing in ennui, and more of a restorative meditation.

“The definition of fantasize is daydreaming of something desired,” vocalist Olga Yagolnikov said. “A lot of times when you’re trying to write songs, you’re actually ignoring a lot things going on inside of you by just focusing on something that you’re trying to do. A lot of songs started with conversations that we’ve had, from faith to seeing if there is a purpose to life. It’s almost like we went through mini mid-life crises.

That moment where you suddenly think, ‘What the hell is my life about?’ Everyone has something to say on this and it’s just about whether you take the time to really sit down and think through these things.”

18

MUSIC

The band Along with Olga, Portland, Oregon’s Kye Kye features her fellow Estonian-born siblings, Tim (programming/guitar/keys/vocals) and Alex (keys), and her husband, Tommy Phelan.

While a family affair might seem precarious – all who have siblings know of the tottering relationships that can devolve to bickering over the simplest of matters – it is the relationships that maintain their solidity. In fact, they really aren’t sure how other bands can function as a group of non-siblings.

“You’re traveling everywhere and you’re around each other so much,” Olga said. “I don’t know how people would handle me, and I don’t know how people would handle [my brothers]. The fact that we are related allows us to just brush a lot of things off. One moment we hate each other, and the next we are telling each other how much we love them.”

“We are all on the same page, we grew up in the same environment,” Tim said. “And even when we go to our separate corners to write, when we come together, there’s so many things that connect because we’re thinking and writing from the same place.”

After a few seconds of silence, Tim chimed back in, explaining how musical collaboration at an early age in an artistically encouraging household helped a lot. “It’s probably not as easy as I just made it sound,” he joked.

Kye Kye’s sophomore album is a warming ambient mesh of electronics and guitar, occasionally backed by booming drums, topped by Olga’s buoyant vocals. For Tim, the electronics comes naturally, whether it’s ‘80s pop or more recent acts like Sigur Ros, but the band has no loyalty to any genre.

Taking in the many different phases of sound they encountered growing up, the only rule to their sound is an idea.

“We talk about this a lot, but we really think there are artists and songs that have this honesty that you can really connect because of where that person was when they were writing it,” Tim said. “That’s something we searched out a lot when looking for music, and plays a big in why we sound the way we do.”

“I think one of the biggest themes of the record is honesty,” Olga said. “When writing songs, I shouldn’t have to sit there and think, ‘What should I write about?’ It should just come really naturally. That record, in that

“When writing songs, I shouldn’t have to sit there and think, ‘What should I write about?’ It should just come really naturally."

COLORWAY MAGAZINE

19

Top left: Olga having fun during the "Scared or Selfish" video shoot.

Top right: Fantasize has also a vinyl version, purchasable at their online store.

Middle/Bottom: Stills from videos on the band's Youtube channel. A cover version of "With or Without You" by U2 and an acoustic of "Honest Affection."

20

MUSIC

moment of time, we all sort of went through something, where we were like, let’s not be afraid to ask ourselves really big questions.

To really dig into what your life is about is something a lot of people are afraid to ask themselves.”

The meaning When asked about the meaning behind the name of the band, they explained. “’Kye’ is our phonetic spelling of the word ‘Chi,’ which is part of a Greek symbol the early church used that represented Christ. And we just say it twice for emphasis. Christ is who we want the world to see, whether we are on stage, on your radio, or in your iPod, or if we get to interact with you on a personal level.”

But they play a genre that’s definitely not a typical sound for the “Christian music industry”. “We definitely want our music to apply to all people. While our words and lyrics are about God and our relationship with him, this does not limit who can listen or appreciate our music. We play to both the secular, mainstream crowd and secular venues. Our mission is giving everyone what has been freely given to us from our Father. We

“We definitely want our music to apply to all people. While our words and lyrics are about God and our relationship with him, this does not limit who can listen or appreciate our music. [...] Our mission is giving everyone what has been freely given to us from our Father. have seen great reactions throughout the Christian industry as well as in the secular crowds and we love that all people find value and enjoyment in our music.”

This unbridled self-assessment caught the attention of Lexus, teaming up with the band for a commercial for their CT Hybrid.

“The team we got to collaborate was so awesome, and at the end of the day, they are artists,” Olga said. “There is an art in commercials, taking an idea and then building visuals and music on top, and we connect to that.”

Now, just a few months after releasing

their sophomore studio album, the quartet took it upon themselves to re-imagine their original tracks for the new ‘Fantasize Remixes’ record, released in late September. “We can’t help but experiment a bit outside our own box … that’s probably the best way to describe the ‘Fantasize Remixes’ album,” the band tells us.

“Not to mention that it’s just really fun to strip any song down to its bones and then paint something different around it.”

If you have not jumped on the Kye Kye bandwagon, then grab your coat and get started. It’s a chilling experience like no other.

COLORWAY MAGAZINE

21

The art of Church

Communication The importance of a good website in the process of growth.

By Rozalia Jovanovic

A

good church website is increasingly becoming an essential part of growing your church. An average church loses 10% of its membership through some sort of back door, such as moving, death or leaving for other specific reasons every year. Therefore church growth experts have determined that a church must have 5% visitors in attendance each Sunday in order to grow at all.

One of the most cost effective ways to get visitors to come to your church is through your church website. There are many ways to reach out to attract new visitors to your church. Outreach can be done through personal invitation, mailings, radio and television ads, billboards, newspaper and magazine ads and signs. In most cases, a person who hears about your church will get on the internet to check out your church website.

Whether they can find your church website and what it looks like will determine whether they come to visit your church. A church website is an extremely cost effective way of directly reaching out to those searching on the internet for a church, as well as those who have been made aware of your church through some other outreach means. There are some ways to achieve that, either by a contracting someone or trying to do it yourself.

22

ART + DESIGN

a) Find a specialist If you have the option, there’s a few companies you can definitely rely on to get a good Church website.

Church Plant Media

Specialized in church and mission websites and completely gospel-centered, Church Plant Media is recognized by their timeliness, professionalism, and quality of their work.

“Our heart is for the Church, so that’s who we serve. We have been building great websites for gospel ministry since 1998. We focus all of our efforts on developing a web solution that serves the mission of the local church. Our passion is to provide churches with websites that are very easy to use and even easier to maintain, and all at an affordable price. First and foremost a gospel-centered company, and second, a web design company. We view the websites that we create as a stewarded partnership in the gospel.”

Notable work on White Horse Church and Restoration Road Church. You can find them at churchplantmedia.com

Pixelight Creative

Pixelight Creative is the digital design studio of Chris C. Merritt, focused on simple, meaningful design that can inspire people.

Notable work on The Village Church and Church of the Highlands. You can find them at pixelightcreative.com

Iron to Iron

“We’re in the business of serving” Iron to Iron was born out of a need in 2010.

Kevin and Jonathan saw the need for an optimized approach to Web design & development with a focus on client service at the core. In order to facilitate that effectively, they decided to draw their line in the sand. A company of two, they remain small because they believe the best results come from a direct partnership with clients.

Notable work on Park Street Church and Terra Nova Church. You can find them at irontoiron.com

Offroadcode

Offroadcode is recognized by its amazing work done on the multilingual Hillsong Church website. For 18 months, they worked very closely with the church’s team to build a completely new web presence and e-commerce platform to begin the major task of aligning all their many churches individual websites from around the world under one single domain.

Notable work on Hillsong Church.

You can find them at: offroadcode.com

Church of the Highlands You can acess it at: churchofthehighlands.com Website by Pixelight Creative

Park Street Church You can acess it at: www.parkstreet.org Website by Iron To Iron

Hillsong Church You can acess it at: hillsong.com Website by Offroadcode

COLORWAY MAGAZINE

23

b) Find a solution yourself While trying to create a website (or improve an existing one) from inside your church, the following items might have some helpful knowledge.

Pro Church Tools Essential media training for church “We exist to help your church navigate the tricky world of digital media.”

Pro Church Tools started from a necessity amongst most of the churches out there. Using media in church has never been more popular than it is right now. All around the world churches are diving into videography, websites, social media, graphic design, and branding. With these new efforts come new challenges, and many churches think they don’t have enough skill, money, resources or people to achieve that. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Pro Church Tools can help you not only in building your own website yourself, but also on everything involving in your church’s media. Creating a compelling church brand, your own videos, tackling social media, learning the basics of graphic design and much more.

Pro Church Toolkit A collection of e-books, videos and a 5-part course on church media offered completely free to the Pro Church Tools subscribers. If you’re neither a designer or a developer, but feel like serving your com-

24

ART + DESIGN | FILM

munity in the communication field, this is a great way to get started. You can get all of this at their website: prochurchtools.com “The Art Of Church Communication”

By Rajeev Varatharajan Rajeev Varatharajan, from Fresh Aesthetics, is a long-term specialist in church communication. He has worked for Hillsong United, C3 Church Oxford Falls, City to City Australia, Mission Australia, Planetshakers, Wesley Mission, and so on.

After making a lot of mistakes whilst helping churches through the process of designing, developing and launching their websites, he decided to help other people avoid the same mistakes. That’s why he made wrote the manual “The Art of Church Communication”, which is followed by an email micro-course.

The 4 most important tips: 1. Discover the No. 1 piece of information people go to church websites for; 2. The two questions people ask before they attend for the very first time and before they leave a church; 3. Find a clear direction and map for building your online presence, without spending on custom work; 4. How to avoid the biggest mistake which all churches miss because they look at their websites too much.

You can get it at: churchgrowth.com.au

Review: 'Believe Me' Takes Aim at Christian Culture Though uneven at times, 'Believe Me' is a slick, perceptive satire.

By Cameron Strang

M

ost Christian movies are made with two audiences in mind. The first and primary audience is the Christian market. The goal for this market is mostly one of affirmation. Some approximation of Scriptural truth is woven into the fabric of a morality tale about the rewards of belief and the wages of sin. It feels good to watch these kinds of stories because they often look the way we tell ourselves life is supposed to be. By the time the credits roll, the faithful have been comforted, the skeptical have been converted and the simplest Christian equations (conflict + faith = resolution) have been solved.

The second audience is the non-believing market. The idea for them is that this movie will serve as a conversion tool or, at least, a conversation starter. After seeing such a powerful display of truth on screen, goes the thinking, how could they help but be a little curious about how to get such happy endings to their own lives?

The Believe Me filmmakers would undoubtedly bristle at the term "Christian movie" but this film is, at least, a movie about Christians. In any case, it's been made with such a different idea about its intended audiences that it transcends the genre. It also has the good sense to take its story seriously. It doesn't need to be graded on any sort of faith-based curb. Believe Me is a good movie, period.

The film follows a quartet of college seniors who concoct a plan to raise money

by forming a fake, charity:water-type nonprofit called Get Wells Soon, and shuffling all the donations they swindle into their college funds. Their "organization" attracts the notice of Cross Country, a touring ministry that thinks the guys could be their new stars.

Sam (Alex Russell) is the unofficial leader of the four, and though he isn't a Christian himself, he has a knack for prattling off the sort of faux-inspirational Christianese often heard at youth conventions. Everyone in Cross Country soon falls under his spell, including the comely Callie (Johanna Braddy). Sam and his friends master the fine art of Christian culture and pull in a king's ransom.

Believe Me plays a tricky game. Sam and his friends are the apparent protagonists, but their chicanery makes it hard to root for them (Russell's performance walks this line splendidly). The kindly staff of Cross Country seem like innocent victims at first, but when Believe Me starts to take aim at some of Christian culture's most sacred cows, their saintly facade begins to crumble. The group learns that low lighting and mood music can compensate for thin service material. The movie's best scene is a montage of them studying Christianisms, including what meals you are and are not expected to pray over before eating. It's very funny, and it's a bullseye.

Indeed, the movie is fraught with inside jokes that are lobbed like big, gooey spitwads. Believe Me's target audience may be

the Christian one, but this movie is not meant to affirm, but to critique. As Sam's conscience starts flaring up (and his relationship with Callie starts heating up) the movie begins to probe the big Why? Why do people believe these things? Which parts of that belief are sincere? And within belief, where are the lines between being a "good" Christian, wanting to be perceived as being a "good" Christian and the guilt complex that seems to get saddled with being a "good" Christian?

That's heady stuff for any movie, and Believe Me occasionally stumbles when trying to balance its big ideas with its biting satire. Fortunately, director Will Bakke's slick direction generally compensates for the awkward shifts, and the script, which Bakke wrote with Michael B. Allen, earns extra points for avoiding easy conclusions.

That Believe Me is a technically proficient, smartly made film is a small wonder in a world where these types of movies generally look like they were shot on a student loan.

That it manages some sharp performances is another plus (including a scene-stealing cameo by Nick Offerman). But the best thing about Believe Me is that it dares to morally and intellectually challenge its most obvious target market. That takes guts, and whatever the movie might lose in daring to challenge the status quo it gains in artistic integrity. Because while there are plenty of movies out there willing to proclaim that God's not dead, Believe Me dares to ask what that really means.

COLORWAY MAGAZINE

25

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w

w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w