Christmas Advent Calendar
Creative & Communication Direction | Creative Team Leadership
Christmas tends to be a big deal for churches. This project was a unique undertaking as we sought to break from the traditional approach of thinking about the Christmas events as another thing to do during the busy, hectic holiday season to be something that is intentional with built in time to reflect on the true meaning of why we celebrate. Much of this project's success was due to the collaboration of incredibly talented writers, designers, photographers and illustrators.
From the Beginning
During our first brainstorm session we bounced big imaginative ideas off one another, intentionally agreeing that there were no bad ideas and no room for judgment (that would come later). At the end of that session, our creative team of writers and designers were instructed to bring their best ideas for Christmas (at least two from each person) to the next meeting. When we gathered together again, hearing everyone’s ideas, those concepts were further refined and final concepts were produced.
One of the concepts produced came from the reality that so many people see Christmas as a time of busyness—lots of planning, preparing, decorating, and buying gifts for others (and if we’re honest, hoping someone gets us something nice). But what if we could all just slow down and celebrate Christmas on a personal level? Where we forget everything the world teaches about the holiday and celebrate what Christmas is really about . . . the birth of Christ. Then we thought, maybe some just need a reminder or perhaps some need to hear it for the very first time. Then we thought what if we could really slow it down and not just reflect on Christmas for only one day. What if we could intentionally live out the Christmas story over a 12-day period ending on Christmas day? This was the concept we shared with the key stakeholders and they really saw the potential of the idea.
In taking this concept a step further, we talked about the word advent, which literally means to prepare for an arrival of something that has been long awaited—something momentous—like the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. That was it! Right then we knew we needed to create a piece that would help people to slow down as they prepare their hearts for the coming of the King—the true reason for the Christmas season. Once we had our direction, our next step was to create the messaging and look that would accomplish this.
We started researching different types of advent calendars and how we could construct them in a cost-effective way. We then began figuring out how we could communicate the written message of the Christmas story over a 12-day period that would be approachable, engaging, and challenging. We knew that the final product created needed to be able to keep the momentum while also build an element of anticipation each day. Fun books like Where’s Waldo and Eye Spy came to mind, where the user has to find various items by looking in a larger image. That’s when we landed on the pieces we were going to create: a 12-day devotional and an accompanying calendar piece.
The theme for Christmas—The King Has Come—came from the senior pastor. Now that we had our theme and direction, we began creating prototypes. Our initial ideas were too complicated and busy. We knew we wanted something beautiful yet functional. There were many prototypes and lots of testing.
After numerous prototypes and an STP (that’s “Send to Press” for the non-Communications Team folks) deadline looming, we needed to finalize our look. This would be more challenging than anticipated. Still, we knew anything worth doing is rarely easy. Next it was off to the studio.
The placement of hundreds of ornaments was the most crucial part of this project. It was important that each piece was perfectly placed in order for the calendar to work. This took a lot of time and necessary effort.
Once we had the arrangement just right, it was time to set up and take the actual photograph. This is far more involved than simply clicking a camera button. Lighting, shadows, reflections, exposure—all of these things needed to be set just right to pull of the end result we were focused on.
We had the lighting and technical aspects of the photograph worked through, now we needed to add some of the finer details on the image.
After we had the image shot, then we had to add the typography (this refers to the design style and appearance of the printed matter on the piece) and continue to engineer the exact placement of where the text and openings were to go. During this time, the Writing Team was wrapping up the text for the 12-day devotional which included illustrative icons to each day's story..
When this set (the 12-day Devotional and the calendar) was handed out, the intention was that everyone will go on a journey as they use it, enjoy it, and truly prepare their hearts for the real reason of the season—the King Has Come! Based on the feedback afterwards, this effort was a great success.