case study:
Hertford Wellbeing Church
services: web design, branding
software: wordpress, illustrator
Industry: religious
Hertford Wellbeing Church is not your typical church. It doesn’t meet in one specific building, nor do they see each other every Sunday. The whole ethos of the church is that the people are the main part of the church, and they need to be met where they are. The church is specifically for young adults looking to find likeminded people and share life together. I was asked to create a new website to appeal to a younger audience and get them excited about the upcoming events within the social group.
the design
The first thing I needed to do was redesign the church’s logo. If we wanted a new fresh look to the church’s branding then the logo needed modernising too. The original logo was designed by the church founder, but he was happy for me to update and create something new for the church. After some back and forth, and a few design ideas, we hit upon the final logo below. As the church is more of a social group, I incorporated a couple of motifs that fit together perfectly. Obviously a cross gives the church vibe straight away, but the speech bubble also gives the idea that it’s a more friendly, conversational group compared to what others might have experienced before. The design is also reminiscent of a stained glass window, a classic symbol of the church. We chose the yellow as the colour palette for the Hertford church as there are plans afoot to use the same idea across the UK with different colours representing different locations. I also created a brand guide to help their team know exactly how to use their logo, the exact colours used, and other versions they could use in different places.
The next job was to create the new website. I’ve been using WordPress for many years now and thought it would be accessible for those who needed to use the site within the church. This allows more than one person within the church to edit and make changes to the site. It also means they can add upcoming events and news with ease without having to contact me everytime.
The demographic of the church is young adults from 18-30. In my experience a lot of Christian design can be a bit cringe and naff, especially when designed by older adults for younger people. Being in the age demographic, the leader of the church allowed me to have free rein on the design, trusting my process and my style choices. The younger members of the church were given a chance to offer feedback and one thing that came up was the use of large illustration across the site. One style mentioned was the art from Grand Theft Auto created by Stephen Bliss. I was initially surprised by the suggestion especially for a church site, but went ahead and created three custom illustrations to represent the three main parts of the church; football, games nights, and Bible Study. I personally think they came out really well and gave a superb visual element to the website. They also bring a cooler image to the whole church.
These illustrations were used as the main focal point of the site, pointing visitors towards the three main aspects of the church. I used them on the home page on an animated slider that catches the eye as soon as you get onto the church website. The rest of the site was designed to be as minimalist and as unfussy as possible, with black backgrounds and bright gold text to stand out from the page. One thing I did add to the site was a bit of texture. You will notice that most images on the site have a grainy texture. I was inspired by sports graphics that add crunchy textures to each image to make them pop off the page. I feel this added an extra effect to the website, and really showed it was made by a young adult for young adults.
The rest of the site was built around it’s events page. The main focus of the church is outside social events that anyone can come along to. This led to the upcoming events being listed on the homepage and a separate calendar on the site for every event planned in the future. I also set up an email address and contact form so anyone wanting to join in can easily get in touch and take part.
final thoughts
It was great to be given the chance to create a fun, cool, and sleek website for the Hertford Wellbeing Church. They were a pleasure to work alongside, and I really think the new website gives across the exact image they wanted to project. Although the intial reservations, the Grand Theft Auto style illustrations fit with the site perfectly and really hit the mark for the correct 18-30 demographic. We were able to avoid some classic pitfalls of Christian websites, and now have a platform to enocurage new members to the church and a new style to roll out as and when new Wellbeing churches are formed across the UK and beyond.