DennyWeinman.com
musings and mishapse of a technical creative
Tagged with Design …
VBS at the Beach
This summer has started off CRAZY, and by crazy I mean crazy awesome. I have been stretched in ways I didn’t think possible, but this is a good thing. Since joining the children’s team I have gotten the pleasure of being creative visionary for VBS this year.
String Theory
We have a Youth Leadership Conference / Missions experience going on right now here in Houston, Texas and my instructions were to create a cool stage.
Man…I wish constraints were always so fast and loose!
Like this:
Two Fifty Tuesday
I’ve gotten one major project out of the way, and that is the Creek Kids ministry expo. Our theme this summer is a beach theme. So in previous posts you saw the Tshirt with the surfboards, and the ministry fair…well we decided to go beach party in an awesome kind of way. I built 8ft table tops out of fencing panels to look like a beach board walk and set up an island in the center complete with sand and sand sculpture of the creek kids logo. There is a video, I’ll throw the final up on my vimeo page. Continue reading
A walk on the graphic side
I haven’t stretched my design skills in a while, so this project was fun.
Challenge, create a kids summer tshirt that will be great for the younger kids, but appeal to the older kids as well.
So now I’ve got the design, Old Navy-esq inspired, some of the line art needs cleaned up a tad but I’m happy with it. Next up picking colors. What jumps out at you?
Simple Stage Elements
I meant to post something about this up a while back!!
Variety is the spice of life, and so is creative interpretation.
Camps come and go, services come and go and we all use some element of the cross within it. For special occasions we use a physical cross, whether nailing sins and confessions on it, or laying things at the foot of it, or simply a striking remembrance that the forgiveness we’ve received had a price.
What doesn’t change that often is the two beams that get put together to look like a cross. So here is a different take on it.
This cross was going more for an urban feel with camp. I had a former student who’s parents had connection with a scrap yard and so after a few phone calls we had some pieces to create a unique element at no cost.
No welding required…but it did require a strong drill. I burned one out and almost didn’t get it complete.
Resources are always available around you, and the more you’re able to involve others the better. This didn’t take a creative genius but it did take some convincing to step out side of the box and NOT use a traditional wood cross.
If you have the liberty and trust to take some projects to the creative extreme, and maybe to the abstract, play around. Use different materials, call around ask volunteers etc. I just found a brother in law of a co-worker who takes down fences, viola! Instant super weathered wood to use for another project in the works.
Don’t be afraid to try something new, or experiment a little!
Two-Fifty Tuesday
This is a post for what inspires me.
Yesterday as I was waiting on my car to get detailed (useless information) I just decided to meander around Sugarland Town Center and stop in some cool furniture and clothing shops to find design inspiration. These are photos and thoughts that I had as I walked around.
<Some cool wall art, a chunk of stained wood with a dremeled out fern pattern. While
this may not directly translate to stage work, it’s a thought on how to create a simple two toned process with a little work
A piece of graphic art I found on the wall>
for sale. Simple and striking with a message that while incredibly british is totally timely.
<This is a floating teardrop candle blind. A cool thought that could be replicated 
with some hinges, 1x2s and maybe some large eye bolts. Just think of a ton of 6-8ft pannels like this covering the back of your stage with candles all lit.
These are metal reeds in a water feature> outside that are made to look like cattails. What if you did something like this using the slightly flexible electrical conduit and wired in a lightbulb to the end and a plug on the other? Just a thought, and then again just using the lines would be cool.
You can find inspiration all around you. I will leave you with a few more pictures from my wanderings yesterday since my 250 words are almost up. What inspires you?
Two-Fifty Tuesday
Alright so last week was a blur and a blast.
I kicked it up at the gym 6 days last week, only taking a day off because my body was just beat up. I also kicked out a rockin’ stage design for the new year. I’m gonna post a couple pictures now and then write a blog post very soon on how I accomplished the look.
I’ve also been cooking a ton so that I don’t eat out as much, saving money and saving myself grief in the gym. It’s great except my apartment constantly smells like food. This is a good thing and a bad thing all wrapped up into one. Mainly bad though, because it makes me think of food often.
I’m back in the grind of work now, bustin out two positions worth of work until we hire a new staff member. 
It’s cool for a while but I’m hoping one or the other doesn’t suffer greatly until we’re able to repopulate the team! The meeting days are killer for productivity though. Hey lets sit in a room and talk about nonsense for hours. Thanks, I guess it gives me time to blog…wait did I just admit that online?
Lastly I’m praying for a new work to be started in me. Not sure what or how this is going to look like in the future but I’m ready for a fresh fire. God is constantly at work you just need to be open and willing to see it.
Inspiration
Thomas Edison said something to the fact what invention “boils down to is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.” (source)
I’m going to write a couple short blog posts on inspiration and perspiration over the next week. In relation to creating stages for worship. I will say that Edison has it right when he says that its only one percent inspiration, but that one percent is the catalyst for everything you do.
I personally don’t spend a ton of time researching and diving into inspiring stuff because it is all around you. Let others inspire you, there are tons of other great creatives out there who are doing the same thing you are beating your head against the wall with. Ask them questions about what they did and adapt it if you like it. Another resource is tapping into creatives in your church. I’ll bet you’ll find a few untapped super creatives in your congregation that could help you with your stage designs and builds!
Other inspiring forces include but are not limited too, nature, music, art, Home Deopt, necessity, architecture, movies, or concerts. Yes Home Depot. Every building material you need is in there and sometimes when you need something you can’t find, just wandering down it’s aisles can give you that right piece of inspiration.
Necessity can be an inspiring factor as well. Sometimes you have a pressing deadline to either come up with an idea, or find a solution for a prop or stage that is just not coming up by itself. The last post was on a quick stage prop I built. You can find candle stands in most home goods store but not many tall ones, and not many options that fit with a stage look you may have. So out of necessity, because I had nothing I liked, I built my own by wandering through the aisles of my favorite store Home Depot. (I had to go in there because I lost my man card going into stores like Michael’s looking for pre-made ones)
Now that being said…don’t spend to long being inspired because other wise you’re not going to get anything done.
Next up: Perspiration, or Sweat It Out
