Graphic Design Portfolio of Jesse Mutzebaugh

Awakening and Reformation Tour

Jesse — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 05:59:59 +0000

This was a multi-city, national conference hosted by Dutch Sheets. I was able to take all design-related tasks off of the conference directors plate. This included website, merchandise, marketing and promo materials, products, conference signage, etc… More pictures to come!

The amazing photos of the events are done by Grace Combs. Check out her work!

Summit Prayer Conference

Jesse — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 21:38:12 +0000

The “Summit” conference was the first of many that Generation Church had put on. They wanted to go above and beyond with custom graphics for the whole weekend and a free workbook to hand out to each attendee. That was quite big thinking for a small, low-budget organization at the time. They are known for doing things with excellence, and this event was no exception.

The timeframe they had for this projects deadline was quite short, but I still wanted to help bring them up to par with a lot of the “mega-church” conferences. This ended up being one of my most exciting, fun, and stressful projects of the year.

If you want to find out more about this project or find out more about having authority in your prayers, feel free to download a copy of the workbook below. Just click the last image and your download will begin.

ID Culture Cirriculum Packaging

Jesse — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 06:02:35 +0000

Tim Sheets put together a wonderful curriculum on how to train younger generations to influence society and infuse it with the Gospel. They had no budget and their previous package design was a small 3×5 sticker on a white box. They wanted to keep the white box the same, so I wanted to draw attention to the product without having to cover the entire box. I expanded the sticker to 10×16 and added some minute color changes in it to create curiosity. Simplicity in design was stressed, so that is what I delivered. The product saw a huge influx in interest and sales after the product facelift.

Central America Collage

Jesse — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 18:33:40 +0000

This is a piece I did after a sailing trip through Central America. I had taken quite a few pictures, so I decided to combine several of them to make an abstract piece of art. The main picture is of a girl at a tiny airport in Providencia, Colombia. You could drive from one end of the island to the other in 7 minutes.

The day before I left, my group met a local grocer who could speak broken English. He invited us to an event we would love that evening, and despite the strong odor of alcohol carrying his words to my ears and nose, we trusted him and met him in a pickup truck at the dock.

Right after the sun set, the 80′s Toyota pickup pulled up and we hopped in the back. The driver sped through the jungle at what was close to the speed of sound, and within minutes we arrived at the arena. And by arena I mean barn with stadium seating. I paid for my admission and a Coca-Cola classic and entered. It seemed to be the most exclusive event on the island, teeming with Colombian drug runners and mobsters. There were also trainers and roosters. Then it hit me.

I walked into an underground cock fighting ring in Colombia.

Shocked at where I found myself, I did the most logical thing I could think of. After readying my Colombian money, I placed a bet on the red-brown cock.

It ended up being a draw, but what an adventure it was. The next day I flew to the mainland and had a day by myself, so I got on my MacBook and created this fun, abstract piece. Enjoy!

The Illusion of Efficiency

Jesse — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:21:42 +0000

Does the bulk of your time go to things that push you closer to your goals, or things that simply need doing?

If your schedule is full and you are crossing things off your to-do list, that doesn’t necessarily mean you are being effective. If 90% of your time goes to things that have a 10% impact on your life or companies goals, then you need to re-work what you do with your time.

I understand things come up that need doing – but can it be delegated? Deferred? Deleted?

Make the most of your time. Evaluate whether the bulk of your time is moving you closer to your goals or keeping you from them.

Do not waste your precious time digging wells that have no water in them.

Pioneer Digital Art

Jesse — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 03:47:33 +0000

Dutch Sheets Ministries asked me to brand Dutch’s new message called “Pioneer”. They want to have merchandise available at all of his speaking engagements.

I decided to pitch a digital design to them. This can easily be turned into a book cover design, promotional posters, DVD covers, CD Covers… This piece is quite flexible.

The message is talking about being a pioneer toward societal reformation and parallels the founding fathers of our nation and their pioneering spirit. I made a man going toward a city in ruins to depict someone who goes fearlessly into their area of influence to infuse a godless culture with life and the spirit of God.

This was composed of 5 separate images seamlessly woven together to create this one image.

Don’t take the ‘Social’ out of Social Media

Jesse — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 05:05:38 +0000

Ok, so you want to make money. You have something to offer the world – I know. I even believe you!

But the economy is bad – I get it. Times are tough. People are looking for deals.

Well as a small business owner, you are just trying to pay your staff and keep your business running, much less fund an advertising campaign. I understand it’s tough…

But then it hits you like Joe Jackson – social media! It’s the holy grail of marketing. Unlimited free advertising to your target market.

I mean – facebook has more active users than constituents of the United States of America. No other media platform has as much of a reach as does social networking services.

So then why are 99% of companies using social media doing it wrong?

Let me show you how.

Here are a few things that annoys everyone who uses social media. (If you can connect the dots before the end of the list I’ll buy you some ice cream)

You mention your back hurting while golfing on twitter, later that night you have 23 different chiropractors and golf instructors following you on twitter.

You are posting something on your pastors wall on Facebook, and on the sidebar you see an ad that says “Meet Sexy Christian Singles in Your Area”

You get a friend request from somebody you have never seen before. Looking at their page you come to the conclusion that either they happen to be a frighteningly big fan of ‘match.com’ or it’s a sorry excuse for an advertisement

Remember why you started using MySpace? Ok – now do you remember why you stopped using MySpace? Enough said.

What is the moral of these stories? If you keep treating social networking services like it’s free advertising you are going to be sorely disappointed in your marketing efforts. You will more likely be doing your business or organization more harm than good.

Let’s be honest here – when you get those friend requests or followers on twitter, what do you do? You probably block that user. So what makes you think doing the same thing is going to be any different? People will probably block you too if you take the same approach.

But not all is lost, folks! You simply have to change your mindset. Get another perspective. Don’t throw the tweet out with the bathwater. Social media is actually just as powerful as you think it is with the right approach.

Why do people join social networks in the first place? Simple – people need to feel a sense of connection or relationship.

And there lies your key to marketing success using social media. You need to connect with your audience. You don’t want a ‘pop-up ad’ feel to your marketing, and you sure don’t want to be thought of as spam. What you are going for is a coffee shop vibe. You want conversational. And the second people sense you are trying to sell them something, they are turned off before you even begin. Here’s an example of what that looks like:

If a friend posted a video review on facebook of a new messenger bag they got and how it is making their lives even a little bit better, chances are I would buy that bag. At the very least I would look at it online – 99.9% of the time. Why? Was my friend trying to sell me this product? No. Are they getting paid royalties? Not likely – and if they were you would be able to tell it in their voice (everyone can spot a faker instantly). Then what was the point? To share something with me. To connect with me.

That’s why Apple is being so successful right now. They are connecting with their audience.

Microsoft print ads focus on product specs – how fast it is, how many computations can be done per millisecond, how if you put 1.21 gigawatts of power through the Microsoft flux capacitor you will travel back in time. Blah blah blah…

Now an Apple ad only talks about how magical and revolutionary the product is. I mean – the iPad doesn’t even do as much as your iPhone does, but you still want one. Why? They made a connection with you.

So try this sometime this week. Think about what your customers want to buy (and why), not just what you want to sell. Think about other peoples needs before they know them. Think about others more than you and your company. I mean, it worked for Jesus and his staff of 12 people. That organization is still making a huge impact.

-Jesse Mutzebaugh

www.JesseMutzebaugh.com

PS: After posting this, I saw this advertisement on Facebook. They need to read this blog post.

I would, however, like to know if you have used Facebook ads and what the result is. I’m curious to know – so leave me a comment!

Dutch Sheets Ministries Logo

Jesse — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:24:54 +0000

Dutch Sheets Ministries asked me to re-design their logo. What they had was about 15 years outdated, so I was more than happy to give them something more up-to-date.

Their old logo broke just about every design rule there is to break and still look decent. I really wanted to focus on making them more professional than prophetic (prophetic tends to get too busy). I wanted to make something really simple that people could recognize and remember.

The organization was indecisive about a symbolic logo or only type based, so I designed a flexible logo based on both. The “DS” symbol doesn’t necessarily need the text next to it to keep it looking strong and clean. My earlier sketches and concepts had the letters “DSM” in it, and I was playing around with many different typefaces. I ended up with a serif font because of the focus on writing the ministry has.

I ended up taking letter “M” out of any symbols. It is, after all, Dutch Sheets Ministries. I thought an emphasis on Dutch Sheets would add value to the logo. Taking the logo from thousands of color values down to one makes the logo much more professional, clean, and flexible. Since DSM produces many different types of media, from books to DVD’s, a solid-color type-based logo will fit wonderfully with any designs they have.

i am hip-hop

Jesse — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:50:30 +0000

I have been a big fan of hip-hop for quite some time. It has a huge influence on me and my work.

Now when I say hip-hop, many of you think of the music you hear on the radio. But that is not hip-hop at all.

Hip-hop is so much more than music. What you hear on the radio is rap. Hip-hop is not a genre of music, it is a culture – a way of life.

I found a great website that really does a great job of conveying the culture of hip-hop. Give it a visit. I can almost guarantee you you will begin to find inspiration from it. I am hip hop.

Prominent Venture Group Logo

Jesse — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 04:53:33 +0000

After meeting with the company and hearing who they are and what they are about, I got really excited about this project. I had many ideas coming out of the meeting with them. That team is great!

Basically what they are doing is a business/investor relations social networking site. Small businesses can’t get money from banks easily – they need an investor. This website will connect investors with entrepreneurs.

The main concept that came out of the research phase was a Rolodex (if you don’t know what a rolodex is, google or wikipedia it). I sketched out a few pages of ideas, and tried to keep it really simple and clean. Their competitors basically had garbage for their identities.

Overall this was a really fun project. Be sure to check them out once their website is up and running!