Some projects grow into opportunities for change. Jeff Knight and Christian Barrett reached out to us because they wanted a new website for their discipleship program—Veritas Ministries. Our task was to design something engaging, approachable, and easy to navigate, which seemed like a simple enough job. But after speaking with Jeff and Christian, it was clear that they had a unique vision—one that their old name didn’t quite articulate.
Veritas Ministries was limiting in a few ways—First, there are numerous ministries and organizations with the same name, which made it harder for interested individuals to find the ministry. Second, the word Veritas conveyed a male-coded, Greco-Roman notion of truth as social power that simply didn’t align with what we had learned about the leadership’s heart for discipleship. After all, the ministry was built on the premise that discipleship is for everyone. We did some research and arrived at the Hebrew word Emet, which focuses on truth in the sense of faithfulness and commitment. This perfectly captured the ministry’s ambition—to equip people in discipleship not for the sake of a culture war, but because it offers a way to better understand God’s faithfulness.
From there, everything else fell into place. We designed a new logo depicting a mountain range to reference the idea that growth doesn’t have a static end point—there are ups and downs. Likewise, the roles of discipler and disciple change throughout these challenges. We also developed a color palette with a range of vibrant tones, eschewing the tendency for ministries to fall back on corporate blues and grays. After all, if the premise of Emet Ministries is that discipleship is life-giving and adds color and nuance to human perspective, it is important to visually represent that throughout all design.
For the website itself, we developed a site map that would feel invitational, calling readers into the different parts of Emet Ministries with bright, approachable buttons for each page. Jeff and Christian didn’t want to depict a ministry that simply uploaded resources and abandoned them, so we worked to highlight the relational focus of their work. Finally, there was still a place for the Veritas name. Through our conversations and time with the ministry’s materials, we recognized that, along with a vision for discipleship as a way of life, Emet also had plans for a focused, academically rigorous program, which we helped them brand as the Veritas Institute.
By allowing the scope of the project to naturally grow into what it could be, we were able to work with Jeff and Christian to position Emet Ministries as something relational, unique, exciting, and reflective of a life of spiritual growth.
From there, everything else fell into place. We designed a new logo depicting a mountain range to reference the idea that growth doesn’t have a static end point—there are ups and downs. Likewise, the roles of discipler and disciple change throughout these challenges. We also developed a color palette with a range of vibrant tones, eschewing the tendency for ministries to fall back on corporate blues and grays. After all, if the premise of Emet Ministries is that discipleship is life-giving and adds color and nuance to human perspective, it is important to visually represent that throughout all design.
For the website itself, we developed a site map that would feel invitational, calling readers into the different parts of Emet Ministries with bright, approachable buttons for each page. Jeff and Christian didn’t want to depict a ministry that simply uploaded resources and abandoned them, so we worked to highlight the relational focus of their work. Finally, there was still a place for the Veritas name. Through our conversations and time with the ministry’s materials, we recognized that, along with a vision for discipleship as a way of life, Emet also had plans for a focused, academically rigorous program, which we helped them brand as the Veritas Institute.
By allowing the scope of the project to naturally grow into what it could be, we were able to work with Jeff and Christian to position Emet Ministries as something relational, unique, exciting, and reflective of a life of spiritual growth.
