Barton Damer Interview, Part 2
In this ongoing series of posts, I explore the creative genius of Barton Damer, a leader in innovative graphic arts, design and media.
Barton began his career at a secular design firm in the Washington, D.C. area. (The story of his conversion to Christianity will be in the next post.) After a couple years he felt called to use his gifts within the church setting. Over the course of more than 7 years, Barton honed his artistic skills for print, web, video and motion graphics.
The latter part of those years, he spent working within a local Washington, D.C. congregation, Mclean Bible Church, where he was involved in creating media content as well as live production. Mclean, located just outside D.C., is a church that serves about 12,000 weekend attenders. You know it's near and dear to my heart since some of my closest friends are members there and when visiting them I've blogged my trips. I now have the explanation for why some of Barton's artistic style has seemed vaguely familiar.
While at Mclean, Damer was able to create content for main services, youth events, and the young adult services, better known as Frontline. He was also part of a team that launched the very first offsite McLean location.
Today, Barton Damer is a Creative Director at RT Media Group. RT Media maintains four points-of-presence on the web: Igniter Media, Collide Magazine, Worship House Media, and Echo Conference.
Additionally, Barton works with various agencies and freelance clients. He is also a creative contributor for tutorials written at Gomediazine.com - real world advice from working artists and designers.
Remember, you can view more of Barton's work at Barton Damer. And here's a handful of his video clips (Truveo Clips tag: Barton Damer). But of course, enough of the facts; let's get on with the interview….. next post.
Part One: Motion Reel, Digital Art & Motion Graphics and Motion Graphics Reel
Part Two: The Creative Media of Barton Damer / Bio & Current Status
Part Three: BartonDamer, In His Own Words
Part Four: The Future of Christian Visual Media
Barton Damer, Barton Damer Motion Graphics, Christian Visual Media, Christianity, Church Innovation, Collide Magazine, Echo Media Conference, Gospel Art, Gospel Media, Igniter Media, Mclean Bible Church, New Media, Technology and the Virtual Church, Visual Media WhiteBoard Sessions WIBO
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the series. Looking forward to the rest. As a complete design idiot I get sinfully jealous of folks that can produce something people would pay for.
People have said my design style is simple. that’s only because anything other than simple that I make is awful.
It would be great if you could get some info from Barton about how a church could leverage better media without the big church budget. Something like a coop. And maybe he could say a prayer that I could find someone with a tenth of his talent to pick up the baton in my ministry.
We also use Barton Damer graphics at our church in Texas. I’m gonna show this link to our graphics department and tell them they’re doing a good job finding cool stuff.
Barton - any thoughts for Carl? And Anne where do you go to church and can we have the link?
Love to hear from others who have gotten to use Barton’s work.
for sure! You can put together a great program these days for pennies compared to what it would cost for a team of people to crank out videos/animations, etc.
part of what i love about working for Igniter Media is that hundreds - if not thousands - of churches are able to benefit from the hours that go into creating this media. before, i’d spend a 50-60 hour work week trying to crank out something inspiring for our congregation only to have it show one time and be done with. now, i can extend the amount of time that goes into a project and justify that because of the # of churches that are being served thru the effort.
you can put together an entire sermon series using work i’ve done at ignitermedia.com for very little $$. (my coworkers have done - and are doing - a lot of great work at Igniter as well.). so for instance, a dynamic easter program could be decked out with media for $62!!!! here’s what i’m saying: Igniter Track - Jesus Paid It All for $12, Igniter Video - It’s Not Over for $15, and Easter V2 for $35 (which includes a call to worship video, a countdown, 4 loops, and 8 stills that are all themed for a very professional easter program). that’s a jam packed easter program that has high quality media in it that even “mega” churches are happy to use rather than trying to remake in-house. there are many other combinations you can find on igniter to put together a great program. that’s just one example.
so before, Frontline/Mclean was paying me a full time salary to crank out that type of program over the course of a couple weeks… now, churches can pay $52 and get more production than i could’ve ever created on my own.
That really is a great deal. Guess you have to give up a little autonomy to save money.
Barton,
I greatly appreciate your perspective on the reach you’re able to have with your media at Igniter. I had been looking for a long time for the type of media you create when I finally found Igniter this past Spring right before our church launched. So much media designed for the church is either a bad imitation of other work or just a tad behind the times…. Your work is fresh, it’s a right response to a creative God. Easter Sunday…Jesus Paid it All, which are band did live to your video and it was amazing. That is one of the most visually stunning and meaningful pieces I’ve ever seen. It is truly art. Thanks for the work you’re doing and thanks Cynthia for getting us a peek inside…
Amazing work!! I love his style and flow, great stuff.
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