Influence Church

Branding, Church Branding, Church Planting, Web Design & Development

This church plant near Minnesota’s Twin Cities seeks to help people break free of the ordinary to influence their world. (And there will be donuts.)

Calling People to Be Part of God’s World-Transforming Work

When Catalin and Kelly Dima think about church, they think about fun. As the ministry they’ve worked for most of their adult life sent them to plant a new church, they envisioned a congregation that came together every week to celebrate. This desire to see church services as celebrations comes from a deep place. Catalin grew up in Romania in a challenging situation and lived through the revolution in 1989. He had seen the dark side of life and became a Christian soon after. Catalin moved to America in 2004 to marry Kelly, the love of his life. The two have worked together in ministry ever since. Now, working with ARC, they’re planting Influence Church, a congregation northwest of the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Their mission: To be a thriving, life-giving, fun, and real community of ordinary people who love God passionately and want to honor Him with all they have and are.

Not Fancy. Just Real.

The Dimas created Influence Church to reach people who have become apathetic about faith. They hoped to breathe life into those who, like them, aren’t looking for “fancy” but need something real. In an area where many Christians had stopped attending more traditional congregations, they needed branding to help reveal them as a fresh, though not-overly-edgy, church. Young families needed messaging and an experience that would rouse them out of a “lazy Sunday” mentality and turn them toward Jesus (without turning them away). And to begin reaching them, the Dimas needed a microsite to gather a launch team, create interest parties, and raise money.

A Place for the “Dones”

The ArtSpeak Creative team collaborated with the Dimas to create messaging that would inspire intrigue among the “dones” (i.e., “people done with church”) in their region. Their value propositions included a combination of both inspiring and tongue-in-cheek phrases like:

Influence your world.
Discover your limitless value. Help others discover theirs, too.
Not fancy. Just real. (And there will be donuts.)
The church can be your “happy” place. (It’s ours.)

Our design team then took their messaging and crafted a visual brand centered on the feeling of “celebration,” staying away from anything that felt “stagnant” or “still.” Everything — from the angle of their logo to textures — suggests movement, celebration, and the messiness of real life.

#influenceyourworld

Catalin and Kelly plan to launch Influence Church September 26, 2021.

They’ve used their new branding to create a microsite and promote interest parties (with free barbecue!) through Facebook, Instagram, mailers, and signage.

“A Brand that We Love”

“ArtSpeak has been great to work with. The whole branding process has been fabulous. “They took the time to help us define our messaging and really understand who we are and who we are trying to reach. “Then their creative team put together great designs for us and have given us the tools we need to use our branding successfully. They communicate well and are great at working with changes or adjustments we asked for to make a brand that we love.” —Kelly Dima, Influence Church