A longtime church client of mine is starting up a youth conference this year, aimed at inner city youth in the Greensboro, NC area.  They wanted the advertising to be edgy, and have a serious tone.  I found my inspiration in the song of one of my favorite bands, Underoath.  Underoath is a Christian screamo/post hardcore/emo band that is really popular among middle and high school age kids around Greensboro.It just so happens that they are one of the most talented and creative bands out there right now.  If you like heavy music, I can’t encourage you enough to give them a listen.

There is one song on their last album entitled, “In Regards to Myself”, which ends with the line, “Wake up, wake up, wake up, and step outside your box!  Wake up wake up!”  That line came to mind as I thought about this new youth conferene, which already had it’s theme: Awaken – from Paul’s letter to Roman Christians in the first century.  You can find this quote in the New Testament of the Bible:

“Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. Romans 13:11

I decided to use the Brochure as an opportunity to empower the youth attending the conference to do their own guerrilla-style marketing.  Toward that goal, the outside of the brochure is a standard tri-fold layout, but the inside, when opened, is an 8.5 x 11 poster with all the necessary information “built-in”.  This lets the attendees take the brochure and put it places that the conference organizers wouln’t be able to get to.

In the end, I produced an outdoor banner, tee shirt design, CD label and packaging, brochure/poster and a website for the event.  The end result: it worked! The conference was a resounding success.