Bible Cover Redesign

So I've been going through my share of design blogs lately, and I've run into this project by UK-based designers Crush Design & Art Direction Ltd. They were commissioned to re-do the book jacket of the Bible, and here is their result:































The inspiration from the illustration is described on FontFeed by Yves Peters:

The inspiration for the cover illustration came from the back cover copy lines... The text mentions “Mankind’s poisoning of a beautiful world” and asks “The cause of wars and intolerance, or the most important book ever written? How well do you know the bible?” So the idea germinated to conjure up a really contemporary image of the Garden of Eden. On the flip side of the image Crush tried to illustrate the possible “poisoning and destruction of a beautiful world”. Therefore the illustration shows Adam and Eve fat with the overindulgence of a consumer society gone out of control. The trees have died from pollution and skulls illustrate the destruction of the animal kingdom.

As an illustrator, I appreciate the aesthetics of the book jacket, although I can only imagine the ensuing discussion arising from the possible sacrilege some people may view it as. Should the Bible's book jacket be treated with a reverence that should prevent it from being modernized, or does this contemporary take on the cover only serve to further the good news to those who wouldn't otherwise be bothered to even pick up the Bible? What do you guys and girls out there think?

Sam

The Disposing of Cheap Perfume

Sometimes I wonder if Jesus gets the best of us.

Life can become a routine sometimes, and by no means are our spiritual disciplines excluded from that. When repetition turns into a complacent sort of familiarity, it may take a while for us to realize that we've slipped into a monotonous sort of auto-pilot, just motioning through habits with a real risk of forgetting the value behind them. From reading scripture to corporate prayer, and from designing shirts to tithing, the team and I here at JesusBranded know what we value but are always at risk of becoming too busy to remember the substance behind what we do. By God's grace He always reminds us before it gets too late, so through that we're really learning how to lean on Him and not just our own abilities and disciplines. We just don't want to become empty of all the passion and fervor that He's blessed us with from the beginning, finding ourselves down the line as just tired hollow shells of who He intended us to be. We're so grateful that He always intervenes and reminds us exactly when He needs to.

I really do hope that when the Holy Spirit examines our hearts, that He can testify on our behalf and say that He gets the best of us. Like the woman who broke her expensive alabaster jar of pure, fragrant nard and anointed Jesus, we all hope to be earmarked for only offering our best to Him. In the words of King David, "I will not sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing."

Let's ditch the motions and cry out for our generation. It's time we do away with the cheap perfume and ask Him to reveal to us individually what it means to be at our fragrant best to Him.

We love you all, and keep you in our prayers as much as you keep us in yours!

Sam from JesusBranded

A Redemption From Obscurity...

I have not been very familiar with the Book of Ruth.

I was reading up on passages in the Bible concerning God and social justice, and the story of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz was referenced; I think I spent a good 5-7 minutes thumbing through the pages looking for the Book of Ruth (I was in the Job, Proverbs, Psalms area, haha) before I finally gave up and used the Table of Contents only to find out that this 4-chapter book was snuggled right in between of Judges and I Samuel. I evidently need to brush up on my Old Testament book order... but in hindsight, it seemed an appropriate beginning to a lesson about obscurity- and the quite glorious redemption from it. (Oh, God... You're so clever...)

Ruth's story, simply put: Widowed, loyally living with her mother-in-law who was also widowed, in Bethlehem where her people (Moabites) weren't exactly in great standing with the Israelites, making her a foreigner with not that much going her way. Not very impressive on paper, undoubtedly; and I can only assume the day-to-day living of such a life wouldn't prove so comfortable either. And yet, such is God's inexplicable workings that Ruth, through a series of circumstances earmarked by her obedience and submission, goes from an unenviable widow to a direct ancestor of David, Solomon, and ultimately Jesus himself. Her legacy may have been unbeknownst to her during her lifetime, but she became an active agent in defining human history.

I try to imagine who Ruth was before she married one of Naomi's sons- what her family was like; if she had any siblings, and if so, what her relationship was like with them; what kind of friends she had; what kind of desires and hopes she may have had for herself, if during those days luxuries such as those could be had, and so on. I try to imagine her and her failed Plan A , then look around at my peers, my siblings, my colleagues, my parents, and myself with all of our failed Plan As, Bs, and Cs. I know for me there is a very real fear of living a life of uselessness and obscurity, and I see it and feel it with our entire generation- but I see Ruth, her circumstances, and God's hand of redemption and it restores my hope for the purposes and plans for every one of us. Her legacy was defined by her faithfulness to love (in her case, Naomi, her mother-in-law), and it would be an honor for of us once we're able to say the same.

"...where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God... May the Lord deal with me if anything but death separates you and me..."
Ruth 1:16-18

Love you guys and girls!

Sam from JesusBranded

Oh, Missing All Of You...

Hello everyone! First and foremost, on behalf of the entire JesusBranded team, we want you to know that we missed all of you this summer! For the last three years we've been driving and flying around the country to come and hang out with you, but this year we had a lot going on at home, so we diligently stayed home and did what we had to do... we've been thinking about all of you though, and we hope you've missed us too!

One of the things we've been working on is changing up the website starting this Fall season. We're gonna do our best to make it easier for you to get connected with us - whether its through you buying our shirts, reading our blogs, sharing your stories, and even connecting with other believers all over the world! So be expectant of the new JesusBranded.com, because we want to build our community around YOU.

Another change you can expect from the new JesusBranded.com is that we are going to be writing a lot more. We started JesusBranded as a way to really pour our faith out to the world, so we hope that our blog can become a resource for encouragement, affirmation, and community for everyone. So please help spread the word about us!

We hope you all had a very blessed and abundant summer, and again, we really missed seeing you face to face and hanging out with you! Til next time...

Love,

Sam from JesusBranded

I love my JB hoodie

Hey ya'll, this is Edward... 'the video guy'

I haven't been up to much, leading worship at church and video producing

our youth praise team all geared up in JB

this picture is from the local Christian Korean Times newspaper

I'm guessing none of you have ever read it...

so I finally got a facebook profile a couple months ago

The best part about it is the pictures and albums and people commenting on them

and I've come to notice how much I wear my favorite hoodie everywhere I go

the 'My Father's Heart' hoodie...

check it out, these pictures we're accumulated from the past couple months

here I am at a thai restaurant

bowling

bible study (honestly trying to stay awake after not sleeping for 27 hours)

trying to dunk

watching football with friends

playing drums on Rock Band

singing karaoke

my turn to rock the mic like a vandal

getting too excited over Wii boxing

sleeping on the floor of my friends house using a soda-pop bottle as my pillow

(i say soda-pop so it doesn't bicker between those who call it soda and those who call it pop)

getting 3 star massage treatment

ruining my friends ghetto picture

more ruined photos

dancing in the street

on the sidelines of a church basketball game

and finally at my local late night Denny's restaurant

I don't know why I put my hand up

Happy Easter everyone. Remember this day as the reason for who we are and remember to celebrate the resurrection all the time, not just once a year.