Let's be frank - 90% of us won't be another Leonardo Da Vinci or Albert Einstein and unfortunately most of the things we're doing was already done and seen by us. What this has to do with that church's website? A lot.
As I don't have the slightest idea how I want that layout to look like, I decided to go around the net and look for some religious websites and may get some inspirations. Inspirations. I ended up on Vandelay Design and their 25 Beautiful Church Websites. They also have 25 Outstanding or 35 Excellent and 50 Best of galleries. So I may say with clear concious that I've seen more than 100 of those. And what? Nothing.
Out of those 135 (officially, I haven't counted) 120 are not really ecclesiastical. Renaissance Bible Church has a really nice layout. Few tweaks and I can in fact call it "excellent." But it's a perfect look for a website of a cafe and not a church. I come, take a look and feel like I'm visiting Starbucks. I would say that Truro Church is a step in the right direction, but I feel it's more like a promo of Ravenclaw House (or some old English school with dorms, uniforms and 500 years of tradition).
But my main argument against calling those designs "excellent" or "outstanding" is that... they all look the same.
For example: I've seen 10 of site like Rhythm Church, some of them were in fact online shops with furniture.
Gradient buttons like in Church on 99? No problem. This in fact reminds me a mix of a snowboard/skate shop and... some sport blog.
And Rock Creek Baptist Church doesn't remind you a little bit of Ben Nadel's blog?
Don't get me wrong. Most of those sites look nice. But those are the same. Literally the same. I don't mind that the position of the elements are the same as in most of the designs there. There are some optimal solutions and only creative agencies should toy with that, since their objective is to "wow" the view and them show him informations and not the other way round. Yet seeing the same website with just the logo, colour set changed is... I don't mind coping some ideas, being inspired, but coping the look as it is with no changes or minor ones is lame.
One of the screens (because the website has a changed layout now) says "Church is not a building, it's a community." Ha, true. And those 15 pages work perfectly here. Those look like some charity/community websites, showing what their members do, what are their objectives.
Like All Saints Church. Doesn't look like an altar and has the thing. Nicely build, gives me the info I want, transmits what they do on that lovely end of the world. And, dudes... :D Prayer request is just a great show that you can connect the "old-fashioned" religion with hi-tech.
My personal winner today is Metrobrook Church. Not only they have beautiful design, but I look at their front page and I know what website I'm visiting. Not at some promo, not on a blog of a emo-teenager interested in sunset photos.
More websites like this, please!
"copying"? [;
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