Stage Design, App Creation, and Project Coordinating
MCI Canada
Creating and Structuring a workflow +
About MCI Canada
MCI Canada is a religious non profit organization whose mission is to support their community through various resources, aids and programs. They have built a community around the values of Christianity, it is an organization that fully commits to the calling of loving thy neighbour.
The Challenge
My Role and Responsibilities
Due to the worldwide pandemic, MCI Canada had to undergo various changes on how to continue communicating with their community and find a way to continue reaching their audience. For MCI Canada, creating an online experience was the best alternative, since gatherings were and still are prohibited.
As part of the creative team, I wear many hats, and continuously collaborate in many projects
-
I am responsible of structuring the workflow of various teams
-
Developing content minutes on the progress, future considerations and game plan for the following weeks.
-
Responsible of creating and keeping up to date a workflow timeline in Monday
-
Creating schedules, and overseeing progress to make sure goals are met on time
-
Manage and collaborate with various teams ranging from the video production team, livestream team, the worship team and the graphic designer
-
Designing a church app with Subsplash in collaboration with the graphic designer
-
Designing a stage setup
I am a project coordinator, a designer, an innovator, and a team player
Understanding MCI Canada's Pains
As mentioned above, the biggest challenge was to go from a live audience to an online community. All the teams had to change the way they were working and adapt to the online experience.
Breakdown
First, I needed to breakdown each task every team member would undertake, with due dates, length of the project, collaborators and much more. We decided to use Monday as our platform to get organized, as Slack was not doing the job. I broke down everything that needed to be done to be able to go live on Sunday mornings. Everything went from what needed to be done in a week to then get an overview of the whole month.
The Challenge
Integrating F L A P into our meetings
After the workflow was determined, we found out it was very hard to keep moving forward if we did not discuss what were the problem areas and what we could do about them, as well what were the future considerations. I decided to integrate F. L . A .P (Future considerations, Lessons learned, Accomplishments, Problems), which I had previously used in my brainstorming sessions with various teams. This helped us get organized, but also look at what solutions we could find, by brainstorming together but most importantly celebrating the accomplishments we had reached for that week, which was a huge boost for everyone after a long week!
Working on a Church App through Subsplash
Another project I collaborated on was developing a church app through Subsplash (a cloud based church community mobile application), I worked closely with the graphic designer on place in order to develop the visual identity. I came up with a strategy to breakdown every week with the tasks we both were responsible for as well as a time of discussion for what color schemes we wanted to stick with, and of course, thinking about the user flow and users who are going to use the app.
The Challenge
Task Flow
I then decided to breakdown the structure itself of the app. I created a task flow to have a visual idea of where everything was going to be but also what would be opened when clicking each tab, to make sure each section was easy to navigate. Although we simply needed to choose from different templates with no coding needed, I know it was necessary to go through these steps in order to not waste time figuring it all out on the app.
Click here to see more of my inspirations and ideas
Inspiration for Stage Design
My main inspirations were other religious non profit organizations, and the pale color scheme we had in place when creating the church app as this was the desired vibe they wanted to emphasize. My best friends were Instagram, and Pinterest where I found most inspiration. I also looked over previous filming sessions to figure out 1. depth 2. light 3. contrast and 4. different types of decor
Stage Design
Because MCI Canada was no an online experience, the recording of live worship sessions as well as the messages they wanted to transmit to the community was all filmed before the pre-recorded livestream on Sunday. A background was necessary and so I designed a stage in order to enhance the online experience!
Due to the budget and the resources I had, I needed to be creative and come up with affordable solutions on the decorations I could use, I decided to go with previous decorations used in other events. I also took into consideration the place the filming was going to take place, and since it was in a dark gym, I knew I needed to work with the lighting on place. We decided to go with a sleek and summer vibe design and to stick with artificial light to minimize the shadows and highlight other parts.
What I've learned
I have learned to wear many hats in an environment but also be a team player. Even though there might be unforeseen circumstances, the goal is to find a solution even if it's not your role or your task, helping each other out is what helps all of us advance! I have valued the honesty and vulnerability of my team and I have been able to put in practice my emotional intelligence, my organizational skills and my creativity to play.