Toolbox Studios Blog

re:form for sparkhouse

In 2009 Augsburg Fortress Publishers launched sparkhouse. This new Minneapolis-based resource design group was formed to “reimagine resources like VBS or Bible study in a way that creates new vitality, change, and relevance in Christian communities.”

This month, sparkhouse launched a new curriculum called re:form – the only confirmation program that offers innovative resources for pastors, youth pastors, volunteer teachers and parents who want to radically empower youth to tackle the powerful ideas of faith and theology. re:form makes confirmation an interactive experience through creative, culturally relevant and provocative videos, illustration, humor, and activities that speak to kids on their level and encourage them to explore and make their own personal discoveries about their faith journey.

Its first edition recently rolled off the presses and into our hot little hands. It features books and videos chock-full of thousands of intricate, hand-drawn illustrations, each rendered in the quirky style of our creative director Paul Soupiset. Those pen and ink illustrations were watercolor painted, scanned, color-adjusted, and fed into a production workflow that simplified our client’s video and print production processes. Several main pieces work together to create the re:form curriculum:

• re:form two-DVD Set — We hand-illustrated forty hilarious animated short videos which frame and begin each lesson, framing the tough theological questions that kids are really asking, like “Who wrote the Bible?” and “Why does God let bad things happen?” The Two-DVD set is rooted in historic Christianity yet speaks to kids in their own voice. 
•  re:form Anti-Workbook—A hands-on 192-page Anti-Workbook is the centerpiece of each kid’s confirmation experience. It’s a sturdy, full-color, wire-O bound journal chock-full of activities and ideas for groups and individuals, with space to journal and doodle, and extras like pullout cards and cool stickers. re:form Leader Guide quickly preps teachers for each lesson and activity. 
• re:form Gallery—re:form prompts kids to make videos, take pictures, interview people, and create stuff. Then they can upload all of their artifacts to an online portfolio at the re:form gallery, where they can share with their local congregation what they’ve been learning. re:form empowers youth to discover for themselves what they believe. 

Here's one of 40 videos produced for the first edition:

Reprint: Apple’s iPhone 4 Review: A Roller Coaster First Week

Editor's Note: this article originally appeared on Rob Simons Says

by Rob Simons

Wow. What a first week! For all the people that were waiting for my review of Apple’s new iPhone 4, here it is – get ready for a roller coaster ride.

Before we start this journey, let me give the option to step out of line now. It has not been an enjoyable journey. Actually, it’s been very ugly in several places, with more twists and turns than I expected. And for an Apple diehard like me that’s experienced just about every Apple product since the Apple ][+, I didn’t see this ride coming. So if you’re still up for it, sit back and relax while we climb the first hill.

(Just to give you a sense of the tome I could have written, I was 2,000 words into the first half of the initial ordering experience when I decided to reboot.)

Ordering Experience

To keep this short, I’ll just say that the pre-ordering experience started out great, then quickly descended into hell. My first stop was the AT&T web site, but it was extremely unresponsive. So I decided to call 611 from my phone and order the three iPhone 4 upgrades directly from AT&T on the morning of June 17. The first AT&T rep was wonderful. If only that call had been the end of the AT&T experience.

Unfortunately, I needed to call back and make a minor modification to the order. What should have been a simple process evolved into 4+ hours of phone calls; several blatant lies from AT&T; an incorrectly canceled order; an AT&T manager that never called me back; a mysteriously re-instated order after I was told it wasn’t possible to get a new order; then the miraculous “early” delivery of my iPhone 4.

Yes. For some reason, I was one of the few that received my iPhone 4 via FedEx the day BEFORE it was released to the public. This later turned out to be a blessing and a curse.

Installation & Activation

After going from being told I wouldn’t get my iPhone 4 for several weeks, to receiving it a day early, I thought this was a sign from above that I need to... 

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