Some of you may remember that after Thanksgiving, I posted Word: Malachi and said I’d be taking a break before I started the New Testament. Although I didn’t post any brand new Word designs for the past month and a half, I still managed to keep busy:

1. If you haven’t checked the site in a while, you may have noticed that I unrolled a new site design and gave away two free Word prints. I did a lot of work to improve my Word Designs page so you can now see large thumbnails of every design all in one spot.
2. As part of the new site design, I asked you to summarize a book of the Bible in roughly 100 words or less with one random entry receiving a free print. 16 people came up with some great summaries!
3. I dropped a couple inspiration posts on two of the best designers/illustrators I know. One for Jeff Gill and one for Brian Danaher. If you need some custom illustration or design, check those dudes out!
4. I updated my portfolio with a few designs from my day job.
5. Before Christmas, I had several sales on prints of my Word designs. Hopefully a few of you got one or two of those on Christmas morning.
6. I launched a new Facebook page that is specifically about my design stuff, including Word. I’ll give updates on new designs, prints, giveaways and sales. If you ever have questions about Word, it’s also a great spot to ask those.
7. I also posted my last (at least I think it’s the last) design from the Old Testament, Word Leftovers: Micah.

I’ve also got something else in the works. I’ve heard from a lot of folks outside the US who want Word prints but the shipping cost is too high. If that describes you, I think you’ll be happy soon. More to come on that….

OK, I’m About to Get a Little Emo All up in Here

I’m not sure how many of you realize it, but it’s almost been a year since I started Word. I think back to when I posted that first Genesis design and I’m amazed at where this project has gone. I had no idea how many people would be interested in seeing the designs and reading my sarcastic (and sacrilegious?) write ups.

My biggest fear at the beginning was that I’d do a couple and then give up. I think that easily could have been the case, but something cool happened… people started encouraging me. First it was from my family, friends and some coworkers. Then I started getting some emails and some comments on my site and on Flickr. Folks started sharing the designs on Facebook and Twitter. A few blogs posted about the project. Some of you even started asking for prints of the designs! Suddenly, all this encouragement had erased any doubt about whether or not I’d stick with this.

So I want to say thank you.

Thank you to everyone who left a comment. Thank you to everyone who posted about the project. Thank you to everyone who shot me an email, shared the project with a friend or kept asking me to get my butt in gear and make prints available.

If you take anything away from this emo rant, let it be this. A little encouragement can go a long way. If you notice an artist (or anyone!) doing something that you think is cool, no matter how big or little, tell them. Your word of encouragement may be all it takes for them to keep writing, singing or creating designs for every book of the Bible.

Pass Me the Kleenex and Get to the Word!

Whether you jumped in at Genesis, Malachi or somewhere in between, thanks for following along. I hope you stick around until Revelation (the design, not the apocalyptic event). Let’s get our New Testament on!