Centerpoint Church

CenterPoint Church sits in Eagle Mountain, Utah, with the tagline "Making Jesus the center point." The graphic design subscription ran from spring 2025 through October 2025. My main contacts were Ethan Closson, the Communications Director, and Chris Allen on the executive side for invoicing. Other staff (Josh Harbin in Spiritual Formation, Nick Anderson with the youth team, Lindsey Poulton on the design side) came in for specific projects.

How we started

Ethan was the operator who kept everything running. Early on we set up a Google Form for graphic requests so the briefs would come in with consistent fields. After a few weeks of using it, I noticed I was getting too much description and not quite enough of the right info, so I asked Ethan if we could rework it. He sent me a draft form the same afternoon, I tweaked the wording so volunteers wouldn't feel like they had to fill out the sample-screenshot field if they didn't have a reference in mind, and he shipped the updated version. That small loop set the tone. Clear briefs in, clear designs out.

The work

CenterPoint sent a wide range of projects through the form. Sermon series for the adult congregation (I Believe, Wreck The Roof, Bear Fruit). Youth ministry assets for CP YTH, including a Junior High Pool Party promo and a Volunteer Web Page request from Nick Anderson. Class branding for Josh Harbin's Dream Team and If/Then leadership tracks. And a constant stream of signage: sandwich board signs, front-of-stage 8.5x11 signs, OVerflow Starting Point directional signs.

Some of these were Canva-native rather than Illustrator, since the CenterPoint staff didn't have Illustrator licensed. Josh asked specifically for Canva templates on Dream Team so the team could edit them later. I flagged early that multi-page designs (like full leader guides and calendars) sat outside what I offered, and we landed on a one-page templatized approach that could be reused across documents.

A specific moment

The Wreck The Roof sermon series in May 2025 is a good example of how a request usually moved through the studio. Ethan submitted the brief on May 14 through the form. I sent two color directions on May 21, riffing on the reference he'd attached. Ethan came back on May 27 with a clean piece of feedback: he liked the red, pink, salmon, and purple version best, asked for a subtitle ("How far would you go for Jesus?"), and let me know he'd made a huge typo in the project name. It was Wreck The Roof, not Reck. I added the W, dropped in the subtitle, and sent the revised set the next morning. Six business days from brief to a near-finished sermon series package.

In their words

"Hey Emily! These are great. I like the red/pink/salmon and purple one the best. I made a huge typo! It is Wreck The Roof, haha! Will you add a 'W' to it? Can we also add the subtitle 'How far would you go for Jesus?'" — Ethan Closson, Communications Director, May 27, 2025

Where things stand

Chris Allen reached out on October 29, 2025 to let me know CenterPoint was closing out the subscription. They had been looking for an in-house hire who could combine several roles into one position, and that hire had landed. Ethan had given me a heads up a couple months earlier so I had runway to plan, which I appreciated. I told Chris the same in my reply, and we wrapped on a good note. The November 19 follow-up from Ethan asking for AI project files for the If/Then class graphics was the final handoff. CenterPoint left with full source files for anything they need to keep edited internally.