Creative Power at the Margins: Vine Design

Vine Design is an extraordinary enterprise, providing services to numerous Christian organisations and charities, many of which would otherwise struggle to reach the people, and markets they need to reach. They’re the design powerhouse behind The Loyal Workshop, Arotahi, NZCMS, Musalaha, and Compassion Aoteroa, to name just a few of the organisations they empower. We talked with Vine’s founders, Matt and Liz Watson about how the work began, and how they understand what they’re doing, and why. Matt’s also a gifted artist, so we also took the chance to talk God and creativity—Ed.

Tell us how Vine Design began

Matt: Vine began through a deep sense that creativity can be part of mission, and from a desire to show that design, storytelling, film and strategy can strengthen the work of people already serving on the front line. It began as an idea, but God has faithfully provided, opening doors and bringing the right people and projects along the way.

It goes back a long time, actually. I felt a deep sense of call when I was in my 20s to use the skills that God had given me, trying to connect them with an area of need in the world. That led to travelling overseas. I met a guy called Tim Frank in Nepal, who was a mission worker there with his wife, Jutta. He was a designer—and I had just finished training as a designer. He really shifted my way of thinking about design and how I saw my work. It was the first time I realised I can actually use my skills, my career, the thing that God has created me to do, to actually extend his kingdom. Tim was doing that in Nepal, and so I saw that firsthand.

He was an amazing guy. He used to say: God deserves the best advertising. He was like: It’s all about promoting God through the work I do. Ultimately, it’s sort of redeeming advertising, redeeming design as a way to promote the kingdom and God’s work. He was working for International Nepal Fellowship, a mission agency. And so I went and worked with him for a month, and we became good friends. He came back many years later, you know, through emailing—this was before Skype and Zoom calls—we would e-mail and phone each other (cost me hundreds of dollars in phone calls!) He had a dream to set up a business in Kathmandu working with nonprofits and Christian mission agencies, and I’d been talking about going there. I remember we talked on a Friday—and then I got an e-mail from his boss, Martin, to say that he’d been tragically killed on his motorbike. That was a real shock—there’s a whole story around that. But for me, Tim was really the start of all of this.

Liz: He was the catalyst for the original idea. And him being killed was actually the catalyst for us to go to Nepal pretty quickly because they needed another designer. Martin, Tim’s boss, emailed Matt and said: Would you come and take Tim’s position? So we went. When we were on the ground, we saw how many missions and Christians doing business there, who had no sense of how to market themselves or do communication or design or websites. We saw a real need for that, a gap in the market for that sort of work. We came back to New Zealand after four-and-a-half years in Nepal. Matt carried on a bit of the work for INF, but then other organisations approached us. And so, the work grew.

Matt: There’s a lot of great organisations in the world, Christian mission agencies and businesses and freedom-business nonprofits. In Nepal alone, there’s about 70,000 NGOs; New Zealand’s got about 70,000 nonprofits and charitable trusts. Often they don’t have the resources to invest in telling their stories well. Things like brand, storytelling, a website, their marketing plan—it’s sort of a tacked-on thing. And that’s my bread and butter. That’s what I enjoy doing, taking someone’s story and articulating that in a really powerful way in order that people might go: I want to support this organization, I want to pray for this organization. I want to get behind this organization. I want to join this organization.

We live in a world where storytelling has become a powerful tool for business and organisations—to recruit people, but also to raise money, to get people to pray for them, and also just to communicate who they are well. There’s just so much noise out there. What we’re trying to do is cut through that noise and reach the people that an organisation is trying to reach in a powerful way. You know, when we talk about brand and marketing, some Christians might have an aversion to that. Actually, what we’re trying to do is tell an organisation’s story in an authentic way, in a way that’s true to who they are and what they’re trying to do, and talk about the impact of the work in a way that honours God. That’s what Tim wanted to do; he saw that need as well.

Can you give us an example of where you’ve done this?

Matt: The sign that Vine has been successful is when people don’t see our work; instead, they see the organisation we do work for: that organisation is flourishing, their brand is flourishing, their products are selling. Time and time again that’s happened with a number of different organisations that we’ve worked with. I can give you lots of examples, but I’ll talk about Loyal. The Loyal Workshop is probably the client that we’ve worked with closest and for the longest.

The Loyal Workshop was set up about 12 years ago. I met Paul and Sarah Beisly when I was doing some work for INF in Calcutta—we just really resonated and connected. I love those guys. That’s one of the things when you work in this area: you become friends with the people you work with. You’re brothers and sisters in Christ, and you have a real connection with them and love their work. Loyal work in Calcutta with women who have been trafficked. So we just came alongside them in order to promote their work. Loyal is still a small organization: they’ve got 17, 18 women working for them. But now it’s become a brand which is recognised internationally. We sell the products all around the world. Loyal’s products are made to exceptionally high standards, and yes, they’re beautiful. People know about Loyal, but they don’t know about us, and that’s exactly what we want. Loyal, Arotahi (the NZ Baptist Missionary Society), NZCMS, Musalaha, all these different various organisations that we work for, we want them to shine. You know, they need their brands need to be incredibly strong and credible.

Our work is very behind the scenes, but that’s how I like it. I like the fact that we’re investing in lots and lots of different organizations. I like being creative, and I like producing things, but at the end of the day one of the greatest joys of the work is that I get to interact with these exceptional people doing exceptional work for God’s kingdom, work that’s often hidden. They’re not making a big song and a dance about it. They just get on and serve the poor, serve women who have been trafficked, and they go to hard places and live their lives completely sacrificially for God’s kingdom. So, to come alongside these people is a great privilege.

Liz: It’s helped having lived as missionaries in Nepal; it gives you an insight into what it’s like to be on the ground, and how isolating it can be—having that understanding of what people are going through when they are working in a hard place and not getting much encouragement and not seeing much change. Matt does a lot of encouraging—he has a real gift of encouraging people. As well as the beautiful design and the creative thought that goes into everything at Vine, it’s that encouragement that loves people: just motivating them in what they’re doing and saying, You’re doing an amazing job. What you’re doing is so worthwhile. God sees you.

So, can I ask, you guys work really hard at this. What sustains you?

Liz: I mean, I think the fact that we’re doing something meaningful for the Lord sustains me. Sometimes we feel bogged down in it, you know, because you want to do the best job for the people that you’re working for, and for the Lord as well. And so you feel that burden, but also that’s also life-giving because you know you’re doing something that’s changing lives, even though we’re not on the ground seeing the people’s lives change. We get an encouraging story back: that is super; yeah, keeps you going for ages. And also we have an amazing board who are so encouraging of us and so supportive in the work that we’re doing. Every time we meet with them, it’s a boost.

Matt: The people we work with text me and send me emails saying, Matt, without Vine we couldn’t do what we’re doing—things like that. And I really appreciate that. But at the end of the day, it’s not about me. That’s something which I’ve always had at the heart of Vine. I think in the creative world, there’s this idea that it’s all about your self-expression, your career, promoting yourself, your Instagram feed, as many followers as you can get, as much recognition as you can get. That troubles me as a creative. For me, creativity has always been about pointing people to God or challenging people to think at a deeper level about some area of their own brokenness, or some area of need, or just challenging them to think critically about the world in some way. To think of others.

We have a website, obviously; we need that to show our work to people, but we want others to shine. And my work—I want God to see it, but beyond that, I’m okay. You know, I’m quite happy just doing the work and promoting the people. If they’re successful, I feel super stoked. And ultimately, if it honours the Lord, I’m happy with that. You know, that’s enough for me. So yeah, I want to challenge the narrative of the artist being all about me and my, you know—what’s the right word? Ego. I’ve worked in the secular world for many years, and worked on big campaigns. But I get so much more from the work that I’m doing now. I believe in what they’re doing, and I believe that the Lord cares deeply about what they’re doing as well. And that’s how the kingdom is built, you know, it’s hidden away. It starts as a little mustard seed and then it just grows and grows and grows and it’s watered by the Lord.

I would encourage creatives to use what God has placed in their hands to advance his kingdom. Look for an area of need that moves you, connect it with the creativity and skills you have been given, and go for it. You do not need to wait until you have everything figured out or until it looks like a traditional form of ministry. There are so many places where beauty, truth, imagination and good communication are desperately needed. Your creativity can make a real difference.

What would your encouragement to a younger Christian about the place of business in God’s purposes?

Matt: I think you have to shift from making it about you, making it about profit, making it about starting a business, to understanding that the business that you’re running can actually be mission. There’s this idea that if you are to be effective as a Christian, you either have to be a pastor or a mission worker, or you have to be working in certain sectors. I’ve encountered this recently in New Zealand—some people don’t get what we’re trying to do at Vine either. God doesn’t see it like that. God goes: I’ve given you gifts and abilities, and I want you to connect this with an area of need in the world. I’m going to take your gifts, and I’m going to take your passions, and I’m going to take the stuff that you love, and I’m going to breathe my life into it. Vine Design is named after, you know, John 15:5, this idea of being grafted into the vine: “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” Apart from God, we can do nothing. The fruit that we bear without the Lord is just not very good fruit. If you can take your business, if you can take your dreams, and say “Lord, these are your dreams; I’ll go wherever you want me to go and do whatever you want me to do,” then you’ll find God honours the attitude and takes the passions, the gifts, and uses them far, far more effectively than you can possibly imagine for his kingdom. It doesn’t mean that you’re going to become famous or you’re going to make a lot of money, but you’re certainly going to have a fulfilling and wonderful career honouring the Lord, doing his mission.

So, on a Monday morning, when you’re going into work as an accountant, you need to remind yourself that God has put you in that place. God has not just put you there to raise money to fund other things. He’s put you in that place to be his mission worker. Whether you’re delivering cleaning products, whether you’re at home as a mum or a single dad or whatever, it doesn’t matter to the Lord. These roles are so important to him.

If we can shift our thinking around this, it gives you a life which is rich, because you start to look for opportunities to serve God. And you start to pray things like: God, give me the courage to step out. I need these resources for this reason. I need creativity for this. I need…  And you start to involve God far more in the whole process. One example of that (this is when I was back working as a designer in a secular firm): I was doing a campaign for Kiwibank; they needed some designs for the credit card, and they couldn’t nail it. I was praying: “Lord, I’m not passionate about designing things for credit cards, but I’m passionate about doing this job well for you. I don’t know what to do here. I’ve worked and worked and worked.” And I got this little spark of inspiration that came to me in that moment I prayed. I can honestly say it wasn’t even my idea. My boss presented it to the team at Kiwibank; they loved it. I can honestly say that the design for the Kiwibank credit card came from the Lord, you know. And so for me, there’s a partnership with the Lord. This is not about me doing my thing. It’s about going: God, we’re doing this together.

What are you working on at present?

We have a really varied range of projects on at the moment. One significant ongoing project is with Musalaha, a faith-based organisation bringing Palestinians and Israelis together around peace and reconciliation. For the past two years, we have been developing an online training course with them. We are also working with Compassion’s Soup Kitchen, we’re beginning a project in Romania, we’re rebuilding The Loyal Workshop website, and we’re producing a range of films for Arotahi. Another designer Abbigail is developing an online course with Open Home Foundation International that can be used across Africa to train people in the protection of children. At any one time, we can have around six to 12 different projects on the go, all in very different spaces. Joel is about to do a photo shoot for Holi Boli, an ethical women’s clothing brand.

Matt, you’re an artist as well as a designer. What’s new in your art practice?

Matt: With the rise of AI, I have had moments where I have wondered what that means for the work I have done as a designer. It has also drawn me back to oil painting, which feels tactile, physical and completely one-off. I have been painting again, and the work is very much shaped by faith, identity, politics, Jesus, and the deeper questions of what truly matters in this world. It has become a way of slowing down, making something by hand, and wrestling honestly with those things.