What About the Birds

Jul 12, 2022 | News

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By Lily Emo
Illustrator

By the time NZCMS came to me with a request for artwork, a lot of thought had already gone into present­ing their values through their new brand­ing. John 20:21 had been used to form a lot of the think­ing behind the tag line “Every­one Sent”. At their core, the illus­tra­tions I’ve created are inten­ded to aid NZCMS’s new brand­ing by rep­res­ent­ing this tagline visually.

I decided to use birds to sym­bol­ise this idea rather than actual people because as soon as you depict one person, you imme­di­ately leave others out. I didn’t want to specify or define who the people are that are sent and to whom they are sent to. NZCMS’ tag line cap­tures the idea that everyone is sent — it’s inher­ently invit­a­tional, so I wanted it to be inclus­ive in whatever illus­tra­tions I produced.

Birds seemed like the obvious choice because of Aotearoa’s affin­ity with birds. Fur­ther­more, birds travel and move around a lot. Some travel far and some not so far, which seemed fitting when I came to think about those con­nec­ted to the organisation.

I illus­trated a variety of birds, not just select­ing those from New Zealand but from dif­fer­ent loc­a­tions around the world. They rep­res­ent both NZCMS’ unique iden­tity as a New Zealand organ­isa­tion while also emphas­ising its s global focus and the diverse part­ner­ships involved in their work.

I also created some options where the birds are trav­el­ling in form­a­tion. I had this idea when I saw the compass arrows in their new brand­ing, but this also rep­res­ents the rela­tional aspect of mission that is such a pivotal value to NZCMS. Con­nec­ted to this comes the essen­tial focus of working together with a common purpose: being sent by God into the world. Just as the birds fly in form­a­tion towards a des­tin­a­tion, the Church is called to go together to share the Gospel.

Lastly, you will also notice the eclectic activ­ity of each illus­tra­tion. They are not simply flying, but each is trav­el­ling in their own unique way. Some are inter­act­ing with each other. Some are dancing. Some are wor­ship­ping or car­ry­ing some­thing. Some look pas­sion­ate and strong, while others look calm and gentle. Some are young, and some are old.

NZCMS has all sorts of per­son­al­it­ies, gift­ings and exper­i­ences. I wanted to use these illus­tra­tions to sym­bol­ise to every dis­ciple that they have a place in mission. They show the diversity of every­one who is and can be involved in what God is doing through NZCMS. I hope that these illus­tra­tions give room for anyone to imagine how their own lives fit within the call to follow Jesus.

Watch a video inter­view with Lily Emo

Lily Emo is an Illus­trator based in New Zealand. She has a special interest in chil­dren’s books and won the Mar­garet Mahy Illus­tra­tions Prize in 2020. Lily and her husband are former NZCMS Mission Part­ners and served in Nicaragua in 2009 — 2010. You can learn more about her here.

This article was taken from our Annual Report. You can down­load this here.

4 Comments

  1. Liz Hay

    Thank you, Tessa. I remem­ber Ray (and Jean) very warmly from our time at St Tim’s before we left for St John’s College at the begin­ning of 1987, and was excited many years later to learn of their visit to the Elli­otts in Uganda. (We visited them in 1997 on study leave.) That visit, and a later one, showed their quiet growth in faith and mission during the years. I praise God for Ray’s life and service, and pray for the Com­fort­er’s pres­ence to be so close to Jean.

    Reply
  2. Caleb Croker

    Hey there,

    A friend of mine told me about you guys and I’d love to come along on Monday!

    Cheers,
    Caleb Croker

    Reply
  3. Pamelq

    Thank you Tessa

    Reply
  4. Katherine

    Thank you Arch­deacon Fran. Mothers Union appre­ci­ated your input when we visited the Far North recently. Your wisdom and wise counsel made it a mem­or­able weekend. God bless you in your new role.

    Reply

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