8/2/2019 Cross & Crown Article

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cross-crown-article 1/2

4 // / MARCH 2012 // /  www.christianretail ing.com

Guest Editor JONATHAN NORI spoke

with TREVOR ROBERTS of Cross andCrown, a Chambersburg, Pa., a web

and graphic design company with a

missions mind-set.

What is Cross and Crown?

Cross and Crown was founded in

2002 by brothers Tyler and Trevor Rob-

erts [myself] to help ministries and non-

profits with design and marketing, some-

thing that is normally very expensive

and not affordable for nonprofits. The

company started with one employee, and

now Cross and Crown has a staff of seven.

Over the years, Cross and Crown has

had the privilege of working with many 

top organizations nationwide and music

festivals, including Prison Fellowship,

the INCM (International Network of 

Children’s Ministry), CCDA (Christian

Community Development Association),

Destiny Image (shout out!), Youth Spe-

cialties, the Churches of God Gen-

eral Conference, Word Made Flesh,

Creation and lots of others.

One thing that really sets

Cross and Crown apart is we aim

to partner with the organizations

and meet them where they are. If 

someone has an in-house design

team, we can come alongside and

them and offer our skill set to fillholes. If an organization doesn’t

have a team, we can handle projects

from start to finish.

You’re more than just a design

firm. In fact, your offices are

located one floor above the Cross

and Crown Coffee Company shop

that helps to fund your African

missions. You’re involved in a lot

of things, but what’s the overrid-

ing “mission” that gets you up?

In 2008 we were given the opportu-

nity to buy a local coffeehouse, and we

 jumped at the opportunity and opened

C&C Coffee in July of 2008. Its mis-

sion can be summed up very easily. “Just

around the corner, serving the world.”

Since its inception, the goal was never

to make C&C a profit center, but to use

it to build resources to

help others. It excitesus that C&C provides

 jobs to six people and

is used to host events,

ministries and even a

church.

C&C partners with

  Abednego Coffee, a

local free trade pro-

  vider, to provide the

coffees for C&C. Ten

percent of all the cof-

fee purchases are do-

nated directly to non-

profits and ministries

all around the world.

 We were able to collect

a significant amount of 

money for recent cata-

strophic events like the

earthquakes in Haiti

and tsunami in Japan.

Chambersburg

is a small town,

so what is it that

keeps Cross and

Crown there?

Why not D.C.

or New York or

somewhere more

“known” for itsdesign studios?

One of the things

that’s great about where we are is the low

cost of living and expenses. This allows

us to keep our cost as low as possible to

help as many organizations as we can. It’s

 very easy to collaborate with our clients

and other creative professionals online.

Who is it that inspires you to do

what you do?

 We get inspired by ministries and

ganizations doing excellent work wo wide. We strive to complete all proj

 we work on to the highest standard

can because we know our projects

enabling organizations to do their w

even better.

What is the “why” of Cross and

Crown? Why another design firm

in a field where there’s already

million people doing this?

I think we really wanted to hav

focus on missions organizations

nonprofits and really filling a void

the quality artwork or quality mark

ing at affordable prices. There’s a V

diagram that you can see floating aro

that has “speed,” “quality” and “pri

and they don’t often intersect where

client wants them to. What we try to

is really look for an opportunity to co

across a nonprofit or an organization

offer them the highest quality of des

and marketing that we can at afforda

prices—not agency-level prices—t

many organizations and companies

paying worldwide.

Where did the original idea for

Cross and Crown come from?

Tyler and I grew up at a Chris

camp, where our father was the direcso we knew about the limitations t

they often faced with budgets and

erations. We had always grown up w

the mentality of, “How do we get

 best deal for the money that’s availab

That was just the mentality that we w

raised with, so when it came time fo

to start a business, which we also c

sider a ministry, we wanted to be a

to offer that to other people—to al

TOP: Cross and Crown’s coffee shop,

acquired in 2008, is used to host

events, ministries and a church.

LEFT: Trevor Roberts, co-founder of

Cross and Crown, a design company.

GUE ST EDITOR  IN CONVERSATION

It’s all about ‘staying relevant to the current culture’How an overriding sense of mission and a more-for-less mentality can make an impact for small businesses

You’ve heard the phrase “social

networking” a thousand times,

 but maybe it seems so big, and

so complicated.

Here’s an inside scoop: It’s not hard,complicated or confusing. Here are two

step-by-step ways to do it and a third meth-

od that I guarantee leads to direct sales—all

using the people and equipment and money 

 you already have.

MAKE A FACEBOOK PAGEIf your store doesn’t have a Facebook

page yet, it should. It is the most popular so-

cial network, and your store simply should

have a presence there.

Don’t worry if Facebook’s supremacy 

changes in the future; something is bound

to come along and replace it eventually.Building a Facebook page is easy. First,

make sure you have a Facebook account

at www.facebook.com (don’t worry, yo

name won’t be attached to the page a

 where public).

Second, scroll to the bottom of the p

and in the row of very small links, click “Cate a Page.” There you should click “Lo

E S S E N T I A L S , p a g

GUE ST EDITOR RETAIL ESSE NTIALS

Engaging customers in an ‘always-on’ digital worldUsing social media to promote your store is easier—and less time-consuming—than you may think

By Jonathan Nori

I N C O N V E R S A T I O N , p a g

8/2/2019 Cross & Crown Article

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/cross-crown-article 2/2