Bergsland Design shares the section of the site concerned with graphic design and book production. It’s not a legal DBA, rather a long-used pseudonym covering my graphic design work. If you’ve read my about me page, you can see it’s been a winding road to this place. This page attempts to help you sort out what I do as one part of the three basic areas: graphic design, font design, and teaching.
Bergsland Design the designer portion
Obviously I design much more than books. I’ve got designs on Zazzle—though that’s languishing for lack of attention. I design fonts, and much of my income comes from there. I design curricula and have three courses online in Udemy so far. When I’m bored I design landscapes, home interiors, and recipes.
Pages in this portion of my work
- Book production
- Book production charges
- Book publishing with InDesign CC
- Books on production & design
Here are some posts in this general category
Amazon’s history has important insight
Amazon’s history has important insight we need to remember. Mike Shatzkin had a wonderful article today about important things they did when they started and grabbed hold of the publishing market.
I may flesh this out later, but I wanted a place to store the link.
Black and white often provides focus
Throughout my life as an artist/designer I have been struck with how black and white often provides focus. It’s beautiful visual decision, but it tends to be more difficult than color.
Elegance and simplicity are very hard to achieve without being stark and lifeless. The painting on the left is the first one I painted after I met Jesus in January, 1974. Being left-handed, it reads from right to left. The simple exuberance of leaving the chaos of my life before into the reality of the creator’s world and Kingdom still hits me very hard. The harsh abstractions no longer appealed to me. There is very little of my work that I can go back to and be satisfied with what I did.
This post was triggered by an article I saw this morning about the winners in the top black and white photos competition. They are beautiful. But most of them have nothing to say. They are black and white as an abstraction.
Don’t ignore greyscale: black and white often provides focus
Lately, I’ve been working on graphite drawings. It’s been a long time since I was challenged at this deep a level. My drawings so far are so much less than powerful. They’re getting there. But, I don’t know if I’ll have the physical skills to do something like this until the New Creation. It’s one of the major things I’m looking forward to—when I get my perfect body, perfectly functional for who I am, and who The Lord wants me to be.
This inability to produce what I need to do to communicate clearly is a major frustration of this fallen world. I’m being shown how to get the anointing into my fiction. But it’s another step all together to have the anointing in reality, dealing with people in a way that edifies, comforts, and blesses.
How I long to be one with Jesus, to learn things like this. How frustrating it is to be designed to create something far beyond your natural ability. That’s the glory of knowing Jesus. He can sustain me even in the midst of a fallen world. The joy of creating butterfly, a platypus, a woman, a man completely infuses my Lord and Master. What a joy He is!
Here’s the best image from the photo competition article, in my opinion:
Beauty a typographic reminder
Beauty a typographic reminder just because we all need something like this after 2020.
A short quote from my new book, Peace in Santa Fe, about Beauty beyond a typographic reminder
What can we do to offer beauty to the people? God offers it to everyone, not just the rich, talented, or powerful. Flowers, snowflakes, clouds, birds, animals, waterfalls, rainbows, and an infinite number of things offer beauty.
What can we do to bring that incidental beauty onto the lives of people who don’t think in those terms? I can see it going many ways, and we should incorporate as many of these ways and methods as we can.
At the gallery, we can offer exquisite small items, and objects with lasting value. A gallery is not a place for the ephemeral. That’s the arena of the musician and dancer. Though there is nothing as beautiful as the human body, the world has overlaid that with unavoidable sexual reactions—though the lines of a face would work well.
I’m thinking on paper here to try to bring you to the place of seeking solutions to this major focus of an artist. I can’t make this a generalized statement to all artists. This is what I feel the Lord putting on my heart that Bezalel Anointing is all about.
I’m grateful for your offer of help, Denzell, and your Oholiab anointing. Haloke, I sense that you are interested in this, and that you have trainees who are gifted in this area. Maybe I could offer a place to sell your work or their artwork, and internships to help them learn artistic skills, I don’t know. I do know I am supposed to include you in this letter.
So, what is this letter about? If I knew, I would be writing you and telling you what we are going to do. I have rough ideas, glimmers of coming things, and a certain knowledge that I am to write this letter to the two of you.
Also know that the artist’s beauty, the author’s truth, the dancer’s grace, and the musician’s peace are all to open up the people to the glory of God’s focus, Love!
MERRY CHRISTMAS 2020!
Short and Sweet this year!
God’s judgement comes with His blessing
God’s judgement comes with His blessing especially when we turn to Him in trust. I was reading Perry Stone’s new book this morning and I was struck in his introduction by the juxtaposition of two major events: in April of 1906, both the San Francisco earthquake, and the Azusa Street revival occurred.
The news called the earthquake the judgment of God. It’s probable that it was that as a consequence of the Gold Rush. In a very real way, the Azusa Street Revival was just as disastrous for the traditional mainline churches. The Christian church in America was judged and found wanting when the pentecostal outbreak occurred under the ministry of a poor black preacher in LA beginning in his house and then moving to a livery stable. It was a judgement on the stale, dead church who refused to allow the Holy Spirit to move in the traditional denominational churches.
Yet, they were both blessings as they began learning how to build better in cities to protect from earthquakes. And, fourteen new denominations were founded out of the pentecostal revival which delivered the church from the dead traditions and moved it into the freedom and power of Holy Spirit.
If God’s judgement comes with His blessing then what is coming with the pandemic?
Well, they’ve learned how to produce a vaccine very quickly. That may turn out to be a real blessing. In the church, we are seeing the Holy Spirit poured out on the sons and daughters. There is a massive work beginning as this second portion of the spiritual revival of the 20th century continues in the new millennium. It continues the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy.
But, as was true at the beginning of the 20th century is now true also. The blessing is only experienced by those who allow the Lord to open their eyes and believe. Seek the Lord and let Him show you what is going on.
The revival is upon us
Trust the Lord to bring it to pass in its fullness.
Leading-Trim destroying traditional typography
Leading-Trim destroying traditional typography seems a strange way to start an article on typography. But for the sake of Web developers, who are commonly typographic illiterates, they are toying with changing the historic basis of paragraph spacing, and all line spacing. What set me off is an article I read this morning in Medium, a magazine with which I was unfamiliar.
The head and subhead are:
Leading-Trim: The Future of Digital Typesetting
How an emerging CSS standard can fix old problems and raise the bar for web apps
The true title should be: Let’s toss out traditional typography and do what we want.I don’t want to overstate this, but the article says that what is being proposed for CSS is a new CSS property. You can see below what is proposed. However, there’s a major error in their statement. The truth is: Leading-trim seeks to change the standard we’ve been using for well over 650 years.
“Introducing leading-trim
“Leading-trim seeks to change the standard we’ve been using for 24 years.
“Leading-trim is a new CSS property that the CSS Working Group is introducing. Just as the name suggests, it works like a text box scissor. You can trim off all the extra space from reference points of your choice with just two lines of CSS.”
Leading-Trim is destroying traditional typography by making CSS something other than that
This is no small thing. This means that Word and InDesign, and presumeably all word processors and page layout software, will be on a different system entirely. The article says they are just changing one little rule. Balderdash! That one little rule eliminates the basis of spacing in typography, standard leading—from the top of the ascender to the bottom of the descender, plus the built-in leading added by the font designer.
This means that traditional typographic design knowledge no longer works on the Web
Now I know this is a hugely complex system where everyone does what they think is right in their own eyes. But this one little new CSS property overthrows all of that.
Giving permission to minister
Who would think that giving permission to minister would be a powerful tool of evangelism? I’m not talking about dead mainline mortuaries either. Yes, giving permission to minister has become a powerful thing in a church where all kinds of unbiblical limitations on ministry are common.
I was reading an article this morning on the New Circuit Riders. In it Yasmin Pierce, one of the members of a CR team says, “Many times, it’s about telling women they have permission to evangelize.” [August 2020, Charisma Magazine THEY DON’T OFFER A WAY TO LINK IT FOR YOU].
PERMISSION TO EVANGELIZE!? Are you kidding me?
They do their work on campuses, and they say they are seeing amazing results after they simply let young women know it’s all right to evangelize. My wife was a pastor, so I know about gender bias. But this is appalling.
Giving permission to minister —young or old; male or female; trained or not
I can hear the seminarians sputter. We left a mainline church because we couldn’t minister without a collar. My wife finished seminary and had an obvious gift—so her blockage may have been bigotry. But I don’t have the call to be ordained, and I was blocked also. Thank God that Jesus, Peter, John, Philip, Steven, Barnabas, Paul did not ask for permission — nor did they go to seminary. There are many more including Spurgeon, McPherson, and so on.
But the Endgame Harvest is being lead by the youth in many cases. Circuit Riders, Perry Stone, and Karen Wheaton are seeing powerful growth by preaching the Gospel and encouraging all youth to respond to God’s call and minister. My concern is if you have a young person or a woman ask you about ministering because of a call on his or her life, you pray and ask the Lord to give you the grace to encourage and mentor such people so they will do what God is calling them to do.
Aliens or biblical view of Jesus
Aliens or biblical view of Jesus by percentage in America has become heartbreaking. It’s clouded by the fact the pollsters will never ask only about Jesus. But, for aliens and UFOs there are good statistics. Click on the image to the left to get it large enough to read.
For example, 57% believe there are aliens and civilizations on other planets. 45% believe that UFOs exist and have visited Earth. This is all muddied by the understanding of what UFOs are. For example, I believe that UFOs exist and have visited Earth—many of them. But I believe that all of them are most likely demonic manifestations which are preparations for the rule of the anti-christ.
A biblical worldview and accurate knowledge about Jesus has become very rare
For example, 70% of adult Americans claim to be Christian, but less than half claim to have a biblical worldview. If you define the biblical worldview using these markers that Barna provides : “believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today”, only 17% have that view. That means that under 12% of American adults have a biblical worldview.
But notice, this only means they believe Jesus was sinless. What about questions like: is Jesus God; is Jesus the only way to salvation, and does not believing in Jesus mean you go to Hell? Then the percentages go lower. Basically, true faith in Jesus has become very rare.
Aliens & UFOs or a biblical view of Jesus by percentage in America
Around half, or a little more, believe that alien civilizations in the universe exist and have visited us. In UFOs: God’s Chariots?: Spirituality, Ancient Aliens, and Religious Yearnings in the Age of Extraterrestrials a Lutheran Theology professor writes, “Are UFOs celestial saviors, coming to save Earth from self-destruction? Are UFOnauts advancing human evolution by birthing hybrid children?” There are more that believe this than there are those who believe the truth about Jesus.
Though the fastest growing religious group is the non-religious, the fastest growth among people who identify as religious is probably Wicca, in America. If you were wondering about the increase of signs of the end, wonder no more. The list in 2 Timothy 3: 1-5 has been fulfilled. America may be at the vanguard of this cultural shift. But there is no doubt. These are indeed the “perilous times” to which Paul was referring .
The surprise is the world’s surprise
The surprise is the world’s surprise. How would they react if they knew the end of the world, as they know it, truly is at hand? No one ever said we’d stop the China virus—the goal was to flatten the curve and bring the growth of the pandemic into a place where we could deal with it better. That was executed beautifully.
Now the media has everyone whipped into a froth. Come on, people, life’s a terminal condition. We all die, unless we’re caught up in the rapture. The point of all of this is to take a look at ourselves, repent of what we are doing wrong, and get our live together. Because—the end of the church age is truly upon us. At this point, the only surprise might be that it takes a decade or two before we get pulled out of here. I’m thinking months, not decades.
The surprise is the world’s surprise—for we’ve known this was imminent since 1948
Though no one knows the day or the hour, the season of the end began in the late 1800s. It took a spectacular step forward with the Balfour Declaration. But when the dry bones gathered together beginning in 1948, reforming into Israel [Ezekiel 37], it became obvious that the church age is drawing to a close.
Jesus told us that it would be like a pregnancy. When the time for the birth drew near, the labor pains would become overwhelming. The world is facing a terrible time of judgement. I was watching a YouTube video of Sodom and Gomorrah yesterday. They’ve discovered the remains. It is just large areas of compressed ash, speckled with balls of brimstone [or sulfur]. The brimstone balls are unique in the world, being almost pure sulfur that can be lit with a match. The building shapes are made of calcium sulfate, which would be the remains of limestone buildings consumed in a fire of sulfur. It was not volcanic. It was a massive hailstorm of brimstone balls. I imagine things were set on fire by lightning—though they didn’t mention that.
Sodom and Gomorrah was quick, a mercy we won’t see in the 7-year tribulation
The evil of those days is almost unimaginable—unless you read the news today. America is reaching that level of cultural and systemic sin, again. Look at the words of Paul in Timothy:
Know this: In the last days perilous times will come. 2 Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 without natural affection, trucebreakers, slanderers, unrestrained, fierce, despisers of those who are good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness, but denying its power. Turn away from such people. II Timothy 3: 1-5 MEV
Yes, in verse two, the word “men” is anthrōpos, Greek for mankind. Remember, God created Adam in His own image, male and female He created him. All the newly invented genders are part of mankind. In Sodom and Gomorrah, God was merciful and took them out virtually in an instant. Our post-modern culture makes them look like amateurs. The Father is fed up. It won’t be pretty.
But you can escape the coming wrath
All you need to do is believe and allow the Lord to bring you into His Kingdom. The choice is stark. Is is so simple that anyone can do it. If you do not know Jesus personally, you need to take care of that—today!
Identify works of Satan before warfare begins
Identify works of Satan before the warfare begins. Simply lashing out can cause issues. We don’t want to hurt the people involved in the problem. Trying to force a deliverance on a person with mental damage can cause even more damage. You are building a case, seeking insight from the Lord about how to proceed. The warfare is against any evil spirits involved. You are not fighting people. You are seeking to bring healing and wholeness to the person involved.
Identify works of Satan before warfare begins if at all possible
It’s a simple, easy process for the spirit-filled born-again believer. If you are not, you are asking for trouble. This is not a game, or entertainment. You will not understand these things until you have been born of God. If this hasn’t happened yet in your life, you need to take care of that first. Your choice is simple. Meet Jesus now!
If you have not received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, seek it. You may need to apologize to the person you want to pray for. Tell them you need to pray about some things, seeking guidance. Don’t be embarrassed. You’re showing true wisdom.
Jesus is the Baptizer in the Holy Spirit. Simply ask Him to do it in you, or find a spirit-filled person to lay hands on you and pray for the baptism. Jesus loves to give his people gifts. Remember, John the Baptist told us that Jesus was coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit and Fire. (Luke 3:16) You need spiritual power to fight spiritual enemies. It’s part of our resources as a new creation. But you have to ask Him for it.
Signs you’re dealing with the enemy
We’re looking for fruit. Jesus told us in Matthew 7: 17-18, “…every good tree bears good fruit. But a corrupt tree bears evil fruit. A good tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a corrupt tree bear good fruit.” So, the question become, What is enemy fruit? Many of these things are surprisingly obvious, once you are looking.
- Strong irrational fear is a clear indicator. If a person is terrified for no reason, suspect enemy spirits. If they have no idea what they are afraid of, this gives you a strong clue. If the fear seems to be coming from outside them, you have another one.
- Incapacitating confusion is another. If the person has trouble communicating due to confusion, you have another clue.
- Overwhelming lusts of the flesh can be another. Continual thoughts and desires about sex, violence, murder can incapacitate some with the enemy spirits triggering seemingly spontaneous actions.
- Compulsive urgency to act now is another. The enemy often pushes for immediate action, without thought, just do it! These spirits want to get a person to do something he or she would not normally do using panic to push that person into instant action.
- Speaking with the voice of another can give you more direct knowledge of actual possession. When it happens, it is obvious.
- Self-destructive behavior is a common fruit of enemy activity. This can be seen in an insistent urge to suicide, cutting the flesh, taking insane risks, feelings of invincibility, intentional attempts to overdose.
- Uncontrollable rage maybe the enabling act to give a foul spirit access within a person’s mind—resulting in possession.
- Blind hatred of believers can be, especially if the person involved reacts to someone they do not know is a believer.
- Works of evil spiritual power can only be done with evil spiritual help. Curses, amulets, spells, hexes, charms, voodoo, and many more variations require the power of evil spirits.
If an enemy spirit is involved, it becomes clear fairly quickly.
Getting the job done, start praying
Ask the person involved if they want Jesus to set them free. Get their permission to pray. Then pray for protection for the people in the group, their families, pets, and so on. The Lord will do that, if you ask.
You should start praying in tongues. This infuriates the evil spirits causing more manifestations. Bind it and stop the manifestations. You don’t have to put up with that. You will be enabled to pray through the Holy Spirit and get direct help and counsel about what is really happening. While you’re praying, be listening for words of knowledge and wisdom from the same Holy Spirit. He will show you what to do. Don’t talk with the evil spirit, it’s a compulsive liar and worse.
Once the Lord has shown you what is going on, and what you are to do about it, simply be obedient. Follow His instructions. It doesn’t take emotion, volume, or strain. Simple prayers, like, “You foul spirit who is causing this manifestation, or this problem (be specific), I take authority over you in the name of Jesus and tell you to go.” Tell it where to go (I usually say to the outer darkness) so it doesn’t cause problems with other people, children, or pets in the place where you are. You can proceed in absolute faith, knowing that this type of prayer always works. Jesus has absolute authority over the situation, and you are in Him.
When you’re done, lead the person who has been set free into a saving knowledge of Jesus—if they don’t know Him. You need to get him or her filled with the Holy Spirit to fill any void left by a departing spirit. If they will not do it, warn them of their danger. Tell them to call upon Jesus when the trouble comes back. For it almost certainly will. If they’re reborn, the problem has been solved and they are free of the evil spirit.