BIO.graphy
Tommy Kyllonen, also known as Urban D. (Disciple) to his music fans, founded the youth ministry at Tampa, Fla.-based Crossover Church in 1996. Starting with just four teens, he and his wife developed a first-of-its-kind Hip-Hop Youth Ministry which over the span of six years grew to 200, far outpacing attendance in the main Sunday worship. In January 2002, Tommy became the lead pastor at Crossover and a new vision was birthed specifically to reach those influenced by Hip-Hop Culture.

Crossover Church became Purpose-Driven in their structure and began to truly engage the culture in their community. Tommy and his team carefully incorporated music, dance, visual arts, media and relevant messages into the worship context and campus without compromising the truth of God's word. The ministry has seen incredible growth as they soon maxed out their former campus doing 3 Sunday services. In January 2010 they sold their former campus and became a portable church meeting at a hotel for 9 months as they continued to grow. In October 2010 they moved into their new 43,000 square foot facility (A former Toys R Us Store) in the inner-city of Tampa. The church has now grown to over 1,000 people. Their Thursday night teen service reaches hundreds more as the new church campus has become a haven for the community youth.

Tommy also pioneered an annual Urban Leadership Conference called Fla.vor Fest. Over the past 10 years the event has attracted thousands of pastors, youth pastors, lay leaders and artists from around the world to the musical festival and conference to fellowship, network and get equipped to better reach this culture. Urban D., has recorded seven solo Hip-Hop albums since 1996 and has traveled across the U.S., Germany, Japan, Africa and England performing and speaking. His latest project "Un.heard" is now available at his website and at itunes and all other digital outlets.His 2007 project covers print, music and film with "Un.orthodox - church.hip-hop.culture" as a book published by Zondervan and a CD/DVD distributed through EMI. The book serves as a great resource for church leaders, parents, and hip-hop fans that want to better learn to engage the culture. The CD features innovative Christ-centered hip-hop and the DVD is a full-length documentary on Crossover's un.orthodox story along with Urban D.'s Un.orthodox music video.

In addition to his role as pastor and artist, Tommy's perspective as a Christian leader and pioneer in reaching the Hip-Hop culture has led him to be a featured speaker at more than 50 church leadership, youth and worship conferences and workshops. As a writer he continues to reach the culture through print as he is the publisher of "S.O.U.LMAG" Magazine. Now in it's 17th issue the magazine has become the voice of the Christian Hip-Hop Community in print. Tommy regularly writes for The American Bible Society (Elementz of Life) and several websites. His new book "Next" for urban new believers was recently independently released. Tommy and his wife Lucy and two daughters call Tampa, Florida their home.

BIO.graphy
Edward Bayonet aka Spec is no stranger to the hip-hop culture. His influences are very close to home. His uncle was an official b-boy of the early 80’s crew “Rock the House”. Numerous cousins around New York were known for their artistic graffiti style. Growing up in a single parent household, Spec was pushed to fend for himself on many occasions through out his life. Always looking out for himself instead of the well being of others.

Living in two of the most extreme cities in the US; New York & Las Vegas‚ Spec was accustomed to a lifestyle that most watch on the news or now on reality shows. Outside of the reality of casino and big city life, Spec was always searching for another way. He tested the routes that the world had to offer: guns, drugs, girls, crime, etc. He soon found his way when he began to draw and design. Shortly after his final move to Tampa, FL, Spec continued his pursuit in the design field. He earned a high school diploma with a trade in Commercial Arts and then went on to attain a double AA degree in Graphic Design and Advertising in Tampa, FL.

During Spec’s first few months of college (1998), a friend invited him out to a local hip-hop concert in the Bay area. Once finding out the details of the event, the word, “Christian” Hip-Hop came into play. Out of respect for his friend, he attended the concert with the full intentions on leaving after a few songs and then go on to the local reggae/hip-hop club he frequented. When he got there he soon realized that what he had in mind could not compare to what God had in store for him.

Q & A w/ Spec
1.) What is your job description?
At this moment in time, I have two. I am the creative director for a non profit organization/church called Crossover. As the creative director I oversee and concept all design material (ie: promo flyers, brochures, banners, t-shirts, website, interactive media, etc..) that Crossover produces to promote and enhance their mission/vision.

Secondly, I recently accepted a position at my high school alma mater (Tampa Bay Technical High School) I graduated from there in 1997, then went on to attain two degrees in Graphic Design & Advertising. I went through the commercial art program they offered. Now I am teaching graphic design along side of my teacher/mentor. We teach all grades of high school (9th - 12th). We are solely responsible for creating our own curriculum for every grade level. We range from basic pencil illustrations, shading, color theory, pen/ink, pastels, photography and finally graphic design. Soon we will be implementing video and motion graphic animation.

2.) Where are you currently working?
Crossover Church (www.crossoverchurch.org) & Tampa Bay Technical High School (www.mytbtart.com)

3.) How long have you been in this field of work?
12 years - (the past 8 years professionally)

4.) How many different projects have you done?
Wow, I never really kept count (laughing)... it would be safe to assume that I have done between 800-1,000 projects. Maybe more, I am including: logo design, photography, websites, print & video material and consulting.

5.) Do you enjoy your job? Do you ever get bored of it?
I love what I do. Except when it's 4:00am and the deadline is 9:00am the next morning. :)

I sit as the creative director for a national magazine called "S.O.U.LMAG" (www.thesoulmag.com). It is always great to come up with some new designs and color patterns which I never get tired from. Then of course like any magazine you have the same type of reviews or interviews... and I'm not a journalism major, so my passion is never 100% in the field of reporting the news. But the design side of things I love!

6.) Where do you get your inspiration from?
Anywhere I can. I have the opportunity to travel around the world, so I am always picking up magazines or taking pictures of billboards, structures, people in their culture. Television, music and movies influence so much of our culture today, so that is always going to be a means of inspiration. Lately I have been looking at old ad campaigns from the 60's and 70's to see how they used their color and designs to promote certain products.

7.) Describe a failure and how you dealt with it.
Failure is a strong word to use - I know I fall short of certain goals at times. But I push forward and strive to better myself the next go round.

8.) What have you done in the past year to improve yourself?
I constantly read articles (staying up to date with culture). Podcasts, creating and reading tutorials. I subscribe to an array of design, art and computer magazines. Plus, I learn new things daily.

9.) How did you know you wanted to be a Graphic Designer?
I was an illustrator for years. In 1995 I was introduced to the world of "Adobe" (laughing) - creating and concepting ads was second nature to me. Once I learned the basic fundamentals, everything seemed to fall into place. Plus I was designing and finishing projects at a pretty quick pace. Through the years this skill developed more. Most of my clients know this about me and this does help business.

10.) What type of information do you need from your client before you begin designing?
It will always depend on the job at hand. If it's for business; I ask for name, contact, address, business address etc... concert event - "who, what, when, where, what time". Again, the basics - this will always evolve over the course of the design details.