Every time you flip through the pages of a magazine, or click around on a webpage, you're looking at the work of a designer. At Christianity Today we have eleven designers on staff to pull together the visual elements of the publications you read, both in print on and the web. As Art Director of the Discipleship group, Mary Bellus plays a key role in producing Today's Christian Woman, SmallGroups.com, and more. See some of her more recent designs below, and to learn more about the wonderful Mary Bellus.

An advertisement and eblast Mary recently created for SmallGroups.com

How long have you been at Christianity Today and what publications have you worked on?

I've been at Christianity Today since January 2007. I started as the Art Director for what was then the Resources group. My design agency background was perfect for the large variety of products we produced in that group. I had an extensive background in book publishing and that came in handy for all of the books that we published. At that time I was working on projects for what is now the Church Management group and the Leadership group, designing print and online marketing, downloadable resources, logos, and more. I designed for Kyria (which is now Today's Christian Woman). Designing that digital magazine was something totally new to me, and it was exciting to learn a new format. I also continued to work on a wide variety of projects, both marketing and editorial.

A sample of the inspirational verse images Mary creates weekly for Today's Christian Woman.

What do you do now?

Right now I'm the Art Director for the Discipleship team (in the Leadership Media group). I work on editorial and marketing design for SmallGroups.com, ChristianBibleStudies.com, Today's Christian Woman, and marketing design for PreachingToday.com. I've also been designing some inspirational quotes and verse images for Today's Christian Woman that we post on Pinterest and Facebook. I manage the design routing processes and make sure projects are moving along smoothly.

The July/August 2013 cover for Today's Christian Woman's first iPad issue.

What types of projects are most rewarding for you?

The projects I get the most out of are the ones where I'm designing something totally new or creating a fresh design for something, where there are no constraints and I can be free to come up with something totally new. I like to be stretched to learn something new. Recently we published our first iPad app for Today's Christian Woman (July/Aug issue), so it was really exciting and rewarding (and challenging!) to learn how to design for the iPad format, create interactive elements, and see the app in action. I've also been working on some ebook design and formatting.

This year I'm celebrating 25 years in the design workforce and it's really cool to look back at where I've come from (book cover/interior print design) and see where I'm at now (mainly online marketing and editorial for tablets and devices, with the occasional print project). I'm curious to see what I'll be designing next.

Outside of work I stay busy on creative projects: drawing, painting, and some writing projects. I also love to antique and flea market with my husband Dan—recently we were on the hunt for a retro record player, which we found. We played some old Rolling Stones albums and danced around the living room.