Alabaster Co

Reveling in the Beauty of the Word

Written by Sofia Eneqvist and Photos Courtesy of Alabaster Co

What if we design the Bible beautifully?” This question sparked the beginning of a company dedicated to exploring the intersection of creativity, beauty and faith.

Alabaster Co, founded in Los Angeles, launched as a Kickstarter in 2016. Co-founders Bryan Ye-Chung and Brian Chung wanted the Bible to be a beautiful reading experience. Since its launch, Alabaster Co has sold more than $800,000 worth of products and built a strong social media presence focused on promoting products to a community of creatives.

Brian Chung, co-founder of Alabaster Co, said the inspiration for the company came from a book called “Real Life” by James Choung, which discusses how each generation asks a spiritual question.

“The question Gen Z is going to be asking is, ‘What is beautiful?’,” Chung says. “We felt like what would that look like to apply that in a faith-based context. What would it look like to apply that in art, beauty and faith? We wanted to show that as Christians, we can create a beautiful reading experience. Early on, the church used to be the center of art of beauty, and somewhere along the line that was sort of lost. We wanted to bring art and beauty back to the center again.”

Alabaster Co specializes in creating beautifully designed books of the Bible. As of 2020, the company has released 11 books including, Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Isaiah, Romans and Revelations. The product site also features five books focused on creativity, beauty and faith, as well as, prints, encouragement pairings for the books and paper notebooks.

“What is beautiful?” has been a driving force in the company’s design process since the beginning. Chung said their design process begins with an in-depth study of the Scripture.

“We printed out pages and pages and pages of the Bible, we put it up on the hallway walls and we look at Scripture as a whole and thought what are the connecting points, what are the themes, what are some images that we want to show to highlight the themes,” Chung says.

The images used are unique to the themes and Scripture relevant in each book. Chung said the design process includes taking a variety of images and deciding which best represents the themes.

“We try to have a variety of images and want to show the diversity of the world through our photography through places and people represented,” Chung says. “Afterwards, the harder part is trying to fit all these ideas and thoughts into a layout that makes sense.” ➤

Left: Brian Chung, co-founder of Alabaster Co., makes notes on spreads that will go into a future book.

Above: Bryan Ye-Chung (left) and Brian Chung (right), co-founders of Alabaster Company, pose with Alabaster’s versions of Matthew and Psalms, covering the two corresponding books of the Bible.

“For us, we didn’t just want to pair landscape photos with Scripture. We really wanted them to deepen their experience with God. 'How can this picture deepen the themes of Scripture?' sometimes is obvious and sometimes it doesn’t make sense, but I think what we really love about art is it causes us to ask more questions.”

Kaitlyn Merced, senior graphic design major, said she loves the unique experience Alabaster Co creates through its Bibles which can help bring customers closer to God.

“God himself is creative, and I think it’s incredible to think that he has given us that characteristic to share with him,” Merced says. “So, in that way, any art we as humans make will always point back to him. I think it’s so special that Alabaster has found a way to combine that so people can experience reading Scripture in a new way.”

Chung said throughout the process of growing Alabaster Co he has become ok with not having all the answers. Understanding God’s desire for his creation to ask questions and connect with him has changed Chung’s experience with Christianity.

David Ardill, junior photography major, shared a similar sentiment on how he connects God to the world of art.

“When it comes to the Bible and Christianity, art goes hand in hand,” Ardill says. “God is an artist and I believe he created us as creative people as well. We all learn and experience the world in different ways and if we can use the gifts we are given to enhance and expand our relationship with God, I’m all for it.”

Alabaster Co’s Instagram @alabaster_co, which has 100 thousand followers, is just one of the successful platforms used to promote its brand. The company also uses Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Alabaster Co’s blog to reach its community. Each platform serves as a different purpose in furthering the Alabaster Co’s vision to explore creativity, beauty and faith.

Throughout the journey of creating such a large social media presence, Alabaster Co has partnered with many organizations in hopes of giving back. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company partnered with Feeding America to provide students with lunches and seniors with groceries. Alabaster Co was able to donate 10,000 meals in the process.

Alabaster Co has been featured by news media outlets such as The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Fox News, Vanity Fair, Forbes, The New Yorker, Business Insider, GQ and many more. Their media connections have helped contribute to awareness on projects with Hillsong, Fujimura, BibleProject and InterVarsity Press. Through its partnerships, Alabaster Co hopes to continue answering the question of “what is beautiful?”

Alabaster Co’s goal within its brand is to encourage creatives through their products to start conversations. Chung said the beauty of art and the beauty of Alabaster Co’s Bibles is the approachability they bring to taboo subjects like religion. Many of the customers in their growing audience have been people who are not religious. The goal of drawing in this target market is to break down stereotypes about the Bible and show the beauty of Christianity.

“Human’s ability to create is also a reflection of our creator,” Chung says. “By creating art, it is a way that we love God, worship God, sometimes when we create art it can be self-serving. The question we have been asking, how can you use art and design to love your neighbor. And in all different forms of art, there is the ability to think through how I can use my craft to love my neighbor or inspire others to love their neighbor.”

The vision of Alabaster Co, Chung says, is to see humanity experience that God is good and beautiful as they continue to create content and products that explore the answer to “what is beautiful?” ◆

Above: Photos from Alabaster Co’s version of Psalms help tell the story of the book of Psalms from the Bible.