Church branding first draft

We first shared the progress of the church project last month (catch up here) when we were delving into first ideas, having nailed down the mood board and colour psychology. Since then, we have pulled together the first draft of the branding, which we are excited to share with you here.

The logo needed to be a careful balance between old and new, and it needed to be as confident and future facing as the project itself. We didn't want to lose the heritage of the building, and the fact that it will always be a church, but the re-ordering is about making this more about community than religion. This is an ambitious project, with all eyes firmly on the future - both in the sense of the use of the building, but also in terms of who will be keeping it standing for years to come, which are primarily the young families within the village.

The both abstract and subtle hint of the heritage, with the clean modern font and optimistic use of colour make this a distinctive and confident first draft of the logo. From here, we are already having ideas about trying out texture and even pattern.

 

This ambitious and warm palette was lead by the Autumn character of this brand, and inspired by the colours of the church year. While the strong red evokes determination, passion and reassurance, the blue both soothes and calms, bringing a sense of reflection and communication. The green is all about the restorative, abundant and self-sufficient nature of the project, while the yellow instills optimism, confidence, and emotional strength, which is vital for a community space. The pop of gold - which would be used in the hot foiling process for printed material - brings that wise, compassionate and giving vibe, which is in beautiful contrast to the rich purple, and it's visionary, truthful and spiritual traits. This strong palette is balanced by the neutrals of the browns, and their stable, reliable, honest attributes. The fonts are a mix of modern serifs, which give that traditional feel, and a contrasting hand written accent, which is approachable and warm.

  

Inspired by the existing architecture of the church building, and influenced by the Autumn personality, the surface patterns and brand elements are a mix of intricate pattern, slightly wobbly illustration, interesting image treatment and natural texture. We are excited to see how these surface patterns might engage more with the brand elements.

 

 

Rolled out over potential printed material, we can see how the whole brand works together. It will be great to see how the branding develops from here, and how it will work with any material that is decided upon. We will continue to share these developments with you as we go along.


Note: The images used in the printed material are placeholders, and not our own images. Sources unknown.

Your brand character and you

In our last two posts we asked Which seasonal personality is your brand? and we discussed Colour psychology for your business. Here, we move on to talk about how your brand character and your own, are two separate things, and how to distinguish between them.

Someone with a personal character that is organised, calm and aspirational, might own a business creating work that is highly creative, expressive and bright. So for example, to use brand colours that were calm, muted and clean, to express that 'summer' personality would not at all reflect their work, which would be much more about a light, bright palette, in that 'spring' vibe.

I think that the key thing here, is to remember that your brand first and foremost needs to communicate the personality of the product or the service that you offer. That's not to say that your values as a person aren't important to your brand however - I think that they are - it's that old saying that 'people buy from people', and I think that it adds a vital and unique quality to a business. But we don't want to put too much of that across - strip back and strip back some more, and stay on-point, or else you'll confuse selling your product / service with selling yourself.

Visually, your brand should be one definite season, with perhaps undertones of another if appropriate. For example, a high-end creative whose work is exciting and bright, would be mainly a spring personality, with an edge of winter, to really get across their expertise. This edge of winter wouldn't have to be communicated with colour, but with font, texture, illustration style or surface pattern that represents that season - all of which make up a well styled brand.

Non-visually, your brand needs to carry that personality through your processes, communication and multi-channel marketing, and this is where your values can seem to overlap your brand character. A spring personality for instance is open, inclusive and reliable - your own personality may resonate with these values and characteristics or may not, but either way, to keep your branding strong and consistent you will have to be sure to communicate these characteristics through your processes.

Photo sources - craft tags Eat Drink Chic, desk space Polagram.