The logo, a starting point for everything you produce. The logo defines the brand, it defines the look, and in the audiences eye it defines who you are as an organization. The point is the logo is a HUGE deal. It is the one thing that should be on everything you produce; so this is one area that you do not want to cut corners or try and save a few bucks on. Invest time, effort and resources in coming up with a great logo that will work with your present and future plans. Because it is such a big deal I want to give you a few things to consider when deciding on a logo.

Fits Branding Personality

Who are you as a church or organization? If you were to define your company what would you call it? Your company is “this”. From those defining words flows what direction you should take on your branding/identity and everything else you do or produce. The logo says a lot about the style, personality, service, professionalism and likeability of a company to those who are just discovering who you are. Think about what your church or organization says, and whether or not the logo reflects that.

How is it going to be used?

It is surprising to see how many people bypass this question. By knowing what media types you will use in the future you can cross off certain designs that are expensive, difficult, or impossible to replicate within the media fields the logo will be used in. For instance, channel letter signs or backlit signs have limitations as to what you can and cannot do. Like having shading or a bunch of scattered fragments can be either impossible or extremely expensive to replicate for that kind of sign. If you are only using internet, print media, and screen media, there really are not a lot of limitations, you can use what ever you want with little to no complications. Video would be included on that list but it would be wise to consider whether or not the logo would look good as a 3D element or not, seeing 3D is really taking over right now.

Is it memorable?

Will people remember your company by the logo or is it so generic that people might not recognize it as you? Remember that generic screams template or stock media and tends to fall flat when it comes to standing out and making an impression. Getting a customized look and logo really is what sets one corporation apart from the other. So again put time, thought, and resources into the logo design.

Colors are hard to let down

When using a logo with colors remember that it will be hard to change company colors after the branding is established. To prove my point, think of best buys branding. That bold and bright blue and yellow…now imagine it being red and orange. Totally throws you off right? Colors can be a good thing, one church local to Kansas City uses orange as their church colors, and people now identify them “orange army” so it can help establish a branding. However, remember that if you go with a color you will probably be stuck with it, and it does limit your design branding to a color palate for the most part.

Versatility

How versatile is the logo? Can the colors be easily changed out for seasonal events? Is your logo easily adaptable to different styles? Lets say that you have a new fall sermon series for and you are wanting to use fall colors and a hand written sketched look for all the print and screen media used for the series. If the logo cannot adapt to the hand written fall look, you have to think of a different look that fits your limited logo design. Is it readable and recognizable in small sizes? Chances are that you will have some sort of ad that is limited to a small size. If you cannot read it in smaller sizes the ad does you no good, or you have to choose an ad that is larger and more expensive. Can you expand the logo to fill a billboard? Make sure your logo is designed in a path-based program like Adobe Illustrator. You should be given an ai or eps file NOT just a jpg, psd, png, or gif. Reason being, if the logo is designed in a pixel based file then you cannot make the file any bigger without the loss of quality. Path-based files mean you can expand the logo as big as you want with absolutely no loss of detail or quality.

Best of luck,

_rec

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It is my, Steven Records, desire to see the American Church be all that it can be... healthy, faithful, and growing. So this free resource is made available to help churches and ministry's grow through practical ideas and strategies. Please, watch this vision video to know what I am all about and how you can support the vision to create thriving churches and reach the lost.

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