Project Name: Burress Temple Apostolic
Project Type: Freelance | Non-Profit
Tools Utilized: Adobe CS5 (Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash) | iMac Desktop
We have all taken different leaps of faith in our lives. Therefore did figuratively and literally as well. It was 2011, and I was in my sophomore year of college. A coworker of mine pulled me aside and asked me a question that every designer has heard. He said “Hey, I hear you’re good with logos, drawing, and stuff. Can you design a logo for me?” I replied no problem. He said “Awesome! This is for my church.” This was my first logo for a professional organization. I was excited and nervous at the same time. This would be seen by lots of people, so I had to create something memorable!
My First Logo was Designed by Faith
Time to put all that I have learned to the test. The matrix of information would be my first visit. Therefore the church’s website was a simple, yet functional site. They definitely could stand to benefit from an eye popping logo. After I got a feel for what they were about, the next step was to contact them. Once I spoke to the church director, she requested something modern looking and not a word only logo. Taking the info into account, I ran to the internet and googled terms such as “best church logos, inspirational church logos, and modern logo designs.” Soon, Ideas began to formulate in my head. As the graphite began to make several etchings on the fiber, I took a step back and honed in on the thumbnail with the letter B in it. At this moment, I knew where I wanted to go with the logo.
Building the Foundation
After over a dozen thumbnail sketches later, a pattern of concepts began to materialize around the Letter B. The first one I did was pretty funny to me actually. My hair-brain idea was to use the B in logo of the NFL team the Baltimore Ravens. which by the way is my favorite football team.
Raising the Pillars of My First Logo
Subsequently, I began using combinations of the upper and lower case B, mixing them like your favorite smoothie with crosses and various church symbolisms. Upon scrutinizing over my groundwork, the next lightbulb turned on. I let out a “whoa” like only Keanu Reeves could do. What if I used the lowercase b and merged it with a cross? I would use the stem of the b for the cross, and the appearance of the cross wrapping around the bowl part of the b. While using a thick to thin line weight to look dynamic. I got a strong element of the design crafted, but it still needed something more.
Time to Wing it!
I soon began to recognize the design was solid and grounded…a bit too grounded. After reviewing my research, it needed one other religious symbol. Thinking about the church and a choir singing angelic hymns, I had found my answer. Adding a pair of wings would now let my design take flight in the direction it needed to go!
Narrowing the Path
Even though the design grew wings and took flight, several rough comps needed to be worked out. For this, I would use Adobe’s premiere vector program Illustrator.
Once in the versatile software program, I traced over my preliminary pencil rough sketches of my new logo. Thus allowing me to tweak and perfect the elements to be more congruent shapes. The hardest part now was fitting the church’s long name into the scheme of things. Stacking the name was definitely out of the question, as that was too much info condensed in one area. Taking that into consideration, the text needed to spread its wings and be free. One great solution to the scenario was to wrap the church name above the wings, and place the rest of the wording below. As all the elements and words fell into place, the two final, glaring omissions were font and color choices.
All the Pieces Congregate Together
Finally hitting the home stretch on my first logo. At least picking a font and color scheme was the more simpler aspect of the project. So the first thing that came to mind was a serif based font family. Upon perusing several of these, I landed on one I really liked. Baskerville would be a perfect readable font, and provide the scripture-like feel needed.
Color scheme wasn’t too difficult as their website had a Maroon color. Subsequently, I needed to pick another contrasting hue to compliment it. This materialized as a nice beige color. To ensure the client used the logo in conjunction with other colors, fonts, and elements correctly, I supplied them with a style sheet. Lastly, the big moment of truth to come in presenting the final product to the client! Fingers were crossed and I had hoped for no additional changes/revisions, as this college student still had homework to complete that night.
My First logo was in the Books!
Thankfully, after meeting with the church director, she was ecstatic and very grateful about the logo. Henceforth, Both parties left that day feeling elated. I had done it! My first logo was for all the masses to see! To this day, even over 9 years later, my church logo can still be seen displayed on their website at www.burressapostliclic.com. I am very humbled and blessed for the opportunity that was given to me.
Finally, That’s all folks! Again, thanks for your time and continue to check out more projects on my site!
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