Logo Mania!!!

This week has been all about Logos for me! I've been trying desperately to design a logo for my church. I had a vision in my head of what I THOUGHT I wanted... and when I brought that vision to "life" on my screen... I didn't like it...

I liked the story behind it more than I liked the actual image itself. One thing to keep in mind when you are designing your logos... If you have to explain the logo and what it means/ represents... then it isn't designed well... For this logo, I would definitely have to explain to an "outsider" or someone who doesn't go to our church, that the rose represents the ROSE in Rosemark, the half heart represents our desire to seek after God's heart, and the flames represent the fire of the Holy Ghost the Bible talks about (the elements together also make an R)... see... great story... poor design.

One thing that I did that helped me temendously, was I showed my designs (all 7 of them) to a friend that has never been to our church, does not go to a Pentecostal church, and knows very little about our church. It is VITAL to have an "outsider's" point of view when you are designing ANYTHING, logos, flyers, postcards or whatever you are desiging (including web pages!). My second attempt fared slightly better, but still not what I wanted... It felt more like a piece of clipart than a logo to me... numbers 3 and 4 weren't quite what I wanted either

Attempt #2

Attempt #3 just looked a little too busy and hectic and still needed the explination.

I like #4, but it was just missing SOMETHING... (other than the half of the cross that was hidden behind the rose :-)

Finally after about 8 different designs... I came up with the one that appears to be the winner. My Pastor loves it, my "outsiders" love it and I am happy with it. Here's what we came up with...

Here we have the new Rosemark Pentecostal Church Logo (at least for the time being :-)

In one of my recent college courses, we studied logo design and one of the major points the instructor stressed it KISS... Keep It Simple Students (she said Keep It Simple Stupid but I don't like that one :) Logos should not be so complex that they don't print well or that customers have to spend a long time looking at them to figure out what they are. Logos should also be recognizable. When people look at your logo, they should understand the concept and how the logo ties to your business, or church.

Well I think that's enough information for one post. I'll try to make them shorter in the future... I'm just SO excited about all God is doing and I have so much I want to tell you all! Please don't hesitate to send me an email or leave a comment if you need more/ less information or if there's a subject you would like to know more about!

Steph