New Design For Some Old Friends

"The role of the logo is to point, to designate-in as simple a manner as possible. A design that is complex, like a fussy illustration or an arcane abstraction, harbors a self-destruct mechanism. Simple ideas, as well as simple designs are, ironically, the products of circuitous mental purposes. Simplicity is difficult to achieve, yet worth the effort." - Paul Rand

When my friend Nathan Hopping, the new campus pastor for the Wesley Foundation at Western Illinois University, approached me about designing a logo, I knew right away I was going to have the opportunity to do something really cool. Nate is an artist himself, and for that matter, so is his wife Meredith (one of my good friends from high school). And working with artists is always extra challenging because of the increased expectations yet also freeing because they understand what good design really is. So this was one of my three (and the chosen) renditions of their logo. And as you can see, simplicity is king. Ironically though, this was the logo that I spent the most time on perfecting AND was one that I designed initially, threw away for a few days and them came back to right before I sent them to Nate. I guess you could say it "grew" on me... heh, heh, heh. OK, but hear me out on the symbolism within the logo:

 

• The Tree 
  
• The roots below ground provide the foundation for the growth that happens above ground.
• The leaves represent this growth and also abstractly illustrate the Trinity.
• Even though Nate demanded no "cheesy cross" (which I totally agreed with) I subtly put one in. Take another look and you'll see the cross in the negative space between the leaves. The cross is still in the center of it all, even if you don't notice.

In addition to those, Nate mentioned that they were doing "Wesley Says Grow" t-shirts with a picture of John Wesley sporting a fantastic stache (I'll post a picture if I can get one) so the tree lightheartedly fit in with those, too. You may see some other colors in the logo soon, too, because we'll be changing them to match the liturgical seasons of the Church. Stay tuned, or...

If you have time, I definitely recommend checking out the Wesley Foundation's new website, too. 

www.wiuwesley.com