Church branding with an autumn personality

One of our current projects includes branding for a local church, which is undergoing some pretty major re-ordering. It is a unique project, and a very exciting one to be a part of. Here, we share what has gone into the process of developing the branding so far...

After creating an initial mood-board, to visualise the direction of the creative work, we delved into detailed research and colour psychology. The initial mood-board included a selection of colours, fonts, logo inspiration, key wording, pattern and texture ideas.

The key focus for the re-ordering is to create a community space where people feel supported by and connected to each other. The restoration and long-term plan is for the building to be a warm, innovative, sociable and forward-thinking space, evoking a calm, passionate and restorative vibe. With these key attributes in mind, this as a truly Autumn personality with a little touch of Spring.

As we defined in our last post on colour psychology, the Autumn personality is ambitious, unique and passionate. Colours are earthy, bright and warm, with powerful depth and strength. After exploring palette inspiration, we worked up a palette of shades that reflected these strong attributes, while being a little sympathetic to the sociable, and open traits of Spring.

With camera in hand, we set about some detailed photography of the church, to search out possible inspiration for surface pattern / brand icons. There was an abundance of pattern and texture to be found. The nature of the Autumn personality lends itself to the natural textures of the wood and stone, and hand illustration too - all of which we explored. Fonts are strong, chunky and confident, and modern serifs evoke that traditional feel, while hand-rendered fonts support that inclusive, open feel.

Logo ideas flowed from all research and inspiration that we had gathered. It is all about trying everything, and keeping on going, and going some more. Seemingly weak ideas can spark gems, and seeming gems are pushed too far, to inspire new ones, or to give clarification to the original spark. It is a free experience - it has to be limitless, shameless, and relentless in order to find the strong, confident, definite solution that we are seeking.

We will post more about this project in due course, but for now, we hope that this has been a fun insight into our processes for any of you who are unfamiliar, curious or inspired by how the design process works, behind the scenes.