A growing number of religious organizations are turning to branding to create awareness to the community amid so many distractions these days hampering our worship to God. In the words of Richard Reising, president of Artistry Marketing Concepts:

There’s not a church in the world that doesn’t market itself. Some do it well, some do it badly. But when you don’t do it consistently and effectively, then you say clearly to the community that you don’t know who you are; you’re not professional, and you don’t take time to think about what you are about.

There are several aspects of church branding but here we will focus on developing a Christian logo to differentiate your organization. You can also visit our collection of religious logos as your reference.

Brief

It is enough to create a creative logo design. It must have depth and meaning. Before sketching anything or talking to a logo design company, your first step is to build your identity.

Try to describe your church in terms of the people in your community, dominant culture and other services you might offer like daycare services or some livelihood programs. If you have something special to talk about or a unique selling point then include that in your list. At the end of the day, this will serve as your guideline for developing your logo.

Symbolisms

Christianity is filled with symbols so use that to help create instant recognition to your logo. Very common in Christian logos are the cross, chalice, chi rho, candles, fire, and animals like fish, pelican or lamb.

Colors

The colors blue, red and yellow are very common in Christian logos. It’s better to understand the meaning behind these colors before using it. For instance, yellow signifies light or divinity while purple is for mourning and penitence. You can get more color meanings here.

Colors have a strong impact on our logical or emotional state. For instance, red evokes sexiness or aggressive nature while blue is associated with calmness and loyalty. You might find it hard to believe but colors can even help treat some diseases.

It is no surprise then that finding the right color or color combinations is proven to boost your brands. It helps attract attention and set a mood for your customers. Though a good logo designer can help you choose the right colors, it is also valuable to learn this aspect.

A common mistake committed by many entrepreneurs is using more colors in their logo designs. Each color creates a single message or association. So if you are using 5 colors in your logos or brands, it will deliver 5 different messages. Unfortunately, consumers cannot handle that much perception.

The first thing you should consider in finding the appropriate color is your competitors. It is not wise to copy the color scheme of the leading brands for it will create an impression that you’re just a second-rate version.

Also, pay attention to the demographics of your market such as gender, age and culture. A trendy neon green might appeal to youngsters but painful to look at for your average grandmas and grandpas. In a way, it sets the limitation of the color you can use.

For more information about this topic, I suggest you pay a visit to Inspiration Bit for it offers a comprehensive discussion of the dos and don’ts of colors.

Disclaimer: The image is for reference only. Hence, copyright belongs to the respective owners. If you are the owner and wish to have the image removed from this post, please send an e-mail to remove-logo@logodesignworks.com.

Can’t think of creative and effective ad or slogan to go with your impressive logo design? Burnout happens even to very creative individuals. Also, not all entrepreneurs have the much needed creativity or enough resources to commission a branding agency.

In case you badly needed an ad or a memorable slogan, you can visit The Ad Generator by Alexis Lloyd. It is a free mashup tool which manipulates languages and images to create fake advertisements every 15 to 30 seconds. Here are some of their samples.

Here’s the explanation of his process:

Words and semantic structures from real corporate slogans are remixed and randomized to generate invented slogans. These slogans are then paired with related images from Flickr, thereby generating fake advertisements on the fly. By remixing corporate slogans, I intend to show how the language of advertising is both deeply meaningful, in that it represents real cultural values and desires, and yet utterly meaningless in that these ideas have no relationship to the products being sold.

While some of the generated ads are really meaningless, visiting this site can guide you to the right direction or help spark the creativity within you. If you’re lucky, you might find the ideal slogan or ads for your small business here.

There are different factors to consider if you want to create a really fantastic mascot design or animation character. We need to find the right color combination or exaggerate the key features of our character designs, among other things.

Meowza of Aviary Business blog has emphasized the importance of silhouette. Yes, the simple shadow that many designers take for granted is the key to a good design. If most people can recognize a character just by looking at its shadow or outline then it is good enough. Just look at the famous characters below. You don’t need to see its details to identify them.

That’s why a designer should pay more attention in creating a solid and very recognizable foundation before indulging in flashy details.

Human beings are extremely lazy creatures when it comes to visual association. We have difficulty consciously remembering details and ultimately recollect most of our visuals through basic shapes.

This is a classic advice that you can also find from the book “Illusion of Life” published in 1981 by Disney pioneers as a guide to character animation. Ironically, some designers forget this simple yet very effective method because of the advances in animation.

If you make a living from creative ideas like a good logo designer or painter, you ought to read the free e-book published by a London-based creativity coach Mark McGuinness entitled Time Management for Creative People (pdf).

Subtitled ‘Manage the Mundane - Create the Extraordinary’, this free 32-page book provides practical tips to help you maintain your creative focus while handling other business or personal commitments.

Undeniably there are numerous Websites tackling about time management but most of them are created for the consumption of the general public. Creative people, on the other hand, think differently. For instance, McGuinness pointed out most creative thinkers view organization, habit, and discipline as threats to creativity and not as good qualities to strive for.

Creativity is all about thinking outside the box and breaking the stereotypes. One of my favorite tips is to ring-fence your most creative time by asking the following questions:

When is your most creative time, when you are most alert and find it easy to focus?

If you could arrange your ideal schedule, what time would you ring-fence for focused creative work?

How close to your ideal schedule can you get within the constraints of your current situation?

Do you have a special place for creative work?

What physical triggers (such as pens, paper, computer hardware or software), rituals or routines do you use to get yourself in the right state of mind?

The e-book is under Creative Commons License, meaning you can share this on a noncommercial basis with any people you believe would benefit from these insights. Just keep the name of the author intact.

Via Creative Generalist