churchrelevance.com

Designer Mark Bixby shares a list of things you should know about your logo. Here is how seven of them apply to your church:

1. Your logo is not your brand. Don’t expect it to be.
2. If you are unable to articulate why someone should choose your church over another Sunday activity, a well designed logo is not going to fix that problem.
3. Your logo is also not your value proposition. Don’t expect it to be. “How will people perceive us as reaching the world, if it doesn’t say we are in our logo?” They will know you are reaching the world, when you actually are reaching the world. Chances are also good, they won’t care.
4. The pastor of a church should remove themselves from the design process. Find a designer you trust, and resist the urge to “play designer” yourself. You will get a better logo in the end. It will be based on the attributes of your church and not your personal preferences and tastes (your personal taste simply doesn’t matter to your congregation).
5. You will never “know it when you see it”.
6. Your congregation does not care about your logo. It’s hard to believe, but making your logo bigger will not make it more memorable, it will just make your message less memorable.
7. How you use your logo is more important than its design. Develop an identity plan before putting your logo on anything.

Keep in mind that your logo is important, but there are also many things that are more important. A great logo is useless if you can’t take care of what’s more important.