This logo was created by Savage Design here in Houston. This particular logo was optimized for our website but was never used because the words Evangelical and Church are virtually unreadable. All graphics on the web are displayed at 72 dpi, which is not very sharp compared with most laser printers capable of 600 dpi and magazine quality at 1200 dpi.
This logo was also created to create momentum for us to be called Christ Presbyterian and so we would use the abbreviation CP, instead of CEPC.This is a logo, but I don't think it is a good one and the majority of people I've talked to agree with my opinion. The scrolling script like font gives a more traditional feel that in my opinion does not accurately reflect who we are. I'd really like to see the Creative Brief that was used as a design guide for this logo or anything that has Savage Designs intentions with this logo.
Also, the logo does not scale well at all. This font simply does not work on a 72 dpi website. The logo would have to be uncomfortably large to be legible, taking away space from the rest of the site. Best practices would have the logo in the top left of each web page with the navigation positioned around it. This is not possible with this logo and still make it legible. The logo also doesn't scale well on business cards, letterhead or envelopes.
I do understand the concept behind de-emphasizing the words Evangelical and Church, so that we can emphasize Christ Presbyterian as a sub-brand name. However, we are widely know in our community as CEPC and most members refer to our church as CEPC. On the flip side, I rarely hear anyone mention our church as Christ Presbyterian as Savage Design was aiming to do. Not that it is all their fault, because I don't believe it is. They recommended that we push the CP bug logo and recommended that the church leadership take the initiative to change the culture. This did not happen and that's another reason it didn't happen. But the fact is, they were trying to force something against what was happening organically. In my opinion, the CEPC acronym is now firmly entrenched in who we are and our community. For all these reasons, I think this logo must go.
2 comments:
Mark, I understand what you've outlined here. I agree it is very difficult to change people's perspectives on what they associate with our church. Here we should probably include John's perspective on the future, although again I don't know if we can stem the tide on CEPC.
Thanks for all your work.
It has always seemed to me that what people do personally and informally to refer to the people and places with which they associate (like "cepc", McD's Micky D's, BK, Big Blue, etc.) are one thing. How those organizations and institutions seek to identify themselves may be something entirely different. In my opinion it is organizational hubris of incredible magnitude for us to think that anyone outside our "club" is going to have any idea what is meant by CEPC. For that reason CEPC was banned in all official communications when the session approved the current logo protocols several years ago.
Regarding the scriptographic nature of the current print logo, it should be born in mind that we were not operating in a vacuum. We had a logo: a scriptographic "Christ". I am sure that we can get Mark a sample if he needs it. The consensus of the 2002? logo committee was to update, strengthen, etc. the look of the old logo.
Finally, the 2002? logo committee was working under the delusion that our work would be reflected in the design of signage. Such proved not to be the case obviously. As a result of subsequent work by Janet Van Dyke Walden's team for Christmas promotions we now have a situation where we have two logos: one official and the other unofficial. One approved by the session and the other an adaptation of the current signage. I am for one unified logo for the organization known as Christ Evangelical Presbyterian Church. By usage and recognition that is now de facto, the current signage. Therefore I would recommend an adaptation of that signage to our print media and website and an official session recommendation to drop the current logo altogether.
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