Thoughts behind our Capital Campaign logo design ~ ~ ~
by Steve Hatch
I researched our United Methodist logo that was created in 1971 and discovered it was used to merge the Methodist Church with the Evangelical United Brethren Church (thank you Wikipedia). I then used this as a starting point because I like the element of the flame but wanted to modernize it and to see where it went. I started by adding soft curves and additional objects to the right of the image to make it more fluid and all of a sudden it transformed into an abstract flower (or also fire with logs underneath, from my 4 year old daughter Emma’s perspective). I continued to morph the image. So now there are a couple elements that I find significant to the slogan.
Although cliché, the organic flower element symbolizes growth. This can be associated with launching our future. The modernized look also contributes to this idea of moving forward. I also consciously designed a pathway in the negative space up the middle that I also associate with living and growing.
The faith symbolism was trickier without adding a cross but you can see a simplified version of the Methodist flame in the left half of the design. Since faith and future are larger than the rest in the text in the logo, I feel that this symbolism can be more subtle.