A young church outside of Fort Worth, Texas, Eagles View Church is a small congregation with services and ministries engineered specifically for young families. Much of the new curriculum being developed by EVC encourages these families to get together outside of the usual service times, and help create a tight-knit community. I worked with the associate pastor in charge of this curriculum development, as well as the senior pastor and youth minister, to develop an accompanying brand for the church's bold vision.
The Brief
There were two distinct goals of this project. The first was raising general community awareness in the Saginaw area, and the second was simple visual improvement over the current logo. I aimed to kill two birds (no pun intended) with one stone.
I found many people, when asked what "Eagles View" was, were not aware that it was a church. Although many were not aware that the church existed at all, the current shorthand for the church was simply "Eagle's View," which did not give any indication that the church was, in fact, a church.
This anonymity issue was further exacerbated by the church's location. Saginaw, Texas is home to Eagle Mountain Lake, and many local companies in the area have the word "eagle" in the name. Given the abbreviated name for the church was already something common, and the option of renaming quickly disqualified, I was left with the challenge of addressing what the church's nickname.
I asked why "Eagles View" was the common shorthand, and when no answer could be found, aside from convenience, I visited the church and found this old logo displayed on the side of the building.
Old Logo
Aside from the myriad of design troubles, like ineffective reproduction in one color (a common trouble with the church secretaries, who usually do all the reproduction), the word "church" was minimized in comparison to the word's "Eagle's View" and further obscured by the background bar. The logo did not show up this way in all its forms, but the issue was a common one.
So the first goal for me was to put the word "church" on an even playing field, but that leaves quite a mouthful to say. "EVC" was a sometimes-used nickname for the church, but the decision was made to promote it to full-time.
Another frustrating element was the apostrophe. This was used inconsistently on the web and in print, so the decision was made to remove it altogether. The use of a literal eagle was also quite common in the region, but I kept it as an option in case of an excellent idea.
Creative Development
The target market for EVC, as already discussed, is young families. The general member age is from 25-45, into which young families fit nicely. The recent explosion of suburban housing developments in the area is a boon for this growing congregation.
Although this information is highly useful in marketing campaigns, it also gives me some visual cues to take. I wanted the identity system to be friendly, but structured. A hand-scripted cursive for the icon, and a recognizable sans-serif give the logo that combination
Visually, the focus is giving the three words eagles, view and church, equal playing time. By making the new shorthand, EVC, into the icon, I could then reduce the current logo's four elements, the swoosh, the eagle, the title (Eagle's View) and the subtitle (Church) down to two: an icon featuring the nickname, and a title with the whole name. The use of EVC in the icon is essential to bringing the new shorthand into common use, especially since it will be used on its own in many cases.
New Logo
Branding Guide
The use of a guide is specifically useful to EVC. They have many different people reproducing the logo in various forms, and this can mean a variety of abuses. I developed a system by which users of the logo elements can steward its use with care.
Click here to view the EVC Branding Guide.
The response to the new logo has been excellent, and the accompanying branding guide has eliminated the issues the church was previously facing with logo variation and mis-use.
The new face of EVC is making itself known in Saginaw, Texas.
