Mt. Hollywood United Church of Christ is a unique Los Angeles church with a long-standing commitment to progressive social change, diversity, and inclusion. They came to me seeking a visual representation of this core identity through a logomark and branding language. Unlike many branding projects, where the decision-making stakeholders are a small minority, here the entire church congregation had a role in shaping a logo that would adequately reflect their mission. The main challenge was to understand and deliver on this mission while also positioning a new logo in reference to the institutional brand guidelines of the nationwide United Church of Christ (UCC).
After researching the church’s history, mission, and audience, and conducting a visual style questionnaire, I developed three logo concepts to fit the project brief. The three concepts represented three unique design directions, but all incorporated some element of the key themes of diversity and inclusion. Some also included a reference to the comma icon of the nationwide UCC brand.
With feedback from the entire congregation, I presented further variations on the chosen concept, a circular seal mark with a line representation of the “mount” that the church’s name draws from. These variations included alternatives for typography and color (all based on stained glass palette themes). The final logo was honed and adapted into alternate forms for use all over the web and in print.
