Branding Case Study: LEFC

In 2019, the church I work for embarked on a new building project. The leadership felt it was a good time to redesign the church branding to coincide with the launch of the new building. The scope was large; not only would I be designing a new logo, but I would also be choosing overall branding that would influence paint colors, signage, fabrics, and furniture. And under the umbrella of the LEFC brand would be department logos for LEFC Kids, LEFC Students, and LEFC Adults, as well as a number of different ministry logos. It was a massive undertaking, and so I approached it slightly differently than a normal freelance branding project. I prepared an in-depth questionnaire for leadership to clarify how much we wanted to change about the brand and what they felt were the most important parts of the church’s identity. I used these questionnaires to start my design iteration process.

The process

  • Previous Logo

    This was our starting point. We’d had the orange and blue for many years before this logo.

  • Rough Drafts

    I always start with black and white drafts. I took the results from the questionnaire into account as well as our location in Lancaster County (Amish/Mennonite motifs, the rose of Lancaster) and presented these options to the leadership.

  • Rough Drafts Color

    No one was ready to eliminate any of the options until I added color. At first we were thinking of just updating the orange and blue to a fresher look, so that’s the majority of what I tried.

  • Narrowed Down Color Options

    It came down to two general options, but leadership wanted to see slightly different typeface options, so I gave them variations and color variations as well.

  • Final Color Choices

    We picked the type and logo, but were still undecided on color. They liked the updated orange and blue but decided they wanted to see an option that was in a totally different direction - something that felt more classic.

  • New Logo

    The last minute addition color scheme won the day. It’s probably the latest in the process I’ve brought in a whole new direction for the color scheme, but I think it was the right call and this feels more like LEFC.

Implementation

  • Staff Apparel

    There are certain events where it’s helpful for staff to be wearing branded t-shirts for easy identification.

  • Stationary

    We work with an outside printer for weekly bulletins, so I reached out to them to talk about custom letterhead and envelopes. I also designed new business cards for the entire staff as well as general business cards with the church’s contact info.

  • Building Signage

    Since the rebrand coincided with a new building, I was able to work with a local sign company to install branded signage all throughout the building, including stylized logos, wall directional signs, and room signs. We also designed a new monument sign for each driveway.

  • Sublogos

    At the time of the rebrand, the various ministries weren’t uniform in name. We had Kids’ Ministry, Youth Ministry, and Adult Ministries. The rebrand felt like a good time to bring them all under the umbrella and call them LEFC Kids, LEFC Students, and LEFC Adults.

This doesn’t include every single thing I created for the new brand or the old materials I revamped, but it’s a comprehensive view. Normally, when I do branding projects, it’s for a small business - this was the widest-reaching rebrand I’ve done by far. It was an excellent challenge, and I’m still proud of the results. Since the initial rebrand, I’ve evolved and updated a few things as we figure out what fits and what doesn’t. My biggest takeaway is that an organization’s brand shouldn’t be rigid; it it should grow along with the organization.

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