New look, touch, taste and feel for a new time
The new seal is the cornerstone of a visual and experiential branding project that will touch most every interaction NPS Presbyterians have with each other and “the world.” In this time, we have discerned God calling us to Engage, equip and encourage people and congregations as together we serve Jesus Christ to transform the world. All that we do is an embodiment of that call. The look, feel, touch and taste of NPS Presbytery communications needs to reflect and refract that call. Toward that end some gifted artists listened to our sense of call and envisioned this seal.
Symbolic Significance
Winds or waves: The winds (or waves depending on your perspective) blowing (or washing) through North Puget Sound (NPS) symbolizing God at work in the corner of the planet we’ve been given to do God’s work.
Trinitarian: The three lines comprising the winds or waves are deliberately Trinitarian for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit: Has been symbolized scripturally as wind (the Spirit blows where it will) and as water (i.e. waters of baptism) among other symbols.
Jesus Christ: For those who have “eyes to see” you can see the fish symbol that Jesus drew in the sand as a result of the visual interaction of the waves.
Fishers of people: Some have interpreted the Trinitarian wind or waves as hinting at a fishing net.
Colors: The deep red waves are the liturgical color of the Holy Spirit. The charcoal gray is for visual versatility and to allow the red to step out. We deliberately chose not to have blue or green, the most common colors symbolizing this region, in order to symbolize being in the world, but not of the world.
Visual Characteristics
After we discussed the shift in mission and focus of NPS Presbyterians with the graphic artists, we shared the following visual characteristics that we wanted:
What we want in new logo?
- 1) Holy Spirit like movement.
2) Helpfully ambiguous. Imagery hints at rather than interpreting meaning.
3) Freshness to jostle perceptions for existing constituents.
- 4) Clean, crisp and versatile (small and large print, e-communications; banners & posters).
5) Enduring (should be able to last this incarnation of the presbytery).
6) Professional art treatment.
7) To be used in cooperation with PCUSA Seal on stationary and other print media.
We are deeply pleased with the result. We hope you are too. Stay tuned for next developments in the new look, touch, taste, and feel of NPS Presbytery.
Our deepest thanks go to the creative team!
Melody Fosmore of Melody Fosmore Designs for all the upfront investment, inspiration and moving us to a place where we were focused on symbols of wind and waves.
Ray Ueno of Ardent Sage for the flash of inspiration and vision that came to him so quickly and clearly on that rainy afternoon.
Sue Nixon of Ardent Sage for asking all the right questions and offering her extraordinary creative expertise, encouragement, and coaching.