Holy Cross Chaplaincy
HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA October, 2024 BRAND WORLDBRAND PHOTOGRAPHY MERCH DESGN VISUAL IDENTITY DESIGN SOCIAL MEDIA TEMPLATESTHE STORYHoly Cross Chaplaincy approached me with a visual identity that was beautiful, but no longer reflected their evolving story. They felt limited, restricted, and unrepresented by their image.
They contacted me seeking a brand identity with depth and relevance, something to set them apart from the familiar clichés of East Coast Catholic organizations. And authentically reflect their values, behaviours, and personality as an organization.
Through the process of this build, I was reminded/more emphatically understood these 3 truths when it comes to creating a brand:
The significant emotional impact of fonts to completely change feeling.
A logo is not enough to create a strong brand.
The power of photography and merch to draw people into community.
Logo Before (Not my work)
Original mark designed by gab-studio.
The greatest challenge presented was their desire to keep the name and mark.
What at first felt like a limitation, actually inspired a deeper creativity.
Q: Have you deviated from any Catholic ministry norms in some way?
A: “In a more abstract way, it feels like a lot of the best work we do is more “passive” than “active,” not in the sense that we don’t do things, but that it seems that people are transformed more by spending time in the environment of Holy Cross Chaplaincy and in the presence of the staff.”
3 IMPACTFUL DISCOVERY TAKEAWAYSQ: What do you want your new visuals to accomplish?
A: “We’d love our new branding to help us differentiate ourselves from other campus ministries, so that students have a clear idea of who we are. Obviously, we’d also hope that it would make our communications stand out more and be more attractive. Secondarily, we also hope it would help us communicate ourselves well to donors and ministry partners.
We’d love for them to come away feeling like there’s something deep and transformative about us but not delivered in a heavy way. To point to the adjective above, there’s a depth to this brand but it’s accessible, even fun.”
Q. What would the most fruitful/ministerially successful experience look like of a student who was involved with HCC?
A: It would probably look like a lapsed/non-Catholic being invited to one of our chaplaincy spaces on campus and experiencing immediate warmth and community there.
Preview of the Visual Identity Guidelines they receivedReady to build yours?
After filling out this form, I’ll reach out to you to set up a Discovery Call where you can tell me more about your vision & goals.
