Church road signs are notorious for being clever instead of clear. The thing is, people only remember a message if they understand it. Unless you’re G.K. Chesterton or Mark Twain, you’re probably confusing people with clever puns, double entendres, and wordplay. The same goes for your branding. Is it easily understood? Does it connect with a deeper meaning? Does it point to your story? Strong brands prioritize clarity.

I recently watched the movie Imitation Game with Benedict Cumberbatch. It chronicles the genius work of Alan Turing to crack the Enigma cypher during WWII. Germany was using encrypted messages to send critical instructions to its ships and submarines via radio. The Americans could intercept the messages, but couldn’t decode them fast enough. The Germans knew that a message is useless if it can’t be understood by its recipient. When you’re crafting your vision, mission, and brand, how often do you evaluate if it will be understood by your audience? Are you putting it in language they’re familiar with? Does your logo capture something they resonate with?

Podcast logos are different from regular branding because they don’t have to work in as many contexts, at least not early on. Much of the skill in logo and identity design is making something extremely flexible. With a podcast that exists only online, you don’t need that level of flexibility. All you need is memorability. Unlike an organization or business, you probably won’t be printing, stitching, or putting your logo on top of other graphics and photos very often. This means your podcast can have a full color photo or graphic with plenty of detail. SO… follow these steps if you want a podcast logo that’s eye catching, memorable, and free. Distill the big idea Decide if it needs to match your church brand Identify who it is for and what they like Feed all that information to ChatGPT and ask it to write a Midjourney prompt that will give you a podcast logo Plug the prompt into your AI image tool of choice Refine the language in your prompt if needed Remember, all you need is memorability, so don’t be afraid to go outside the box!

Limitation breeds creativity. Ask any artist or creative person, and they’ll tell you that their proudest moments are when they’ve solved a problem with restrictions, limitations, or pressure. Whether it’s limited time, resources, space, color, etc. those boundaries become a unique seed in which creativity grows and blossoms. This applies to new projects and ongoing brand work (aka tending your brand). Here’s the point: Don’t be afraid to put limitations in place. Committing to a deadline, color palette, or style is actually one of the best things you can do for your brand.

For creative decision-making, I’m a huge fan of the 3-person team/committee. But why? Proverbs tells us that in an abundance of counselors there is safety, so what could go wrong with a large committee? This is actually a serious mistake I’ve seen organizations fall prey to when it comes to creative-heavy projects like a rebrand. Here are a few of the downsides to a large team: Decision paralysis Studies show that the larger the decision-making group, the more individual members fear making the wrong decision. When no single person has authority, consensus is hard hard to reach and people feel overwhelmed by the consequences of the choice. Scheduling problems The obvious and most painful part of setting up a church branding team is finding a time when everyone is available to meet. Above a team size of 3 or 4, you can expect to add a week of lead time per extra person to every major decision throughout the project. Conflicting preferences Believe it or not, you actually want your church rebrand team to all have similar (but not identical) design taste. Mixing a few complimentary perspectives can have interesting and pleasing results. Involving too many people in the creative process is like mixing too many colors of paint. The result either won’t look unified (think Picasso) or it will be boring and generic (think brown sludge).

There’s a time for everything: A time to change your brand and a time to double down, A time to whisper with your logo and a time to shout, A time to plant seeds of your vision and a time to water them, A time to honor your heritage and a time to distance yourself from the past, A time to speak to your congregation and a time to speak to your community, A time to be bold and a time to be subtle, A time to plan communications and a time to wing it, A time to seek design help and a time to do it yourself, A time to repeat yourself and a time to say something new. Consider the times as you tend your brand!

A church rebrand can be a lot like cleaning the house: You know you need to do it, but it always takes longer than you thought. There’s not an exact number of weeks or months, but I’ve noticed some patterns that can give you a ballpark idea for how long a church rebrand takes. Here’s the formula: 12 Months or Hard Deadline / Designer Availability (1-4) + 1 week per committee member Hard Deadline This formula is part of why I encourage pastors to set a hard deadline for the launch. Without one, it’s easy to keep making minor tweaks for months, with diminishing returns. Many churches I've worked with have chosen to announce the rebrand at an annual gathering or upcoming church event. This gives you less flexibility, but it’s a great way to keep your eyes on the prize and push through sticking points. Committee Size The larger the group, the harder it becomes to schedule meetings, commit to colors, and review designs. Decision paralysis is a documented phenomenon that is amplified by more inputs. Only adding 1 week per committee member may not be enough, but it’s close. Designer Availability Using an in-house designer is going to be the most flexible and fastest way to rebrand, hands down. With a larger agency, you may be one of dozens of clients and might not get the fastest turnaround. I personally only take on a couple of new clients per month so I can focus my attention on the project at hand, keeping it on track. Transition Time Smaller churches may not have much in the way of merch, letterhead, or building signage. They may or may not have a website. In the design world, we lump all these items into a category we call "brand collateral" or "collateral" for short. For larger churches, the transition may take longer because they have more collateral to update. Building signs can take weeks to get printed or manufactured, the website needs to be redesigned, and merch probably needs to be created.

A friend told me they have a saying in sales world, “Confused people never buy.” It’s a maxim to keep rookie salesmen from making the critical mistake of overloading their prospects with information.Instead of focusing on one or two unique benefits of the product, they’ll talk about all the little complex features. But this is actually counterproductive. Seasoned salesmen know that people buy when they have the most clarity around just one or two pieces of information. Here’s the question: does your church brand promote clarity or does it create confusion? Like it or not, branding can easily be the difference between visitors who don’t come back and excited new members who join. Tend your brand in a way that tells a simple, coherent story. P.S. Simple and clear doesn’t always mean easy. That’s why I offer a complete rebrand package for churches who are tired of mismatched branding and want a permanent fix.

Today I want to exhort you. Keep up the good work! I’m encouraged to keep pressing on when I hear stories or see online that you’re tending your church brand. Here’s how I’m trying to follow suit! Writing Daily I’ve been a lot more intentional about this, and people are noticing. Writing daily has helped me collect lessons learned in my work and articulate my unique philosophy around church branding. This has also given me content to pull from for social media posts. I’ve been able to easily share a combination of quick quotes from this newsletter and finished rebrands without having to switch into writing mode for every post. Understanding My Audience I’ve started paying attention to which of my brand’s touch points are having the biggest impact. To do this I have some website analytics running and some questions I ask now on introduction calls. This helps me focus my writing and website copy on what’s relevant and engaging for my audience and clients. Community Participation This year I’ve made it a goal to give back to pastors and churches wherever I can. Part of that effort has been interacting and responding to posts in a Facebook group called Church Creatives. This is a wonderful community of 80,000+ pastors and church staff who appreciate the value of creativity/ design for churches and ministries. The second thing I’m doing is distilling my branding experience into free resources that pastors can use to align their branding with their vision, prepare for a rebrand, and make a bigger impact. More on these in the near future. That all seems like a lot, but what’s made it manageable is a daily cadence and habit of tending my brand, even if it’s just 10 minutes of jotting down some notes or reacting to a Facebook post. So take it as an encouragement: You can do it too!

Your brand can have a smell. My in-laws live in a Hawaii and only make their way to the US mainland once a year. Something I take for granted here is Chick Fil A, but they don’t have one on the big island. When they do come to visit, we eat Chick Fil A nearly every day. What’s the big deal? They have fried chicken in Hawaii. But the experience of walking into that brick building with the red accent colors, savory smells, and friendly staff saying “My pleasure” can’t be replicated. The tastes, smells, language, and visuals all work together to create a truly iconic brand, which is why Chick Fil A has been so successful and received so much praise. Here’s the point: Your church brand shouldn’t just be visual.