A Good Word From The Rector: New Look Launch
Dear Parish Family & Friends,
Grace and Peace and an early good morning to you! I look forward to our eating breakfast, sharing Sunday school, and worshipping together, just a few short hours from now.
I write with the very good news that we at Good Shepherd have completed two, year-long projects: led by our Communications team, we have completed a “rebrand” for our parish’s publications; and, attendant to that development, we have completed a full overhaul of our parish website. That new website is live as of this moment, and, beginning with this Sunday’s worship booklets, our new logo will, likewise, take center stage.
Brand Development & Description
After a season of getting to know the Good Shepherd community – Good Shepherd Episcopal School; Good Shepherd on the Hill; our ministries and our people – our Director of Communications, Jessie Collins, authored draft Vision and Mission statements which would guide the development of a new logo. After testing and revising that early written work with the Vestry and a parish-wide survey completed last spring, Jessie partnered with our Graphic Designer, Karolina Gwiazda, to develop several dozen visual representations of the words and ideas. Jessie then shared that written document and those first pictographs with a committee of parishioners, who offered their feedback and direction. Following further refinements and meetings with members of the Staff, this small-group narrowed the selections to two concepts. The committee, the staff, and the Vestry, then offered their feedback and preferences, the result of which is the cruciform mark in the masthead of this email.
The primary shapes comprising the logo – shepherd’s crooks – communicate our identity as Good Shepherd, and the two crooks represent our two campuses: our “founding campus” on Windsor Road, and our “second campus,” on Woodland Avenue. The offset crooks indicate our community reaching beyond itself, while the consistent shapes communicate our unity. The design deliberately appears dynamic – connoting movement out and around from center – which announces our vitality as an active and growing family of faith. Finally (did you spy it already?), the crooks radiate from the shape of a cross, as all that we are and all that we do emerges from our centering in Jesus Christ.
Website Development
Last year, each staff member submitted a website wish-list, from which the Communications team created a site architecture. A small group of staff and congregational leaders then selected a website-development firm, who received these priorities and began work on the frame of our new site. Following study of the parish-wide survey’s results, Jessie and our chosen design firm conducted extensive user testing with thirty parishioners, in varied demographic groups. These studies determined worship- and event-communication as the primary foci for our website. The Rebrand Committee selected a color palette, which, in combination with the logo, determined the aesthetic layer of the site.
We intend this new site to reflect the entire parish – both campuses – and act as a gateway for parishioners – near and far, homebound and active – to enter more fully into life at Good Shepherd.
What To Expect
This new look will immediately begin to replace the several, extant logos around our campus and in our print and digital media. By the time of construction’s completion (God willing!) early this winter, we will have achieved consistency and continuity with all of our signage and campus elements.
With this primary brand (the language of “brand” refers comprehensively to the logo, typography, and colors) established, our Communications team will now partner more fully with the leadership of Good Shepherd on the Hill and our Woodland-Campus early-childhood center, in order to produce resonant communication materials specific to those ministries.
Importantly, our website is a living document, and we invite your feedback. For the next several months, nearly every page will include a button to “Report An Error,” allowing you to offer your observations and suggested emendations for the site.
As God continues “to make all things new,” we pray that these refreshments of our visual identity will welcome you and welcome many to share in the ministry of this special, Good Shepherd community.
Godspeed,
The Rev. Morgan S. Allen
Rector