Church logo design doesn’t have to be as tricky as it seems. You might have seen some really bad church logos though and think why some people still don’t get it. When you decide to create a logo for your church or hire a freelancer or agency to do that it’s helpful to know what a great logo needs. We try to help churches understand how to design great church logos following some really simple logo design rules like the elements of timeless church logo design for example. But it can get even more simple than that – you can design a pretty good church logo if you make sure you don’t design a bad one.

1. Outdated Church Logo

While Christianity has been around for about 2000 years that doesn’t mean church logos should look like there were designed ages ago. And I don’t mean that anything old has to be bad design. Back in the 80s and 90s, there were certain trends and design techniques and elements that we extensively implemented. Over the years some churches followed those old fashioned trends and haven’t changed their logos at all. In many cases that might have some dramatic effects on how people see us. Your church might be traditional and that’s absolutely great. What we can do is to reflect our style with thoughtful design. Sometimes even the font selection can help a lot. And if your church has evolved and has a contemporary vibe you shouldn’t let people see you as a church that was contemporary twenty years ago. That’s also one of the reasons why shouldn’t relly on trends too much in our logo design.

2. Irrelevant Imagery

Sometime your ministry logo might look really great. The problem is that even though the aesthetics are fine the name and the image don’t communicate the same thing. The logo is supposed to clearly communicate what your brand is and irrelevant imagery might confuse people even though the look is great. Very often the symbols in these situations feel like they were taken from another church or ministry and we don’t want that. At the same time, it’s not an easy task to create a logo with a symbol that is unique and creative while communicating general Christian values. This why we recommend you always have an experienced designer involved in the design process.

3. Vague Church Logo

The previous example showed a situation where your logo had some conflicting themes and messages. In this case, the problem is that there is absolutely no message. And again, it might even look fine but it doesn’t represent your church brand well because it doesn’t say anything. A really important reason your church needs a logo is the first impression it leaves. Well, in this case, it almost feels like there is no impression at all. Someone sees the logo and forgets it instantly because there is nothing striking about it. Nothing that communicated anything. That will not necessarily confuse people but it will surely make them forget you before they even realize.

4. Poor Font Selection

Typography is a huge subject. There is a lot of meaning conveyed with font and as you can guess that might be a game-changer to any logo design.

There are numerous problems that might happen when you select a font for your church logo:

  • simply selection a bad font
  • selecting a font that doesn’t match the tone of the symbol
  • combining two fonts that have different tones

There are some fonts everyone should stay away with. Period. You must have seen some designs with fonts like Comic Sans, Papyrus, Calibri, Brush Script. The list goes on. When you read the name you might remember what fonts I’m talking about. The fact that there are still people that use them in different contexts doesn’t mean you should do that too. They are not fun, fancy, safe. Some of the bad fonts could be called good ones ages ago. Today we live in an amazing world where you have such a rich selection of amazing fonts available. Don’t choose the once that you are familiar with or the ones that seem to be cool. Often times they aren’t…

Since typography plays a crucial role in how we communicate our message we also need to remember some basics that will help us avoid matching mistakes. The tone of the symbol needs to match the typography. If the symbol has a modern and contemporary feel you don’t use old fashioned font in the logo. Another thing is font matching. Before you use more than one font in a logo try to convince yourself why you think it’s absolutely necessary. You can try the same reasoning on other people to see if they agree. If they do, make sure you check out how other respectable designers pair fonts in their logos. You can also check out websites that showcase good font pairing examples. Most importantly you need to what you want to communicate with your logo.

5. Generic Church Logo

If you remember that one of the most important elements of a good logo is the fact they are memorable why would even think about a generic church logo? And again, the aesthetics might be good but they look like every other logo out there and it can create a lot of confusion. Your ministry logo should communicate what is unique about you and if you use a stock logo there is much uniqueness in it – you’re just like everyone else. That can make people feel they already know you are like the other church with a similar logo. What if that group hadn’t left the best impression? You are instantly judged as being just like them even though you aren’t.

That’s one of the big reasons you should at least consider hiring a professional church logo design agency or a designer. Find someone that has years of experience and has proven that they can come up with effective and original logos that make ministries grow. While it might feel impossible to come up with a logo that is totally unique it is achievable. But in most cases, we need someone that knows how to present what’s unique about your church community.

6. Overly Complex

There are a few problems with ministry logos that are really complex. One is that they are trying to say too much and it’s easy to send some conflicting messages. Complex ministry logos can create more confusion than good because people won’t have a clue who you are, what makes you unique, and why they should even care about getting to know you.

There is also a technical problem. While a complex logo might even have some visual advantage they are not scalable. If you use a very detailed logo on a billboard that wouldn’t be a problem but what if you try to use the same logo on your church website? Most of the detail will be lost and it might be really hard to figure out what’s in that logo.

Bad Church Logo Design Too Complex

Summary

If you want your church to have an effective ministry logo you can really achieve a lot if you make sure you don’t make the mistakes listed above. As you probably noticed it’s not necessarily that bad church logo design doesn’t look good (even though it many cases it does). The main problem with bad ministry logos is that don’t communicate who you are and what makes you unique. These are some of the most important aspects of effective church logo design – they help people get to know you without direct interaction. And when people start getting to know you through a logo and later you can prove them the value your church can bring into their lives they will be way closer to getting to know Jesus as well and that’s what we are all about.

 

We help churches create logos and branding that communicates who they are and help people make stronger connections with communities of believers.

We help churches create logos and branding that communicates who they are and help people make stronger connections with communities of believers.

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