The Value of Good Flag and Logo Design
Do you know what your city flag looks like? Do you like it? Or, if you don’t think your city has one (and it’s worth checking), do you know your state’s flag? If you’re not sure why you should care, watch Roman Mars’ TED Talk. Roman is the founder and producer of 99% Invisible, a great podcast on design.
The great thing about design, as the name of Roman’s podcast implies, is that when it works, we don’t notice it even as it helps us do our work…or enjoy our lives…or take pride in our city…or any of a number of other things we highly value but don’t often think about it.
I’ve been interested in this in part because I love design theory and in part because when I came to LTSP I encountered a quiet controversy (as in, not many people are aware of it, but all those who are aware have strong, strong feelings!) about our logo. Not a flag but, I’d argue, something relatively similar. As it turns out, we have no official or board-approved logo, although we do have a seal. The logo we’ve been using was patterned after an entrance sign. The more recent one emphasizes our location over denomination (hence the controversy). So what’s a rookie president to do?
Well, I’ve started trying to solve this little puzzle by watching this video and allowed it to spark my imagination about what we’re hoping to achieve via the primary images and symbols we display. So watch the video, enjoy it, allow it to spark your thinking about the design elements of your life. And, if you have thoughts about LTSP’s logo, let me know. ☺
Notes: 1) If you are receiving this post by email, you may need to click on the title at the top of the post to watch the video.
2) For those who are interested, I’ve put below LTSP’s current logo, the entrance sign on which it was patterned, and the newer logo (just remove the anniversary part 🙂 ):
“Lutheran The…” That’s not even good English… ;). But my son has a growing interest in graphic design so before I pooh-pooh what I would otherwise dismiss as a silly controversy…off I go to the video….forget kids being the future and now of the church: they are an absolutely fantastic excuse to learn and explore and play in totally new and unimagined fields of interest!
See you soon!
– Laura
Enjoyed the video and thought I’d give design a try. Wonder about using the symbol from the street sign in the circle just above “Lutheran”. Take that circle and symbol and place inside a capital letter P in the place of the hole, if you get where I’m going. Just following the flag rules (simple no words). Taking an existing symbol and using P for Philadelphia (rather than L for Lutheran). I know that local folks refer to LTSP as “Lutheran” but I was thinking P distinguishes it from G (Gettysburg) or C (Chicago) (tho not from Pacific, I suppose). Anyway, it was fun to try.