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BP has become the subject of ridicule over the past year for a disaster so tragic it is actually being said to shorten the lifespan of this planet. What could Bp possibly have to do with a group of people who are supposed to present an image of care and concern for earth and it’s inhabitants?

Well actually not that much. I am just using this to create an interesting title and talk about art as usual.

I am going to go back to a happier time when I knew little about the company but was always aware of their brand. Being mathematical and creative simultaneously has been both my asset and my Achilles heel in my journey as a designer. I come from an accounting background and always found it difficult to just place something just because it feels right. I am overly meticulous with pixels and millimeters so that while some thing may look randomly placed, I actually most times have a mathematical reason for why it is there. This even bleeds into regular life. A crooked wall photo could actually make me scratch my eyes out.

For the above reason I have always been impressed by the bp logo. It is actually called the Helios (a name from the greek sun god) and came out of an attempt to rebrand as an environmentally aware company by agency Ogilvy & Mather (don’t be impressed, it’s just wikipedia). It is one of the most mathematically correct logos I have ever seen and still manages to be a work of art. It is made up of one single shape rotated in even increments to create a sunflower like image. The color changes actually seem to result from the overlap in the shape.

So it’s been years and I have all but forgotten about my obsession with that brand. Up comes, a vibrant growing church that actually seems to care about the youth in it’s community, asking designbySPIRIT to create a brand that involves the symbol of an eagle. Now this could go in a very tacky direction as is not very uncommon in the world of church design but but while creating ideas one seemed to stick. A powerful but simple shape duplicated 3 times and reduced by 90% and rotated 5 degrees each time. Well it didn’t start out that way, it just kind of happened so I will thought I would just share a bit of the branding document with you.

Just from meeting the passionate and charismatic youth leader Keeth Bandara I am confident that Watford Elim will wear it’s brand well unlike the entity mentioned earlier in this blog and will take care of it’s community as it has already been doing and that this brand will always remain a positive symbol to the people who know it… (PREACH PREACHER!!!)

THE ORIGINAL BRANDING

THE REBRAND