Logo Subcommittee Progress Report

The committee (Kent, Marilyn and Joyce) held its initial phone meeting on Sunday, April 28 and it's second call on Wednesday, May 1 with Sharron joining on May 1.

Purpose

The objective of the committee is to produce a logo which the aTLC Board can approve by consensus and which will be used extensively by the Public Relations committee, which Marilyn chairs, the Website committee, which Rick chairs, and other groups. We will report at the next board meeting.

Process

Because of a) the importance of our logo, b) the considerable effort already devoted to logo development, c) significant disagreement among board members, d) the high degree of emotion over this item, and e) prior sensitivities and upsets that have disempowered both our paid consultant and several board members, we decided that the process by which we work must be impeccable, that each opinion must be honored and aired, and that any process issues must be addressed immediately whenever they arise. aTLC cannot afford to have the board polarized or divided on the logo issue; we must work on this until everyone can "live with" and hopefully be joyful about our final logo.

The committee felt that the Board had been presented with too many choices and had become polarized over this issue. We would like, if possible, to reengage our design and marketing consultant, Theresa Muller. After being encouraged by the committee to talk with Theresa, Kent reported on a conversation in which they critiqued the earlier process that had not gone well. Theresa pointed out that as a processional design consultant, she welcomes critique and feedback of her logos or other work, but insists that SHE have the opportunity to rework the designs and keep coming back with refinements until everyone is satisfied. She considers it highly unprofessional for a client to start redoing her work, which is what we did with her initial design. Theresa said that she is willing to continue working with us, but only under the condition that we provide critique, advise, suggestions directly to her for her revision. We can include marking up hard copy of her drafts. The committee accepted these conditions, and asked Kent to convey aTLC's apologies and regrets for having deviated from the standard consultant-client mode of work.

Design Considerations

1. The logo must be workable

  1. as a stand-alone item (e.g., button, sticker), in
  2. reduced size, and in
  3. larger form on brochures, the website, etc.

2. The logo must work in black and white, as well as in color, because it will be faxed.

3. The logo must be visible and attractive when small, e.g., on letterhead and business cards

4. The logo's "look and feel" must convey some vital elements of aTLC's philosophy, i.e., nurturing, caring, bonding, attachment, and joy

5. We want the logo to be simple yet distinctive. and to "stand out" from ordinary logos

6. The Board preferred an oval "egg" shape to a round circle. The committee still prefers an egg or a circle rather than a teardrop shape.

7. If words appear, some think children should appear right side up, not upside down; others disagree.

8. We are not sure if text should form the oval around the logo letters, or be included only in some versions of the logo.

9. There was strong liking for the childlike quality of the font that Joyce used in her first banner.

Logo Designs

The committee reviewed four designs:

  1. Theresa Muller's original designs, which Sharron found appealing, but which did not seem quite right to most members of the board. For one thing, there having both the name of the organization and a byline seemed to have too many words by. On the other hand, subsequent logos have been based upon placing initials inside a circle or oval, with lines or words around them.
  2. aTLC letters in the center of an oval line, as roughed out by Joyce and Rick.
  3. aTLC letters in the center of an oval, but also with the words "Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children" around them as roughed out by Joyce and Rick. This design was used by Marilyn at the APPPAH desk.
  4. A teardrop shop as created by Rick, which received high praise for its creativity and inventiveness, but was not recommended by the committee as a logo
  • New ideas were considered, e.g., having a paternal figure, a maternal figure and a child figure, or having an egg surrounded by a nest, with the aTLC words forming the nest. However, Joyce and Marilyn felt that either of these ideas raise many new issues; hopefully we can complete our work with the existing ideas and designs.
    •

    Follow-up Actions

    Kent will maintain a running summary of committee thoughts, which Joyce and Marilyn will carefully review and help revise, if necessary, to correctly convey our thinking.

    1. Each committee member reviewed the existing logos, which are in the WIP members section of the webpage.
    2. We'll all be open to suggestions and inspiration from Board members or other people.
    3. Kent will summarize the committee discussion for Theresa and ask her to come forth with a second design or designs. The committee will pool its responses, so that Theresa doesn't get bombarded from too many sides and to conserve her time.

    Respectfully submitted,

    Kent