A New Logo? Logo!

By Caitlin McGinn and Carolyn Burlingame-Goff

A little over two years ago, an article appeared in The Guardian about how the Quakers had used the redesign of their logo as a means to reconsider their identity and reach out to a new generation of possible members.  The new logo that the Quakers ultimately adopted was widely seen as a success for its clarity, simplicity and resonance.

At the 2017 Winter CC Meeting in Brussels, both the Board and the Fellowship Representatives responded enthusiastically to the idea of working with a graphic designer on a similar process.

Luckily, we were able to find an individual who immediately responded to the challenge.  Christopher Diemert, son of a German father and an American mother, having grown up in Germany and graduated from an American University, immediately understood the sort of in-betwixt and in-between group we EUUs are.  His first recommendation was for us to remove the map from our Logo.  A sad moment for the history buffs among us, but as Christopher pointed out, many people react to maps in a geographical and political, but not a spiritual way.  Using maps artistically, when that is not their basic purpose, can be done, but it is quite tricky.

The use of the map also went to the heart of our identity issues.  EUU does not represent European Unitarian Universalists in any official way; we are a group of Unitarian Universalists and like-minded individuals who have chosen to associate with each other while living in Europe.  Christopher asked us to clarify this for him, and the Board gave him this definition of what EUU is:

EUU serves Unitarian Universalists and like-minded individuals in Europe.  It exists to strengthen the connectivity between its members and fellowships by:

Sponsoring two retreats a year to provide a safe space for our members to learn, express their beliefs, grow spiritually and worship together,

Providing a website and newsletter to promote the activities of our fellowships and at-large members and encourage joint events and social action,

Supporting the development of new fellowships and providing continued guidance for mature fellowships,

Organizing visits from our UUA Ambassador to provide worship opportunities for our fellowships and wisdom for our leadership,

Representing our members to other organizations such as UUA, ICUU, IARF and EUT.

Christopher first focused on a logo for the abbreviation EUU, but the real break through came when he began to work on the idea of a basic logo that could be used by all of the Fellowships in their own publicity for cross-brand recognition.  This will be a slow evolutionary process, but I think we can all agree that Christopher’s logo fulfills the requirements the Communications Committee asked of him artistically and effectively:

  1. Clearly indicate that we are UU. This almost surely means we need to use a flaming chalice. We need “brand recognition.”
  2. Although looking “new” or “fresh” in some sense, still be recognized by our current members and affiliates as “EUU”.
  3. Indicate that we are in Europe .
  4. Look OK in a reduced form (small size), such as at the top of the website or on lapel pins we give out to new members.
  5. Look friendly and welcoming but not too casual or informal – it should look like a serious organization.

Like the Quaker logo, our new logo makes who we are clear in a simple, resonant way.  We are looking forward to our new lapel pins!

Webmaster’s note: You may notice that the new logo is not yet fully incorporated into the website and other materials, but we’re working on it.