A New Year, A New Look

JAN. 1, 2012

Since we began this journey in 1998, we’ve been continually driven by our central goal of “Launching College Students Into Lifelong Catholic Mission.” But it’s the person of Jesus Christ—along with an undying belief in our Catholic faith—which is at the heart of our mission. Our very own lives have been transformed by Him and we’ve radically answered His call to “Go and preach the gospel to all nations” as missionaries with FOCUS.


After 14 years of faithful service, we’ve started to see the need to move forward and show the world a more accurate expression of who we are. As Bl. John Henry Newman once said, “to live is to change; to be perfect is to have changed often.”


We’re not changing how we bring college students to Christ. We’re just changing how we look when do it.


As missionaries, we are the face of FOCUS—and always have been. We’re young, relevant, inviting and most importantly, we are Christ-centered souls continually longing for a deeper relationship with our Creator and Father.


We’ve come to realize that our logo and visual identity should emulate these characteristics of who we already are. We desire to show our students, friends, benefactors and our alumni that we are passionate young adults, unapologetically Catholic and humble servants of Christ on the college campus.


We invite you to take a few minutes to look at the meaning of our new look, where it came from and why some things are a bit different than what we’ve been used to seeing.


We’re glad you came by to learn about our new look and we look forward to having you visit our website again soon!
 



What went into creating the new look?

JAN. 1, 2012


We’ve tested dozens of different logo designs to find one that would fit our apostolate and mission in the very best way. We are so grateful to the many creative professionals who took time and effort to give us their best designs and creative work.


In recognizing the most current trends in logo design, we took a stab at creating a logo that represented those trends, while most importantly making sure those trends—and this logo—accurately represented who we are.


Take a look at some companies who are targeting young adults and college students today. Anyone from Facebook and twitter to AT&T and Pepsi, companies targeting this age group are toning down their look and feel. The connection? They’re each using all lower-case type in their logo.


The lower-case type in logos softens the voice of the organization, making them more welcoming and inviting, which directly relates to our goal of welcoming and inviting college students into a relationship with Christ.


“Logos have become less official-looking and more conversational,” said Patti Williams, a professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, in a recent New York Times article. “They’re not yelling. They’re inviting. They’re more neighborly.”


We spoke with an executive from Pepsi who commented that logos need to be based on simplicity. People have so much complexity in their lives and they’re looking for less of that, he said.


When we sat down to brainstorm concepts for our new logo, we went straight to our Main Thing: Launching College Students Into Lifelong Catholic Mission. We wrote down key words/names like: Catholic, Evangelization, Journey, Simplicity, Eucharist, Inviting, Bl. John Paul II, Relevant and more.


Then we prayerfully began playing with hundreds of different design elements to create what we have today. We knew it would start with a circle, symbolizing universality or Catholicity, the Eucharist, welcoming and never-ending. We knew Christ was meant to be the main focus of our icon in some way, as would be some type of path to symbolize the lifelong journey of being Christian.


You might notice the “sun” rising over the path. This subtle addition was used to symbolize the new Springtime of the Church with regards to the New Evangelization, introduced by Bl. John Paul II.


The crucifix used by the late Holy Father during his pontificate was also a subtle element we added to the icon. With his blessing on our founder, Curtis Martin and the work of FOCUS, we knew this image would be a beautiful supplement to the deep connection we all have with Bl. John Paul II.


The typeface, or font, we chose was an important decision for us. We wanted to make it clear that we are relevant, inviting and open. We’ve learned that a lower-case logo sends the message of service. In our situation, it puts the student above ourselves. As we continually grow to become better servant leaders, like Christ was, we see this as a very significant reflection of who we are.


Once we received positive responses on this new look from our research among college students, young professionals, our missionaries and clergy, we knew this was the best option to show the world a more accurate expression of who we are.