IBL, The Institute of Biblical Leadership, is a ministry and non-profit that is over 25-years-old. They hired me to help rebrand their organization, refine their messaging, and produce design collateral. Over the course of several months, we were able to breathe new life into their logo, more accurately communicate their mission, and create a modern website that better serves their clients and donors.
Here's what the president of IBL had to say after the project was complete: “Jackson does a fantastic job providing us with graphic design services, website design, domain and email setup, and social media. He has also worked on our branding and corporate messaging, redesigning our logo and tagline. We could not be more pleased.” — David Phelan (President, IBL)
Research
The first step in a rebrand is getting to know the organization's identity. For this project, research involved pouring over IBL's old marketing material, analyzing their website's messaging, observing their team meetings, and talking extensively with their president. Throughout this process, I was keeping notes and constantly brainstorming ideas that could potentially capture IBL's essence and identity.
Observation
Identifying key words and phrases that related to the work IBL does was an important step in determining what imagery and phrasing would be used in their new logo design and tagline.Leadership training and coaching based on biblical principles are their core services, so the logo and tagline needed to communicate this central element of their identity.
Interviews & Discussion
During the research and development stage, I interviewed the president and began working on a long list of value statements. From there, I went through this list with the president and discussed each statement in detail to determine how accurately (or inaccurately) it communicated IBL's identity. After lots of hard work we had created a captivating brand message and image.
Tagline & Messaging
Old Tagline:
"Training, coaching, consulting, counseling: from God's word for God's leaders."
New Tagline:
"Because leaders who honor God don't just come out of nowhere."
The new IBL tagline functions like any good tagline should; it works in tandem with the brand name, and it piques the interest of the audience just enough so that they want to learn more. The new tagline is also more concise and communicates the reason why IBL exists.
Logo Redesign
Throughout the process of creating IBL's new logo, we explored numerous ideas and concepts to find the one that was right.
Old IBL Logo
New IBL Logo
New IBL Logo Variant
Animated Logo
Excerpt from the visual style guide.
Trying a Simple Logo Refresh
Towards the beginning of the project, we attempted to take their old logo and do a simple refresh of it. The old logo was cleaned up, simplified, and recolored to create a modern and sophisticated look. In the end, the IBL leadership decided they wanted to move in a completely new direction.
The Final Concepts
We eventually landed on two final logo concepts. One was based off of a folded map, and the other was a combination of a compass and a Bible. After much deliberation, the board members chose the Bible/Compass design because it more clearly connected to their mission and vision.
New Website
The new website: www.iblministry.org
The old website.
The IBL website needed to be simplified and improved so that it would better engage potential clients and donors. It also needed to more clearly communicate their services and be easier to navigate. After several months of very intentional development, we completed their new site and achieved these goals.The new website grabs the audiences' attention, guides them through their visit, and provides easy access to the resources and donate pages
IBL Website Background Video
As part of the website redesign, IBL wanted to incorporate video into the layout. I spent a day with their team and shot video footage for several hours that was then edited and used as the main visual background of the home page (desktop version only).A video background helps immediately grab the audience's attention, and it communicates professionalism and quality. To see it in action, visit the IBL website: www.iblministry.org
Print Material
After finalizing the new logo design and messaging, we began to design new stationery and marketing collateral. Below is a gallery of some of the pieces we created.
