This was the second identity project I did for Ozark Christian College. The first was for an recruitment campaign called “Just One.” This project was similar in that they were needing an identity for a campaign but it’s primary audience was not current or prospective students it was their donor base whose age range was 40+. In my initial meeting with the president of the college he communicated the objective of the campaign was to help raise funds for the schools technology upgrades. He wanted to do this through communicating specific ideas about the College, the first being the approach the school toward leadership training. The were wanting to highlight the personal focus each student receives, but at the same time communicate that the process of training leaders done over and over again has the potential to build something big.

This was what was set before me as far as objectives for my first round of concepts (seen at the bottom). I enlisted the help of a friend Jason Courtney who is amazing with logo concepts. My first thoughts of how to illustrate this process were through something similar to building blocks or Lego’s. I thought a stair case was a good concept, but was unsure on how to make it both visually appealing and still carry meaning. Jason came up with the concept of the ladder and puzzle pieces, which both carried the idea of doing something “one at a time.”

I presented the first round of concepts, but as I presented them I was given a further objective. The school wanted to try and communicate a second idea through the logo. It centered around the idea of the leaders being trained to go out and change the world. None of the initial concepts communicated both of those ideas together. The President did feel like the puzzle piece concept was strong enough to illustrate the “one at a time” idea. Also, with the addition of some form of the world second objective could be met.

Jason ran with the puzzle piece and globe idea and came up with several more concepts and color variations. The school wanted their colors incorporated into the design, so Ozark blue was chosen as the primary color for the logo. They chose to use two variations on the final concept for the campaign (which I advised them against… oh well). You can see the final product above.