St. Luke's

St. Luke's plays a special role in the lives of its congregants and Atlantans. It's a place where civic leaders and faith leaders convene, where the big issues of justice, housing, and immigration sit alongside the small ones of Sunday school, meal trains, and prayer requests. It's active, engaged, and energetic, a big church with a small-church heart. It has also been a launchpad for many of the city's essential nonprofits. But its identity didn't reflect that vibrance or diversity.

Truth

We engaged in a deep and expansive discovery process at the top of this project. The wider context was sobering. Our client lived in a world of eroding trust in institutions, declining church influence in public life, an epidemic of loneliness, and membership decline as the norm across most congregations. But the truth about St. Luke's is that it's a church that stayed in Downtown when others left, that helps people feel genuinely welcome, that is of and for Atlanta. Its congregation was dreaming big, imagining a campus alive seven days a week, a hub knitting together the neighborhoods all around it.

We also identified a massive design gap. St. Luke's had a logo and a single color. No color system, no type hierarchy, little signage to identify the building or guide a visitor through it, no rules or tools to keep communications coherent. A body this joyful and this bold had no way to show it. Our imperatives became clear: amplify the church's faith, advocacy, and impact; help it invite as warmly as it welcomes; and build a brand that sings in worship and in administration alike.