Initial Meeting and Goals Discussion

When the founders of Quarry met with me to discuss their goals for their logo, they described an organization that would be a shared resource for people entering various places in ministry, providing start-up funds, information, training, teaching and other equipping. Their goal is to remove barriers for people who feel called to something bigger than themselves. They talked about their desire for the logo to express strength, history and community. The idea for Quarry was that a person would be encouraged and equipped in community and then sent out into the world, much like a precious stone being quarried from rock. The strength of this person would not just be in their equipping, but in their connection to and remembrance of the community or “quarry” from which they came. They shared some ideas for imagery, including a quarry, a globe, a book, a lighthouse… but emphasized the previous mentioned strength, history and community. Quarry will serve as a flagship for various manifestations of the brand, so it was important that the branding be able to communicate the overarching purpose, yet versatile enough to be utilized for various sub-organizations.

Sketches

After having taken down notes and spending a few days researching and gathering inspiration, I sat down and began to sketch out some concepts. I was drawn almost immediately to this idea of the “Q” of Quarry being stone-like, and somehow the tail of the “Q” representing an off-shoot (the gem of) the stone or quarry. It seemed to be a natural fit to somehow add latitude and longitude lines to half of the “Q” to make it globe-like, using the tail of the “Q” as the lowest latitude line. In this way I could express the strength, community and history, while also expressing the idea of a person being sent out into the world. The globe also lends to the need for the universal application of the brand across various sub-organizations.

Balancing History with Reaching Forward

For the text representation of the logo, I decided to allow the larger mark and the “Q” of Quarry to be almost identical, and based the rest of the letters on the style of the “Q”. The style of the “Q” was such that I could go with a serif or sans-serif approach to the font. I felt that the sans-serif was causing the name to look a little too modern/futuristic, so I designed serif characters to bring in more of a traditional feel. The rounded box style of the lettering combined with the serifs really balance the text well between the historical and forward reaching expressions of the brand.

Final Hand-Drawn Draft

For the final hand-drawn draft, I used the latitude lines to make a quarry-like layered rock section to the left of the “Q”. Ultimately I decided this was making the logo too busy and was taking away from the significance of the “Q”s tail in being the precious gem sent out from the quarry.

Digitizing

After finishing the hand-drawn draft, I scanned the image and began to work on the digital file. I performed a live trace on the mark and the text separately. After tracing the text I separated each letter out so that I could work on them individually.

The Mark

For the mark, I decided that it made more sense for the globe to be positioned on the right rather than the left of the “Q” as this would have the tail moving toward and through the globe, rather than away from it. I also took some time to balance out the sections between the latitude and longitude lines and changed the orientation of the lines to give the logo a bit more movement. As a last step, I decided to extend the upper two latitude lines just beyond the outer edge of the “Q” to give even more of an impression of motion. Additional, more subtle imagery that plays into the brand are the many intersecting lines that make cross-like shapes. The longitude lines also slightly resemble the flipping pages of an open book. Finally, I decided to frame the logo as a cutout of a round-cornered rectangle at a 4:3 ratio. This and the mark without the rectangle are options for presentation. I chose a blue just a few shades lighter for the main color (Pantone 646 c) to support the strength, community and spirituality of the brand.

The Text

For the text, I recognized almost right away the need for the “A” to be consistent with the “U” and removed the serif at the apex of the “A”. Also, to allow more visual flow, I decided to have the crossbar of the “A” swoop up to keep the resulting horizontal line created by the two “R”s from attracting too much attention. Finally, I went back and made several fine adjustments to widths, kerning and spacing. I chose a yellowish gold that was closer to the orange size of the spectrum (Pantone 124 c). It is only a few shades off of complimentary for the chosen blue and is an eye grabbing combination. The yellow/gold/orange combination communicates courage, value and a daring that supports the audacious nature of the person surrendering to calling that is bigger than them.

Versatility In Action

Below the main text is where the names of the sub-organizations will appear. For this I chose Gotham, a simple sans-serif font, widely kerned and positioned below the text at the same width. I chose a darker grey (Pantone 425 c) to give the text enough presence to be seen, a similar depth to the colors in the main mark and text, without taking away from the others.

The final result is something that will work well across multiple mediums and for a variety of ministry pursuits. Here are a couple examples of the logo in action: