Case Study
Presbytery of South Dakota
Uniting congregations and faith communities across South Dakota.
Project Overview
Goals
Revive the brand, reengage members, and position the Presbytery as a resource for faith communities.
Results
Created a vibrant brand uniting 60 congregations across South Dakota.
Re-imagining the Future. Honoring the Past.
The Presbytery of South Dakota exists to establish, equip and encourage congregations to do the work of Jesus Christ.
Their mission as faithful stewards is to worship, study, witness, and serve so that the world may know and respond to God’s reconciling love in Jesus Christ.
Fanning the Flame
The focus of the rebrand was to bring energy to a multi-faceted organization. The existing brand didn’t show the vibrant faith community alive in our area.
Through out the project, it was important to get different individuals involved in the discussion to accurately represent their voice. Over a series of 3 collaborative meetings, I worked together with a task force to identify their vision for the brand, and in turn, the organization’s future.
Objectives
- Communicate the Presbytery of South Dakota’s (POSD) mission, services, and values
- Better communicate as an organization while connecting POSD members and elders
- To build an intergenerational faith community
- Showcase the beauty of our state and it’s people to pastors seeking a call
Building the Foundation.
At its heart, the brand needed to equip, train, and engage an intergenerational faith community.
After identifying the vision for the rebrand, I started creating logo concepts for the Presbytery. The concept needed to capture uniqueness of our state, while also referencing the brand of the national organization, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Attributes:
- Hopeful
- Connected
- Life-giving
- Bold
- Fresh
Audience:
- Current POSD members
- Potential POSD members
- Serving Elders
- Serving Pastors
- Pastors seeking a call
Brand Guide Book
The brand guide offers an overview of the visual identity for the organization. The document outlines the color, typography, and logo usage to create a consistent voice.
Sharing the Message
After selecting a brand identity, we put the brand to use building a new website. The website needed to serve as a resource hub for congregation leaders within the state. It need to be practical: something that was well organized, easy to maintain, while offering flexibility for changes down the road.
Project Reveal
The brand and website were unveiled at the October and June Presbytery meetings, two bi-annual gatherings of the regions leaders and elders for a time of trainings, planning sessions, and worship. Both the brand and the logo were received with an overwhelming positive response. Across all of the committee teams there was renewed excitement to use the new brand and website for the organization.
“Thank you for your diligent and exceptional work with our web development and branding! I know you are going ‘above and beyond’ and I am grateful for your willingness to walk patiently and faithfully with us a move through this critical change.”
– Administrative and Coordination Moderator
“Caitlin was fantastic to work with. She is a diligent and adaptive designer, bringing a wealth of knowledge and vision to every project. She is insightful, flexible, and a tremendous listener. Her work creating our brand, logo, branding materials, and website continues to be invaluable to our organization and her adaptable approach will help it continue to be invaluable for years to come. Her incredible organization skills and project management helped keep us on track for a successful project launch.”
— Kevin Veldhuisen
Presbytery of South Dakota • Mission Coordinator and Stated Clerk