Brand Design, Creative Templates, Website, and Launch Strategy for

Revive Church

in Decatur, Alabama

The Project

Revive Church is a community of believers located in Decatur, Alabama. Their mission is to “empower people to experience new life in Jesus”, and are characterized by an noticeably warm, vibrant, and community-centric approach to ministry.

Revive (formerly known as New Song Family Church) approached me looking for a new identity to celebrate a fresh season of pastoral leadership. At the same time, they sought to gain a new foundation from which to grow and reach new generations their community. I helped them discover not only what their targets where as a church, but also assisted in writing their mission statements and core values, crafting their visual identity, and equipping them for an effective launch.

The church building, just off the highway in Decatur, Alabama.

Stage 1

Discovery

We began with a discovery session with the senior pastor and two other key stakeholders, in an effort to truly uncover the DNA of the church. This meant discussing its values, its history, and hearing all of the team's insights regarding the culture of the community they were building. I asked for stories, for analogies, and for the hopes and dreams God had put on their hearts for the church.

What emerged was a story of a refuge; a place focused on community, healing, and empowerment. While the name had been suggested by those involved before this meeting, the discovery session all but confirmed that “Revive” was the perfect word to describe the church’s new goals and culture.

Longtime logo for the church until 2024, though a different, temporary stand-in logo was used by the pastor while the brand was being designed.

Stage 2

Strategy

Following this, and using the notes from the Discovery Session, I created 3 different visual directions in stylescapes. Each one focused on a different aspect of the mission and culture they were building at Revive. We ultimately landed on “Breakthrough”, with it’s signature vibrant gradient, as the direction that best encapsulated the tone and mission the church was aiming for.

Fun fact: The church used to be widely known in the region for its championship-winning softball program. The elder helping lead the rebrand effort had himself come to the church in the 1970s through this ministry. Among other directions, the unused “Home Team” direction nodded toward that, as a reference to the church’s rich history.

Beyond just the visuals of Stylescapes, I also worked to help Revive define what the values of the church were, and how they should be worded. Being involved from the very beginning was a privilege, as the same questions and conversations in Discovery that shaped our visual identity came to shape the church’s verbal and missional identities as well.

Stage 3

Creation

After landing on a final visual style, I created two primary logo concepts for the team to review.

Below is the early version of each of the logo concepts, before revisions. While the final logo is touched on more in depth after this, you can see a breakdown of the unused ideas through these slides.

Early sketches of an icon for the logo.

The icon realized, with the "Breakthrough" gradient included as a symbol of vibrant life.

Mockups for how the icon version looked in action.

Concepts for a reworked icon using some of the retro feeling from "Reshaped"

Unused logo set from a more "retro" direction that took its cue from "Reshaped"

Unused retro logo based on "Reshaped". The wing stood for the angels sent by God to revive Elijah in his moment of distress in the desert.

Mockups based on the unused retro logo.

For the final logo we landed on, it became clear that Revive still felt most strongly about the gradient-style, but had also fallen in love with the wordmark approach. I worked to see if these two ideas could be combined, which led us to our final approach below.

In addition to a recognizable wordmark, Revive Church’s most signature brand element is the Sunrise Gradient. This is a custom gradient meant to symbolize the vibrant life that comes when someone follows Christ, as well as the diversity and celebration happening within this church community.

Stage 4

Launch

To close out this project and make sure the Revive Team was well-equipped for the launch, I created many additional deliverables. These included a full brand guide, a kids’ ministry sub-brand, a website, a social media package, a letterhead, slides template, lower thirds template, launch shirts, branded badges for both the main brand and kids’ ministry, and a Brand Kit on Canva for their volunteer media teams to use.