The Hymn Society: a logo design case study

Make us look as good as we sound. That was the charge, in so many words, from the organizers of the annual conference of The Hymn Society in The United States and Canada. They were seeking to develop a more consistent, polished image in an effort to attract the next generation of songwriters and musicians. 

Past logos.

They provided a brief for the 2012 logo project:

This year in Winnipeg our theme is "The Meeting Place: Sharing our Song" reflecting the fact that two major rivers and over a dozen ethnic groups meet in that city.  The idea is that just as Winnipeg is a place where First Nation and immigrant settlers met for business and social exchange, hymn singing is a place where we can "meet" one another despite cultural or ethnic differences.  We are hoping during the week to have some of the many different ethnic voices in Winnipeg participate in our conference. 

The new logo would have to convey ethnic and musical diversity, Winnipeg's unique geography, the concept of meeting and exchange, along with a respectful nod to the culture of Canada's First Nations. As with most logos, it would need to be simple and iconic for the sake of recognisability and to ensure it could be reproduced clearly across a variety of media, from tote bags to websites.

How to visually represent a "meeting place"? The meeting of  the Assiniboine and Red Rivers near downtown Winnipeg provided a striking image when seen from above:

A logo based on the rivers' courses could have been visually striking, but the shapes are less meaningful to those without knowledge of the city's geography:

A more abstract interpretation of the rivers -- with streams and currents meeting and diverging -- was an improvement. This version contained five lines, to represent the five lines of a musical staff:

Perhaps the lines could converge into a central meeting point:

Although this approach incorporated the river, music, and a central meeting place, it didn't engage in a visual dialogue with First Nations culture. It also suggested a vortex, with the central meeting place as a final destination, not a mid-point in a journey.

Back to basics. A literal meeting place is either an outdoor location or a sheltered structure such as a house, church, or cafe. Why not employ an abstracted representation of a shelter once common in the Winnipeg area: an Ojibwe wigwam?

But again, these sketches need refinement. Every line must be crafted to suggest both a literal object (a shelter, a meeting place) and an abstract concept (cultural and musical exchange).

What if the lines suggested both the wood of a wigwam frame and the converging journeys of conference participants as they come together to exchange ideas and to be sent in a new direction?

A digital rendering of this idea validated the concept, but the wigwam was too abstracted and subtle:

Cutting the bottom 'legs' along a straight line helped to imply a ground plane. Experimenting with the forms led to some exciting ideas, but none as simple and legible as the original.

The logo would have to include a large amount of text. To incorporate seventeen words without overwhelming the image, the text was carefully sized and coloured to create a visual rhythm and an information hierarchy. The font was selected to complement the clean, minimal lines of the image.

The result:

As well as representing the meeting of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers at the centre of Winnipeg, the logo suggests the coming together of individuals and the exciting exchanges of songs, ideas, and perspectives that inevitably take place at the Hymn Society's conferences. To reflect this conference's focus on the traditions of Canada's First Nations, the logo subtly evokes a wigwam, a type of dwelling and a place of meeting and shelter built by the Ojibwe people, the area's original inhabitants. The logo could also be seen to represent a human figure with arms outstretched in song and praise.