Presbyterian Church logo/identity

For Malcolm Grear, the toughest person to please in logo design should be the designer who creates the mark. Grear, founder of Malcolm Grear Designers and former chair and faculty at RISD, is internationally recognized as a leader in two- and three-dimensional design. His knack for bringing a sense of life—and joy—to his timeless, clean-lined work is demonstrated in his identity for the Presbyterian Church. The logo’s interplay of line and counterform creates a lively dance of what Grear refers to as a “visual switch.” Through this manipulation of form, its geometric construction gradually reveals a symbolic depth. The “switch,” the flicker of multiple symbols—the cross, flame, dove, and book—represents the complex theology of the church. But it takes more than these individual elements to elicit this rich symbolism, it is the relationship between them. The dove (the spirit) actively descending to the book (the word) evokes a nuanced meaning of the living scripture. As Grear has stated, “If a logo has some activity in it, it stays alive. There are certain images that you want to be flat, but not very many. This heartbeat in a logo is not necessary, but it makes a design unforgettable.”