New Look – Same Mission

22 September 2022

A brand is more than a logo.

Your brand is made up of everything that’s important to you. It is the reflection of your values, your personality, your mission, and what is unique to you. Your brand is ethereal, elusive, intangible, yet familiar. You know it when you see it, though you can’t always describe it in words.

A logo is an attempt to capture your brand in a simple visual representation. It consists of your typeface, which states who you are in more than just the words. The shape and weight of the letters all convey meaning. And it consists of a “mark”, which is a symbol or logo that boldly declares who you are. As people become familiar with your mark, it can stand alone, representing all that your brand implies, telling your story.

As our team set out to capture the current brand of Carolina Creek, we identified the characteristics we wanted the logo to embody. They included:

Carolina Creek is an exquisitely beautiful work of God’s creation. There is a sense of place that is accentuated by the waterways. The streams feed the creek, which feeds the river. Together they form an interconnectedness, a magnificent context for all that happens at camp.
That camp is physical, personal, interactive, life-on-life. It is not something that happens in the virtual or digital realm. At Carolina Creek, we are present to one another, we look each other in the eye, and we see face to face.
Carolina Creek is a happy, playful, exciting place. It is adventurous; something BIG is always happening. You’re invited in. We are approachable, accessible, inviting.
In the relationships that form we find connection, we recognize a shared journey. Along that journey, we find hope, experience community. We know and are known; we love and are loved.

Our mission is to provide a variety of sports, arts, and outdoor adventure in an exciting environment where youth and adults can experience and know the love of Jesus Christ. Our faith expresses itself through love so that every person who comes through our gates will know and experience the love of Christ.

Here’s where we landed!

The typeface for a camp is tricky. You want it to be playful enough for children to relate to, cool enough for students to wear, serious enough that parents will trust that you know what you’re doing, and weighty enough to reflect the importance of your mission, reassuring sponsors and philanthropists you are worthy of their investment. We settled on this all-caps, yet playful stylized type that we think says “camp” as well as “we’re serious about our mission.” We hope you find it friendly and approachable, though classy and elevated at the same time.

The “mark” consists of two “C’s” that we call the “C-hands.” (You’ll see why.)

The two C-hands can move to represent our values, capture our brand and tell our story.

As seen in the logo, the C-hands face each other. The blues represent sky and water, and in the ‘white-space’, the ‘negative space’, the creek takes shape. This represents the natural context of creation, and the interconnectedness with our Creator, that we sought to capture. We experience and know the love of Jesus through the natural revelation of His world.

Turn the C-hands to clasp one another and you capture the essence of that life-on-life, personal, interactive, relational sense of connection wherein we find shared journey, where we are seen and known, where we can put ourselves out there, taking risks and exploring. The clasped hands say that we are not alone. We find hope and grace and love in this context of community, knowing the love of Jesus through the care and love of others, through the teaching of His Word, through shared worship, and through all the teachable moments that a day at Carolina Creek affords.

Turn the C-hands again to make the shape of a heart. The ultimate symbol of love experienced. Not love understood as a doctrine or remote concept. Not love of mankind generally. But love that is known at the heart-level. The love of Jesus that is unique and specific and personal and special and available to each one of us. The C’s as a heart represent our deep desire that every person who comes to Carolina Creek will know and experience the love of Jesus.