Loomis Academy
I can't count the times colleagues and coworkers have made comments along the lines of, "I never would have guessed you'd been homeschooled, you're so... normal." My parents wanted a logo and brand that would set them apart from the stereotypes, spice up their transcripts, and show curious colleges and programs that their kids did, in fact, get a good and proper education – from home.
In addition to looking sleek and academic, the logo needed to have some Christian theme, as my parents' Catholicism plays a huge part in their teaching and family life. But please, not another dove and cross! Thinking outside the box while still hitting the mark was a major challenge.
Diving into research of both Catholic and secular symbolism, we bounced around a lot of ideas: from laurel wreaths to the fleur de lis, the Fibonacci sequence to the "doe that yearns for running streams." There was so much my parents wanted to communicate about their teaching style and core mission that we found ourselves wrestling with the black hole of possibility. After much discussion, we were able to identify one message that resonated through it all:
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
--Philippians 4:8
With this scripture passage as their motto, we moved forward with the image of a nautilus shell and how the golden ratio is reflected in it. The inspiration sent to me was beautiful; but the nautilus shell is commonly used in logo design, and Fibonacci sequence graphs are very complex and hard-edged. My job was to simplify the basic shapes down to a graphic that was visually balanced and more than just a shell. This was the result:
