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Location: Washington, D.C.
In our early conversations with The Trinity Forum, it became clear that the organization’s vision didn’t fully align with their brand presentation. A quick glance at their website showcased a veritable treasure trove of lectures, written resources, and videos from some of the most prolific intellectuals at work today. The problem, however, was that these materials were not reaching one of the audiences who needed them the most—young people. Despite The Trinity Forum’s concerted efforts to reach a broader audience via Amenable’s social media support, young people weren’t clicking with the elaborate formality of the brand.
In an atypical Amenable move, we decided to pitch an unsolicited reimagining of the logo, just to see if it resonated with leadership. In the original, three ornate crowns evoked trinitarian imagery while also suggesting an institutional formality, much like what one would associate with a university. It might best be described as austere, eliciting admiration but holding people at arm’s length if they weren’t a particular type of intellectual.
In our logo rework, we simply streamlined the crowns to function more as icons, something that would be easily identifiable on any device or printed material. The clean and simple lines of the crowns in the reimagined logomark depict the clarity of The Trinity Forum’s core values. Likewise, the classic serif typemark exemplifies timeless truth, and its approachability represents engaging with the big questions of life to educate and equip leaders to think, work, and lead wisely.
Much to our delight, the alternate logo was exactly the sort of shift The Trinity Forum was looking for. It honored the legacy of the organization’s work while also charting a clear path forward toward longevity.
After the leadership team approved the new logo, it opened the doors to rethinking how The Trinity Forum’s brand could be lived out. We set to work building out a robust brand guide to inform and reflect every communication that the team might make, from something as small as an Instagram post to something as big as an annual report. We built out the color palette and offered a justification for how it supports the overall vision of the brand, and we created clear guidelines for the role of photography.
Although the brand and templates were originally intended to be the entirety of our project, The Trinity Forum asked us to develop a sub-brand for the Wilberforce Legacy Society, their donor-focused branch, and we used it as the foundation for a new brochure about the role and benefits of donating. Along with the brochure itself, we created envelopes and other print materials that The Trinity Forum might need to disseminate information. Finally, we designed the organization’s 2024 year-in-review letter and gave input on its content, ensuring that it aligned with all the effort put into the brand itself.
Ultimately, The Trinity Forum is the ideal example of how a project can organically take on a new form if the relationship generates it. We had such a creatively productive dynamic with the organization’s leadership that it felt intuitive for the work to expand, and we applaud the team’s desire to meet their audience where they’re at. There was never a conflict between legacy and longevity—just a willingness to unify the two.
