MoveIn

MoveIn was ready for a brand refresh. Their original logo no longer reflected its worldwide growth over the past decade. “It’s good to periodically consider your look and ask if it still represents who you are or if anything needs to be updated or refreshed,” says Nigel Paul, International Director and Founder of MoveIn, adding that the design team is very happy with the results. “We had a lot of great input from MoveIners around the world.”

Icon

Before we began, the team expressed their concern about creating a new version that deviated too far from their existing image. They wanted a look that was familiar and carried the same spirit and quality of the original.

In order to address some critical legibility issues with the original icon (it was essentially a posterized photo cityscape image of apartment buildings with too many small details), I first started by creating a vectorized image of the original. Soon the team realized a fundamental problem: the image was too geo-specific; it no longer reflected the global presence of the brand.

Twelve years ago, MoveIn launched with a logo that captured what it was at the time. The icon’s towering apartment buildings and streetlights were typical of North America — especially a city like Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where MoveIn began in 2009.

“It was too limiting and no longer representative of how MoveIn has spread around the world.” He adds that the patches in the majority world are very rarely high-rise communities but more likely a patchwork of lower-rise homes.

It was time to finally release their attachment to the original highrises and pave the way for something entirely new.

After several conversations with the Vision team along with a survey sent out to MoveIn members, we discussed different options before finally settling on three concepts (and two iterations) for the initial sketch phase. One recurring challenge during this phase was identifying the core aspect of MoveIn (and how it should be visualized), and trying to not pack too many elements into a single logo.

Effective logos are simple. It’s not the logo’s job to tell the whole brand story. They are simply meant to point people towards the brand.

Audrey Mahimwala

We pinpointed that prayer was fundamentally the key aspect for MoveIn, and the team wanted it to be expressed front and centre. Founder and Executive Director, Nigel Paul, had sketched out a drawing with praying hands being framed around a window. After several drafts and many more emails later, it eventually became the initial starting point of the final iteration.

The new MoveIn logo features a set of closed praying hands framed by a window. There are smaller windows to the left and right emulating high and low-rise buildings, indicative of the urban settings where MoveIn patches exist. The rays of light in the upper-left corner emphasize MoveIn’s message of hope.
Josué, Regional Director of Latin America says the new look is simple and shows what MoveIn is about: “I like that the main focus is prayer.” He says the high and low buildings in the new icon include the international areas like Latin America which have many one-storey homes.

Praying hands

In that 10-month-long process, the team realized that prayer was a key value that needed to be featured.

“Presence is already really central in the name MoveIn but prayer wasn’t visually central in the logo,” notes Kristen.

Nigel points out that the praying hands are simple but instantly recognizable: “We have even been aided by social media in the 21st century where praying hands, which are one of the most common emojis, are quite similar across platforms.”

Kristen says their hope was to depict prayer and presence specifically in a high-density area, not just generically, but it is tricky to make a logo do many things without making it cluttered. Graphic designer Audrey Mahimwala worked with the design team to come up with the new look that captured key elements but still looked simple.

Kristen says she is excited for the new logo to create a strong association between MoveIn and prayer as an inseparable value.

Windows

“When you have a few windows it can represent housing, but also a lot of people and windows into their lives as well as presence in that place,” says Kristen. “You can pull so many images out of it.”

Nigel says the windows help make the building in the icon that much more recognizable as buildings, but also signify that every MoveIn patch has windows into people’s lives.

“MoveIn patches are often home to hundreds, if not thousands of people, but each window represents a family or individual God loves.”

Rays

And finally, the rays at the top left represent beauty and hope.

Every MoveIn neighbourhood is filled with beauty, says Nigel — the image of God, and the individuals that make it up. Even though patches are high density, they are often full of things like gardens, murals and children playing.

“In terms of hope, yes these are high-needs communities but we don’t focus on the needs as defining the neighbourhood. We know that God is at work in every community and that Christ represents a sure hope for every individual and family” (1 Cor 13:7).

Kristen, a Vision Team member who was a key member of the design team, says that MoveIn Latin America and MoveIn Indonesia have already designed their own logos but one great thing about this new look is that if those branches of MoveIn ever did want to use the new logo, it would also work for them. MoveIn Europe and MoveIn Philippines will use the new logo, along with MoveIn in North America.

Wordmark

Although the team was initially resistant to changing the wordmark, as we began the process, it also became clear that we should capitalize on a refresh. Not a major overhaul like the icon, but albeit an important one nonetheless.

We agreed to keep the same pattern as the original, with a sans-serif for the first portion (‘Move’), and a hand-drawn look applied to the latter (‘In’). I selected 20+ geometric sans-serif fonts to replace the original Myriad font, then narrowed it down to 5 and then 3. We finally settled on Monotype’s Twentieth Century (Bold) for its even, round shape that conveyed a sense of friendliness, familiarity and modernity that we wanted in an updated look.

For the ‘In’ portion, I re-drew the letterforms taking into account the quirky character of the original, while fixing awkward areas.

Style Guide

We created a 30-page, six-part Style Guide (and a Supplementary Graphics Guide) comprising of the following sections:

• Brand Ethos
• Colours
• Typography
• Logo
• Photography
• Graphics

Brand Ethos
The Brand Ethos comprised of MoveIn’s History, Vision, Mission, Distinctives and Core Values.

Colours
There were some pre-existing colours they had already been using for certain campaigns which they wanted to make official by incorporating them into the guide. “The new colour palette was an effort to move away from the subdued shades, and forward to colours that communicate hope, vibrancy and joy,” says Kristen.

She points out that the yellow is a bridge from the natural dominant colours that were being used in MoveIn Europe, as well as Múdate (MoveIn Latin America) and the Prayer Journey across the movement. It is also an urban colour.

“We wanted to define the shade of yellow that would be used, because everyone has been using different shades,” says Kristen, adding that they selected the yellow shade from the Prayer Journey. “It’s a colour you think of when you think of a road with yellow lines and it’s also hopeful.”

The colours that were chosen last year for Dollar-a-Day were designed with the intention that they would complement Prayer Journey colours. These colours together make up the new palette, notes Kristen: “That’s a big positive now that our sub-brands have overlap.”

The pink was inspired by a colour used by MoveIn Europe and intended to bring a modern element.
“The beige (sand) is still a key colour in the palette,” says Nigel, “as it is a carrying on of the original brand.” Kristen adds that it also speaks to the down to earth and urban nature of the movement.

Typography
MoveIn had already been using two primary fonts, Lato and Bebas Neue, which then became the official fonts in the guide.

Photography
This was probably one of the more easy and fun sections of the guide since MoveIn had so much image-rich content to work with. MoveIn is predominantly a social movement, so being able to collect and organize their photos to tell a story is a critical part of attracting new people into their organization. Sub-sections included candid and formal portraiture, environment and object guidelines.

Graphics
The graphics section has a two-fold purpose: to establish the visual distinctives for MoveIn, and also to help the creative team envision this. Because they have a small, tight-knit team, it had to be simple enough for them to execute it confidently and independently.

Audrey was an absolute delight to work with as she supported us through a major rebrand for our non-profit organization. Throughout the whole process, it was evident that our satisfaction was her top priority. She patiently helped us pinpoint how best to visually communicate our mission and values; a difficult process for any organization. Her communication was clear, personable and consistent. We are thrilled with the final logo package and style guide Audrey produced for us and plan to continue utilizing her expertise for future design projects. 

Kristen Bonney, MoveIn

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It’s not just a style guide. It’s about creating a living, design system that flows with your organization and enhances your brand.