Networking with Catholic millenials
In an attempt to reconnect with the youth that have been, in record numbers, falling away from the Catholic church, Notre Dame University decided to build an online hub for Catholic millenials. “Grotto” is in reference to Notre Dame’s campus grotto, where prayers and Catholic things are held. And kids these days are now past the point of the Playboy mansion’s grotto being in their cultural lexicon so it seemed like a good time to give grotto a go.
Holy Logos, Batman!
“Young, but adult. Modern yet traditional. Fresh yet familiar.” Clients love their all-inclusive, contradictory briefs, don’t they? But alright.
Using a clean, sans serif and geometric font (Axis), I was able to get something that’s like Gotham, but not as well-traveled as Gotham. I also took inspiration from the water-wave shapes in the Notre Dame crest for the shape of the arms of the “t’s”, as well as the wave shape that cuts through the bottom half of the logo. In that bottom half is a graphic interpretation of stained glass, paying homage to the Catholic roots. The client seemed to like it, and at the end of the day, that’s what matters (because it pays the bills).
There’s rules to the game
What’s a logo without a toolkit and brand bible? Colors, logo alts, spacing rules, approved fonts; you name it, I provided it.
The Website
Sure, millenials are increasingly spending majority of their online-time via apps and social platforms; but client gets what client pays for. Grotto planned to use the site to host their premiere content, with a content-funnel strategy that would utilize a brute-force approach towards heavy social posting that would (hopefully) funnel users to the site articles. So basically, buzzfeed for Catholic millenials.