The Importance of Careful Design
The issue of Liturgy entitled “Branded Worship” was guest-edited by Nelson Cowan. Here is an excerpt from "A Brand is a Promise" by Kate Williams and the responses to her interview questions to Dan Kantor who composed the music for the popular Christmas hymn "Night of Silence" which is stunning when sung with "Silent Night." –– Melinda Quivik
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KATE WILLIAMS: I’m remembering as a young person how important it was for me to find the things that could accompany me through life, that I was searching everywhere for meaning and where I belong in the midst of it. Not just as a young person of course—I and so many people are doing that every day—but it seems pertinent to keep in mind the next generation as we continue to ask ourselves “where are all the young people?” How exactly might our discernment about brand strategy teach us about this art of accompaniment, and how might we better pass on our traditions and faith?
DAN KANTOR: To care about the brand of one’s faith community is responsible stewardship of that community’s long-term health. When done well, it’s a more efficient route to meaning-making and becomes a powerful catalyst for organizational thinking.
Whether you like it or not, your church is a brand. Ironically, even if you say your church is not a brand, this is your brand because you will be perceived as an organization that is perhaps dated, or generic, or unclear about itself, and this will come through in the experiences you deliver (or don’t deliver). This is how you will be remembered and known. This, by default, becomes your brand. . .
KW: What practical advice can you offer readers searching for a brand in their own situations?
DK: One bit of advice I would offer any church that is considering a rebranding is to make sure they involve a professional in the process. A local church, for example, might start by reaching out to a member who has experience in marketing or communications, someone who could oversee the process of then finding an objective, outside branding professional or agency to work with. Also, have some kind of budget in mind. Good branding is as essential as having a roof that doesn’t leak or a furnace that works. Good branding is not just good hospitality, it is responsible stewardship of a faith community’s long-term health. When done well, it is also a more efficient route to meaning-finding and a catalyst for organizational thinking. As for GIA, branding played a role in helping GIA better serve its customers, and to evolve more authentically. All this work we did to refresh the GIA brand is a good case study for how branding can be used to elevate the reader’s assumptions about their own church community brands. It’s a way to better understand the role that good graphic design plays in faith, just like good music, or good preaching, or beautiful architecture, or sculpture. Too often, graphic design (which is the medium of branding) is used more as a production tool rather than as a strategic asset.
KW: I recall you discussing the problem of undervaluing design in your book, Graphic Design and Religion. Is this one of the reasons you wrote it?
DK: I wrote that book because I felt graphic design was an artform that had never been formally named as essential to organized faith, and without good design, you’ll never have good branding. . .
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The full essay including references is available now in the digital and print editions of Liturgy. All of the essays in Liturgy 38, nos. 2–3 are available by personal subscription and through many libraries.
Kate Williams, the vice president of Sacred Music at GIA Publications, serves as workshop leader, consultant, and musician in the Archdiocese of Chicago and abroad, following a passion to serve in multicultural, multigenerational communities, while mentoring young voices and building bridges through music ministry.
Daniel Kantor is the founder of KantorGroup, a brand strategy consultancy serving a broad range of corporate clients. As a musician and composer, Kantor is primarily known for his popular Christmas choral work, “Night of Silence,” published by GIA. See kantorgroup.com or nightofsilence.com. Graphic Design and Religion is available at giamusic.com.
Kate Williams and Dan Kantor, “A Brand is a Promise," Liturgy 38, nos. 2–3 (2023): 3–10.