Revisiting and Reimagining our Brand: YHWH Apparel’s Rebranding Process

A reflection by Aaron Wu, Head of Design.

YHWH Apparel was, is, and will always be about one purpose: sharing the Gospel and love of Jesus. We’re a non-profit — we pursue purpose over profit, intentionality over trends, and the Kingdom over culture. Because our brand is so rooted in purpose and mission, we asked ourselves this: how might we reinvent our brand identity while staying true to our guiding principles?

Why Rebrand?

Rebranding a company isn’t an arbitrary decision. After all, the entire design process — user research, iterations upon iterations, hours on Figma — isn’t an easy one. But this semester, the YHWH’s design team felt compelled to update the company’s branding and establish a more uniform brand identity across mediums. We thought our current brand identity was inconsistent, a little outdated, and, more importantly, unintentional. While nothing was inherently wrong with the logo (props to whoever made it — love the handwriting), we felt it did not encompass our mission and vision completely. In short: we thought that our brand could convey the truth and goodness in the Gospel more effectively with something new.

And so the design team began the process of recreating (and simultaneously revisiting) the core identity of YHWH!

The Process

At the end of the day, YHWH Apparel is a group of believers, fervent to spread the Gospel through our creations. The Word inspires our designs, not the other way around. Thus, our design process was slightly different than a typical industry setting.

Step 1: Understand our mission and values

To create an effective logo, we revisited the founding principles of our company. In summary, YHWH was created out of a love made known, a need that was seen, and a call that was heard (Psalm 107). YHWH is the tetragrammaton of one of the names of God, often spoken as “Yahweh” (Exodus 3:14). It was (and still is, by certain groups) regarded too holy to be spoken.

Here is a short summary of our mission and vision, written by founder Serena Wang.

Mission

Our desire is simply to share the goodness and truth of the Gospel. To tell the world of the beautiful name of God that they may seek and find that He is Lord and that they may discover the unconditional love that is for them.

Vision

Our vision is to speak truth through our apparel, empowering people to express their identity as children of the Most High King, and to encourage believers to be bold as they carry the name of their Lord, not only on their shirts, but on their hearts. It is also a call to live a life of consistency before our God. We are motivated by these guiding principles:

• There is no fear. (Acts 5:29, Deuteronomy 31:6)
• We are set apart. (Romans 12:2, 1 Peter 1:14–16)
• Live with radical faith. (Matthew 16:24–26)

Practically seeking, we live out our mission and vision by empowering staff members and other Christians, evangelizing to non-believers through our clothing and through conversation, enabling other Christian non-profits to continue their good work through our donations, and expanding to other areas of the world with our online store.

Step 2: Research

Typically, the next step of a the rebrand process is research, such as user research or competitive analysis. Because of YHWH isn’t a typical clothing line, instead of reading up on our competitors, our research mainly involved reflecting over our mission statement, handbook, and Scripture.

Here are some insights we gleaned:

• “YHWH” is a holy name. Jews purposefully mispronounce “YHWH” as adonai because the Lord’s name is holy. The true pronunciation of “YHWH” remains a mystery. The name, like God, demands respect and reverence. So our new branding should reflect that idea.
• The cross and the Gospel is foundational to our faith and purpose. Our only hope and sense of reliability comes from God through His Word (“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” — 1 Peter 2:24).

Step 3: Determine Touchpoints

Where do users interact with our product (in this case, our branding)? We determined these touchpoints to inform our design process:

• On social media
• During campus sales
• On print and clothing

Step 4: Create logo design

Ideation

We began rapid prototyping potential logos on pen and paper. Because holiness of the word “YHWH” reflects the nature of God, we were particularly interested in returning to our brand name’s Hebrew roots (יהוה) and possibly incorporating aspects of the Hebrew alphabet in our prototypes.

Pen and paper sketches attempting to incorporate Hebrew lettering into a logo.

Mid-Fidelity Prototypes

After some initial sketches, the design team utilized Adobe Illustrator and Figma to create some mid-fidelity versions of potential logos. Many of our prototypes featured iterations of the Hebrew yodh (י), the first letter in the word “YHWH”, leaves, and other visual representations of Scripture.

Convergence

After receiving feedback from the general team and considering our prototypes on a 2x2 matrix (intentionality v. aesthetics), we converged on a design that would incorporate two distinct features: the Hebrew yodh and a nail.

High-Fidelity Prototype

Many hours on Figma later, the design team produced a high-fidelity logo incorporating aspects of Hebrew and Jesus’ crucifixion.

Step 5: Create visual identity

After converging on our new logo, we further developed a visual identity: typeface, color palette, corporate graphics, photography style, and more.

For a secondary font used in our headings, we chose Meno Banner Regular, a geometric, modern sans-serif font. Its harsh shape seemed reminiscent of Hebrew, and we wanted to ensure we paid homage to our roots.

“Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped the waters in His garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name or His son’s name? Surely you know!” — Proverbs 30:4). We chose a neutral color palette of yellows, tans, and greens. It reminds us of God’s sovereignty over His creation (and it’s eye-pleasing).

Check out our complete branding guidelines here.

Step 6: Implement and maintain

Check out our newly rebranded website, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn!

Reflection

From a designer’s standpoint, rebranding YHWH was an interesting process. In any rebranding process, one should always remember the heart and mission of a company. But for a Christ-centered company like YHWH, that was all the more important. We had to both keep in mind the aspects of the design process in addition to the Word. Overall, we’re quite happy with the result!

We’re thankful for God’s faithfulness and generosity for allowing us to run and operate this company. Ultimately, it is not about our brand identity or products. But it is ultimately all about Him. All glory to God!