On Creating the Concept of Innovo

By Rommel Ruiz

One of the greatest challenges that designers, agencies and creative directors face is to make a brand that captures the essence of a specific group, company or organization with authenticity and quality. In the case of Innovo, our challenge was not just to brand a physical theatre company and conservatory, but a revolutionary idea that encourage others to re-create, re-invent and re-birth art as well.

To us Innovo conveys the fantasy of the imagination (the invisible) with the reality that is around us (the visible). Our first challenge was to create a simple image out of these complex concepts. This meant that we needed to visually demonstrate the vision of where we want to go as a community of artists united in revealing the light of God through our art.

THE LOGO

The logo is composed of a logotype, which is comprised of Innovo’s trademark fonts. The official logo conveys the logotype with half of the symbol at the upper right side. The symbol can be divided in two identical opposite sides (official logo). This is Innovo’s trademark.

THE SYMBOL

We have received many questions about the meaning of Innovo’s seal and our quick answer had been “recreate”. But actually the symbol is more than that. The design process took hundreds of hours, even though it was an interesting and a challenging experience. We first started with the idea of a Jewish candlestick (Menorah). Historically the Menorah was created to illuminate the whole room inside the tabernacle of Moses and symbolized the Spirit of God. We believe that art can bring illumination, and for us who consider the arts to be a part of our worship, the arts can be filled with the Spirit of God and draw humanity to meet God.

After considering the Menorah, we went on to play with round shapes. If anyone has heard about King Arthur and his knights, they will remember that they had their private meetings around a round table, which symbolized that all men were created equal. We believe in a community of ideas where every artist must have a place to communicate and develop their craft and gifts.

Finally, through out many hours of sketching and design, we came to the final art, which is definitely an evolution of the first idea we had. The symbol has the appearance of a jester's cap. Jesters were mimes/physical actors that were set aside to delight the king. The symbol also captures the feeling of dynamic movement. Thus our symbol captures the concepts of divine illumination, worship, unity, and performing arts for the King of Kings.

Our logo and symbol represent our vision and call to serve the our God and the world in our art; in other words: to love God and one another by embodying the human story in beauty and truth. - Innovo's vision statement