Making Progress Personal Branding

the project

At age 13, I started a blog about the projects I was doing called “The Personal Progress Helper”. It took off, growing into one of the largest websites in it’s niche – hitting nearly 60k visits a month. This blog was something I could call my own where I could experiment and learn all about branding, marketing, design, networking, writing – the works!

As I transitioned into adulthood, I knew it was time for change. I chose a new name, and with it created a new visual branding system to go along with it! 

about the logo

I recently underwent a major rebranding initiative. My website, The Personal Progress Helper, had been very successful and I’d done minor logo redesigns over the years. When The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that they were retiring the Personal Progress program, I began brainstorming how best to continue the work I was offering through my website, but with a new name and vision.

I wanted to use a unique name that hearkened to the original, without feeling stuck. As I’d outgrown the original program, I also wanted this to have a broader appeal to users who didn’t fall into the traditional 13-18 age demographic. Considering all this, I chose the name “Making Progress Personal” and quickly began detailing all the work this rebranding would take.

I identified all the channels this rebranding needed to cover (Domain Name, MailChimp, Etsy, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest — the list goes on and on). Then I turned my attention to the visual identity.

I sketched out a few different options, trying to find a simple visual icon that represented the goals of the brand. The temple is a symbol of progress and spirituality, so I ultimately decided to use a line art illustration of the temple. I used photos of the Houston temple as a reference and played with the thickness of the line.

I knew I wanted to combine a thin sans serif font with a thick handwritten script. I was deliberate in how I arranged the text in relation to the icon. To make the design feel more cohesive, I used extended the outline of the temple to run along the bottom of the text.

I chose to use a pink gradient background behind white text as the primary logo. I created a number of variations, including one with a transparent background, one for black and white printing, and a small image-only icon.

Then I worked hard to apply all of these visuals to every account for the brand, changing names, usernames, and the domain name along the way.