A Logo To Cry For

In all of my years as a logo designer, never have I had so many people cry when they saw a logo design during a first-look logo presentation. Thankfully, the tears were tears of joy. I wish I could take full credit for this emotional response, but I praise a young designer, Sarah Yatomi (website), for her collaboration and talented design work to create a logo for Agape Rehabilitation Center that connected on such a deep and emotional level.

“The women in Mexico were shown the logo and some of them wept out loud. They said they want to be that woman in the logo. They felt the woman was surrounded by the flames of the Holy Spirit and were drawn to the cross of Christ.”

Agape Rehabilitation Center is a Mexico-based non-profit organization that provides support for women who are coming out of the sex trafficking industry and drug addiction with holistic rehabilitation services. Agape, which means “spiritual love,” provides emotional, physical and spiritual care for women with traumatic life experiences and severe drug addictions. Agape is the only women’s rehabilitation center in all of Mexico, and the organization is successfully transforming the lives of hundreds of women at the moment and thousands of lives in the future.

As I made the logo presentation over a Zoom video call, I noticed the founder’s daughter was welling up with tears. She later shared that the tears of joy was due to the representation of the mosaic-style logo design that closely resembled a piece of stained glass artwork her mother had at their facility. We knew nothing of this stained glass window nor its impact on their mission to help suffering women, but we were able to tap into their heart and mission for these suffering women. Her testimony also made others cry as the logo design made such an intimate connection.

The final logo, shown on this page, is that emotional mosaic logo of a woman contained in the shape of a heart. It represents the brokenness that each woman has experienced, yet the spiritual healing that has transformed their lives thanks to the outpouring of love from other people of faith. Each broken piece creates an overall work of art that accurately represents the organization and the services it provides to women. To the right of the woman's profile is the cross of Christ, which represents the Christian culture of the organization.