Baptist Church of the Covenant sits on University Boulevard in Birmingham, Alabama, an Alliance of Baptists congregation that calls itself a church where all are welcome. In January 2022 Sarah Margaret Shelton became chair of its Communications Committee and found a church whose look did not match its life. A year of conversations, a budget approved at a quarterly business meeting, an RFP to almost thirty agencies and about five proposals later, the committee hired Yellowbox in March 2023. The brief they wrote after the mood boards was one sentence: “We REALLY want the brand to be a mix of soft and strong elements married together.” Nothing overbearing. A place for healing and listening.

Discovery took two visits. In May 2023 the team came as secret shoppers, then sat in a whole-church Listening Session and a Discovery Session with the committee and the pastor. In August they came back and interviewed more than thirty people on camera. The August 30 deck put two full directions in front of the committee: a steeple-and-window icon over a serif wordmark, and a three-path mark with a sans wordmark and a salmon-and-burgundy palette.

The committee met on October 1, 2023 and wrote back the next morning: “We have made some decisions on branding and we are SO excited.” The Option 1 mark. The serif wordmark, with no word heavier than Covenant, because they loved the Caslon most. Every color from Direction 02's palette except its green, swapped for the green from Direction 01. No condensed type anywhere, because “condensed fonts are hard for our older members to read.” The soft lines from the element pages, and only the rounded boxes. Six days later the revised deck was approved, and on October 22 Sarah Margaret presented the brand to the church, brand video first.

The icon is a single-line badge of the steeple. The paths inside it are the different paths people take to the cross; the closed circle is the embrace of the congregation and an open window that anyone can come through. The wordmark stacks on two lines in a classic serif, the way a covenant is cut into stone.

The four applications from the style guide, with the congregation in the photographs.

Pre-service screens, the live-stream package and the weeknight schedule, all built in the first months after the brand shipped.

Each template shown as its full scroll, laid out in columns.

The website went into review in January 2024. Sarah Margaret left seventy-three comments on the first pass and gathered new photographs so the congregation on the site looked like the congregation in the room. It went live April 26, 2024.

The Way of Love took Lent into Easter in 2026.

The line came from the brand's element pages and became the church's Pride Fest kit: a banner, a tee, two totes, bracelets, fans, stickers and temporary tattoos.

Our Money Story in fall 2024, laid out on artwork the church bought from Sanctified Art, then Embodying the Vision in fall 2025, our own concept built around photographs of the congregation.

For Advent 2025 the church asked for a season that started from Van Gogh's The Starry Night.

Discovery: two site visits, a whole-church Listening Session, a Discovery Session, surveys, more than thirty on-camera interviews, a brand video, research and strategy.

Identity: the steeple icon, wordmark, two lock-ups, a wordmark variation, a seven-color palette, a four-face type system, brand elements, a thirty-three-page Brand Style Guide, the church presentation deck.

Collateral: letterhead, envelope, business cards, giving envelope, trifold bulletin, note card, connection card, name tags, pen, banner, table runners, temporary banner signs, pre-service screens, live-stream package, three email templates.

Website: baptistchurchofthecovenant.org, designed and built on Webflow, live April 26, 2024.

Seasons since: The Grace of Lent, Camp BCOC, the Labor Day Beach Retreat, Our Money Story (laid out on artwork from Sanctified Art), Starry Nights, Embodying the Vision, The Way of Love, event merch, and monthly social. Lent, Stewardship, and Starry Nights each have a page of their own.

We are so proud of how this brand encapsulates the essence and spirit of our congregation and prepares us to continue to grow our reach.