The Symbolism Behind My Logo
The quest for a ’perfect’ logo.
A logo is a symbolic representation of a company or brand that combines text and graphics or simply one or the other. For me, my logo is an artistic representation that reflects my personality, a unique combination of skills and talents, as well as my personal values.
After looking at some samples of possible logos, I realized that it also had to represent the uniqueness of what I do with originality and artistic style. I needed it to be timeless, yet modern and on the leading edge. This became more clear as it evolved through its various stages to its now present existence.
In the beginning, my logo design started out with the focus around the Chiron Planetary Gong, which was my very first symphonic gong. Mainly because of my personal relationship to it and my clients’ experience with it has been so very significant. The symbol for the asteroid Chiron, a small yet very significant minor planet in astrology, is on the face of the gong. This symbol has what looks like the letter K sitting on top of the letter O. This letter K also connected to the K in Kathryn, but after several tries, we couldn’t seem to spatially link them together.
Smiling at the many reflections and expressions of the symbolic Chiron discovered at the center of my Paiste Planetary Gong.
While searching online for visual inspiration related to the symbology of the Chiron, we found a zen-like brush stroke version. I loved it! However, it was already linked to a website, so we would have to come up with our own personalized version inspired by this one. Figuring out how to adapt it in our own unique way was challenging and took quite a bit of time. The results from our effort still didn’t leave me with 100 percent satisfaction. So the process continued on.
At the beginning stages of this quest for the perfect logo, I had chosen colors that I thought suited me and what I wanted to communicate to the world through my logo and color. I discovered it was a bit of a science experiment. I hypothetically wanted a particular shade of purple to represent the color which I often see in my mind’s eye while in meditation. It’s a connection to the crown chakra and Source energy which is so present in my work. I chose blue to represent the expression of the voice, sound, and music through the throat chakra as well as connecting it to the third eye and intuition with its slight indigo tint. And the third color was a golden yellow for the connection to the angelic realm as well as strength of spirit, inner direction, and willpower.
I tested each combination of shades that I preferred by sitting in front of them and tuning into the energy that was emitted and the feeling that each one evoked within me. Some shades were beautiful in combination, but when tuning into the emotion that I felt, several had a melancholic vibe or evoked a deeply unsettling sensation within me. I didn’t want that vibration to be broadcast from the website or represent me in any way because melancholic and deeply unsettled I am not.
These colors were going to be utilized on my website, throughout social media and marketing, and so they needed to have coherence with the branding. After trying out what I thought was my final choice of colors on the website, I concluded that they didn’t fit me really at all. Although the spiritual and chakra connection was there with the meaning behind the colors, the overall look wasn’t in true alignment with all that I wanted to convey. Furthermore, the Chiron symbol looked best in the blue color as it was originally found online, not in our adapted purple, yellow, and blue hues that I had selected for my website.
I spent days considering and allowing the concept and colors to percolate and hopefully settle within my mind. During that process, I realized that the probability of the Chiron gong always being at the heart of my practice and brand for years down the road was relatively uncertain. The artistic brush stroke which has always been a multifaceted representation of various aspects of me, however certainly would endure the test of time. Such artistry has always been a part of my life: elegance in dance and conducting gestures, the delicateness of precise brush strokes on a canvas, the accomplished artistry and musical crafting as one sound is woven, as if by a feather, into another. This represented me and my unique style. My long-time affinity for Asian calligraphy and very strong gravitation toward Taoist and Zen philosophy were facets that made sense to incorporate into my brand.
The process of finishing the website was happening in tandem with logo creation. My web designer had chosen a purple overlay on the home page photo which felt too heavy to me and detracted from the beauty of the photo. I questioned the use of my selected purple and its overpowering dominance in the overall look of the page. It wasn’t until a friend suggested a grey overlay instead that an entirely new perspective was gained. This triggered visions of pewter and gold being the more predominant colors while still utilizing the golden yellow background. When incorporating these ideas into logo designs these changes ended up taking what was being transmitted and radiated to a much higher level. It brought a special elegance to the logo that was lacking before.
With this new insight, my life and business partner was playing around on a design software program. She found circles that resembled brush strokes and also a gong. Together we explored the new color combinations based on the colors of the gong and metal singing bowls and incorporated it with my ever-present love for silver and pewter. The pewter/silver brush stroke also imitates the wide natural silver streak present in my hair (if I want to spiral out into even more connections).
To me, the change to the new color scheme and design was like jumping from a child’s play coloring book to a famous artist’s exhibition at regal gallery in Paris. The maturity and elegance were evident. The high quality and standards that I aspire to and intend to deliver were also present.
The script was adapted and modified throughout the entire process. In my very first imaginations, the typography looked similar to my style of handwriting. Eventually, it came back nearly full circle to that vision. And the tag line also eventually evolved into the right fit and compliment. Hallelujah, we had finally arrived! The subtle underlying uncertainty about the logo design and color combinations that I felt in the earlier stages suddenly switched to a full body, mind, and spirit cohesive Yes!
Through this process, I discovered that for me giving birth to a logo was no quick and easy execution. It had its own divinely guided gestation period that grew into the final design once all aspects were fully considered. These aspects within the logo are in actuality reflections of me in what I desire to bring to Profession of Sound Healing, how I perceive my work, and what role I aspire to play in the world. I needed it to exude the quality and standards that I hold high and the personal reverence for the sacredness of this work and the instruments that I hold so dear.
Kathryn Wiese
