Early last year, a decision was taken by the Management Committee to review our logo, fondly referred to as ‘the Door’, partly because, like some members of the Committee themselves, it was looking a bit tired and over-exposed, and partly because it only really referred to one aspect of our activities, namely heritage conservation. It was felt that, over the years, the Society had come to stand for much more than that, and the key words that seemed appropriate were heritage, environment and community.

So in about April last year, we commissioned a local graphic designer, Tarny Burton, to come up with a selection of new designs and colours to reflect, in a contemporary way, what we do and what we stand for. She produced four designs, which were put to you, the members, for your views.

It is probably fair to say that none of the four designs was particularly attractive to many members, and we received a number of constructive comments and criticisms. These were fed back to Tarny, who came back to us with four new designs, three of which were further explorations of previous designs, and one of which (Design 3) was ‘a further exploration of the Glebe Society’s existing ‘Door’ logo’. Tarny went on to say:

The colours embrace the door, forming a diverse and colourful structure that radiates from the door, but also welcomes the observer to the door. The coloured shapes are contemporary and animated, but their forms are influenced by the shape of the solid door, influenced by the solidity of Glebe’s past.

The colours selected represent earth, water, sky and sandstone.

I circulated these four new designs to the Management Committee and asked for a consensus decision. But I also included two additional options, namely:

  • the current logo (the Door), and
  • the current logo but with changes.

Overwhelmingly, the preference was for Design 3, the second choice being ‘the current logo, but with minimal changes to make it more contemporary’. Since Design 3 really satisfies the second criterion as well, I had no difficulty in declaring Design 3 the winner!

So here it is:logo_glebesociety

Originally, the Glebe Society had no logo. From time to time, we used sketches of Bidura and Toxteth Park on various publications, and Bidura appeared on the Bulletin masthead for a number of years. Then, in 1990, as part of our 21st birthday celebrations, we held a design competition which was won by our member Chris Stewart. Thus, the Door was born.

When we decided on the new logo, I phoned Chris with some trepidation, and explained that the Door was no more – but that the new logo certainly made reference to it. I am delighted to say that she expressed herself very happy with the result.