Logo Development

A quick identification process for any organization is often their logo. Here is how our logo came about.

Set Apart Ministries Logo came into being about the same time that we began to develop our first website. As a small all volunteer organization we did not have the funds to hire a professional graphic design artist. We were very grateful when a woman who was very artistically inclined and who had been a part of our first study group offered to help out.

Our Mission Statement, Hebrews 10: 32-39 was a guide as we began to consider how we might best represent ourselves in a graphic. We understood that we were to be an equipping ministry, and that we are christocentric, which is a fancy theological word, meaning to be centered and focused on the work of Christ. Since coming to Hebraic understanding we could probably say "Messiahcentric."

We originally thought the name was too long to incorporate it all into the graphic so we quickly settled on focusing on the initials. We had referred to ourselves as SAM for some time already then so it was a natural to use them.

Barb's mental health clinic, which transitioned to just providing Life Coaching continued as Still Waters, Inc of Green Bay until September 2015 when it was dissolved. All coaching services were then placed under Set Apart Ministries, inc. Still Waters was the name she was given in prayer based on Psalm 23 for the original clinic. The colors of royal blue and white were also indicated. The original logo there includes cattails by calm water. Since SAM's origins are closely related to Still Waters, the artist decided to include the cattails as a sort of brief acknowledgement of the history.

We understood that we are called to be an equipping ministry to help bring restoration from severe trauma as well as an outreach in Messiah’s Name Who is known as the Light of the World; and later we understood that it was also an outreach to those who were seeking a return to the ancient paths of Torah.

Given the existing connection with abiding by the still waters, our thoughts went quickly to a light house as representative of Messiah. It was also clear to us that the color was to be a purple, reflecting His majesty, on a cream colored background. The final image came about through creativity and working with the initials of our name, which was also quite clearly understood in prayer.

The cat tails were included as that connection back to Still Waters, so between that and the lighthouse, clearly the setting was one having to do with water. We had several discussions as to how to represent the “s” as we were concerned that the initial drafts looked more like a snake, which we most definitely did NOT want. The artist then modified it to make it more like a bird so as to avoid the snake look, which we thought was more acceptable.

This artist’s pen and ink sketch proved to be a challenge to get into digital form as we recall that it was first done on a napkin, then just plain typing paper. We just scanned it in at first, but later a friend who is a graphic design person offered to “clean it up” for us, free of charge. This was a real blessing and we all agreed, it did make it look more professional. It was at this time, that the "lighthouse keeper's home" was separated a bit more from the base of the lighthouse, in order to achieve more symetrical lines.

In providing this brief history about the development of our logo we are reminded of one email we received several years ago through the website. from a woman in California who told us that we shouldn’t have the word “set” in our name because of the associations with the Egyptian god, “Set”; which is also spelled “Seth.”

It was hard not to laugh at this one.The etymology of the word as part of the phrase “set apart” is the functional, or most literal, translation for the Hebrew “Kadosh” which means "to be set apart for a specific purpose." In this case, we are "set apart" to YHWH. It is usually translated in English as "to be holy" or "holiness."

It has absolutely nothing to do with the Egyptian god, Set. It is simply an English word that sounds like and is transliterated the same way as the Egyptian word for one of the Egyptian gods. (A transliteration is the effort to re-create the phonetic sounds of one language in the letters used in a second language. It is different than a translation, which tries to convey the meaning of the word in the second language.) We are not even using the word "set" alone, but as part of that phrase "set apart" which is related to "kadosh" as explained above.

Here is a link to an article that further confirms our understanding of the meaning of the word often translated as "holy." (We are not recommending the entire site as we are not familiar with them, but we are in agreement with this subject and study.) https://firmisrael.org/learn/hebrew-meaning-holy-set-apart-for-purpose/

We are also in agreement with this brief study on "Kadosh" from Jeff Benner; https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/definition/holy.htm

So there you have it! The development of a logo based on our history, our central focus on Messiah, and all the practical details to make it come together in a pleasing manner.