The Catholic Herald Weekly hits the newsstands today in a refreshed brand identity. The rebranding aims at reflect the paper’s revitalized strategic direction to meet the future needs of its target audience. The vision has been broadened to cater for the larger society. Pursuant to this vision, The Catholic Herald Weekly is now better positioned as a social crusader and moral justice platform to address national issues and bring about necessary changes to make the society a better place in addition to significantly retaining its core values of speaking to the spiritual concerns of Catholics. The smart new look is in tandem with the needs of our readers and advertisers, identifying with the newspaper’s existing core strengths, incorporating new trends and refashioning them for today’s fast-paced browsers. After an extensive creativity redevelopment process, the rebranded paper has been made more striking, reader-friendly, and most importantly, unmistakably The Catholic Herald Weekly.
The reenergized design has made the paper stronger with an enhanced personality, accomplished through finer details of contrasting font types and colours that adhere to The Catholic Herald Weekly typography sensibilities. The mix of ‘Old English’, an ancient calligraphy with ‘Arial’, a more modern font depicts the generational milestone between the original Church tradition and modern trends. Though the Church came into being following the teachings of Christ, it has continued to adapt to generational needs without diluting the essence of the original doctrines to winning souls. Likewise the new look has been created to uphold the Catholic Church’s flexible culture of evangelization against the backdrop of the many emergent social vices associated with modernization. The Catholic Herald Weekly, almost a century old has once again been rebranded to establish itself as a news brand of fortitude, strength, dynamism and innovation. The principal colour red is apt.
You can’t fault it in the Catholic and secular domains. Surveys have shown that red is the colour mostly associated with courage. Red in the Catholic Church symbolizes the passion of Christ. It is worn by the clergy during the feasts of the martyrs, Good Friday, Palm Sunday, and the Pentecost. In the Western countries, red is a symbol of martyrs and sacrifice, particularly because of its association with blood. Cardinals wear red to symbolize the blood of Christ and Christian martyrs. The red on the masthead therefore has a correlation with courage to stand for the truth which is the sole character of good journalism not minding that such stance could attract unpleasant consequences like it happened to Christ on the Cross and other Catholic religious martyrs of old. In the branding world, red is the colour of heightened emotion, strength and power. It’s invigorating, intimidating and never boring. This ultimately translates to the fact that our paper will become more visible, attractive and command profound presence that would immediately stand out in the pack.
A distinguished presence stimulates instant readers’ instant interest and purchase. It is also a colour that will arrest attention on the social media platforms such that the device target audience cannot afford to swipe pass without stopping to look at the paper. The red and black logo masthead sits on a white background to accentuate the features of the new masthead. The white background further illustrates The Catholic Herald Weekly brand personality traits of spirituality, purity, humility and sincerity. Black colour connotes authority and certainty. The adoption of black into our logo conveys the fact that we are authoritative in what we do. This secondary colour made the paper more vibrant and nameplate more distinct and pronounced. Part of the logo is a shield with an implanted Church bearing crucifix mounted on olive branches that signifies peace, lasting nourishment, more growth and opportunities. The dove which is a symbol of the third person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit and a regular icon of The Catholic Herald Weekly brand identity was retained but freed from its former red encasement. However it was re-ignited with a number of enhancements that communicate a robust evolution relevant to today’s Christian religious newspapering environment.
The white dove is soaring freely in our refreshed brand identity, in an unhindered flight to spread the gospel and peace among our readers. This typifies the paper’s renewed strategy to extraordinarily think out of the box and soar higher to exceed the expectations of readers, advertisers and other stakeholders amid challenges. ‘IN HOC SIGNO VINCES’, a Latin phrase inscribed on the banner that runs across the shield further reinforces the paper’s determination to remain the undisputed leader in Christian religious reporting in Nigeria. Translated into English the statement reads thus: “In this sign thou shall conquer.” The rebranding is a multi-platform makeover. The new brand identity has been created to work across print and digital platforms in such a manner that it would enhance readership. For several months, The Catholic Herald Weekly has been undergoing rebranding as well as gathering invaluable feedback from readers. Our editorial departments and sections were also given looks and rejigged to be more appealing. Our readership is growing and more people are reading us than ever before. We are reaching more browsers weekly also. The rebranding exercise is the first duty the Lagos Archdiocesan Communications Commission (LACC) took on to enhance communications in the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos. Ably led by the Director of Social Communication, Rev. Fr. Anthony Godonu, the members comprise Very Rev. Fr. Michael Umoh, Rev. Fr. Joseph Oyekunle, Rev. Fr. Paul Ariole, Dame Marie Fatayi-Williams, Mr. Anthony Chiejina, Mr. Seyi Martins, Mr. Patrick Adaba Jnr and Lady Neta Nwosu.
