Dot by Dot, Building Up the Image: Putting Together a New Logo
"By the blue purple yellow red water, on the green orange violet mass of the grass, in our perfect park, made of flecks of light and dark."
- Stephen Sondheim, Sunday in the Park with George
After writing a post about great mission-driven logos, I had to take a look in the mirror. What I saw staring back at me was my original logo: an illustration of me by Max Dalton. When one of your favorite artists draws you, you show it off. It had personality, and it helped new potential clients find me in a coffee shop, but it wasn't mission-driven.
The work is helping arts and culture organizations articulate what they do, why it matters, and how it changes lives. When missions are clear and impact is visible, organizations can invite people in, earn support, and do the work that makes communities better. I wanted a logo that told that story.
Painter Georges Seurat developed a technique he called divisionism: applying small dots of pure color that would blend in the viewer's eye rather than on the palette. Critics mockingly called it "pointillism," dismissing what Seurat considered a sophisticated system grounded in color science.
That's the metaphor for nonprofit impact. Programs, messaging, board leadership, fundraising, facilities maintenance, and countless other efforts (some large, some invisible) blend together to create something meaningful. Up close: chaos. Step back: clarity.
The new logo samples an extreme closeup of Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. The pointillist texture transitions from complex, multicolored dots on the left to solid turquoise on the right. It's meant to visualize the transformation from a vague or fuzzy mission to focused impact.
Visually, it connects the work to my vision of a world where the arts are universally understood as essential to human connection and community well-being. Personally, it's a two-for-one arts reference: Seurat's painting and the Sondheim musical it inspired. Sunday in the Park with George is about both artistic vision and what it takes to be successful in the arts: ”Putting it together, piece by piece, working out the vision night and day.”
Art isn't easy. Impact can feel vague and confusing unless you work hard to help people see it. When you focus on putting it together and inviting people in, it becomes clear. That clarity is what lets us create and present the art that makes our world better and more beautiful.
