Saint Bartholomew's Church - affectionately known as St. Bart's - is an Episcopal Church located on Park Avenue and 51st Street. The Romanesque structure is unique among its peers. Ultimately, architectural style drove the visual strategy so much that the typography was lifted directly from the building facade.

Keith Reinhard, DDB's Chairman Emeritus, worked with church leadership to clearly articulate St. Bart's spirit. The outcome was "Everybody Needs a Place." St. Bart's warmly welcomes all people to participate freely and without judgement.

Further distilling Reinhard's "brandstorm" to a design driver, OCD seized on the idea of tradition with counterpoint. It's about being beautiful but robust and always accessible. The identity system had to speak clearly in a minimum of three voices: historic, religious and public.

The Romanesque architecture, a style characterized by circles and arches, offered up nearly inexhaustible design inspiration. The church interior is made up of an eclectic mix of mosaics, stonework and stained glass windows that are stylistically disparate but relentlessly unified by the circle. They are everywhere; impossible to fully catalogue.

The historic church typography was nicely complimented by Matthew Carter's robust new typeface Carter Sans. They work together to form the church voice and Carter Sans works on its own to form the public voice. Rector Bill Tully has a vision of turning the church into a public space open twenty-four-seven with a flame burning to welcome all comers.