About our Reformation Anniversary logo

There are many logos being used all around the world for the 500th anniversary, and many of them use the famous Lutheran rose, designed by Luther himself. This logo is not exclusive to the IAPS, but was approved in cooperation with several organizations such as VUSH (The Evangelical Brotherhood), KPUK (the Kosovo Evangelical Protestant Church), and a coalition of Macedonian Evangelical churches. We desired a unique logo containing the basic elements of his rose, but wanted a simple, contemporary logo that would reflect illumination, heritage and progress. The elements of our logo are these:

The five petals of the flower have come to represent the five theological pillars of Protestantism, expressed in Latin, which are universally accepted despite denominational differences: sola Scriptura, solus Christus, sola gratia, sola fide, soli Deo gloria.

The five leaves or tips of the flower resemble the tips of fountain pens. This was important to us because of the emphasis of the Reformation on reading and writing – an emphasis that sparked educational advancements all around the world.

A heart. In Luther’s rose, the heart was the place that faith needed to do its greatest work. Societies cannot be transformed positively if there is not inward transformation. The Reformation emphasized putting Scriptures into the people’s “heart language,” that is, in words that the mind could understand and the heart could be touched and changed by.

The cross. Interestingly, we debated whether or not to accept a logo containing the cross, for two reasons. First, the IAPS is an academic institute, not a religious one. Second, we are sensitive to the way the cross has often been used and perceived as a political symbol with negative connotations. However, there is nothing essentially anti-academic about any historical truths, whether religious or political. Discovering the meaning of the cross of Jesus was the heart of the Reformation. In our cooperation on this logo with the Protestant religious organizations mentioned above, we felt we had no academic or historical basis to refuse logos with crosses, especially since the cross was the central element of Luther’s original design.

The rays of light in our logo illustrate the enlightenment that resulted from the Reformation. The reformers’ emphasis on personal responsibility had a profound effect on theology, language, culture, science, business, politics, and education. It left hardly any sphere of life untouched, truly changing the world.

Useage:

The logo was designed for mutual use by academic institutions, religious organizations, churches, and individuals in Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Montenegro. Specifically, the organizations approving this logo were the Institute for Albanian and Protestant Studies, the Albanian Evangelical Brotherhood, the Kosovo Protestant Evangelical Church, and a coalition of Macedonian Evangelical churches. It may be used freely by any institution or organization in the above-mentioned countries who are planning events commemorating the Reformation, but please inform us first, and we can send you original artwork. Anyone outside of our geographical region may also contact us about using our logo for a small donation.

Technical details:
The logo was created by an artist in the Russian Federation on the crowdSPRING platform. Her design was the winning entry out of 65 submissions and we bought it for our exclusive use. The font for this logo is Sitka (Banner Bold).