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The New SAR Logo 
By VPG Allen Greenly, South Atlantic District
As many of you may now be aware, the National Society Sons of the American Revolution has adopted a new logo. Let me give you a little background on how this happened and introduce the designer.
When President General Warren Alter asked me to become the Branding and Engagement Committee chairman, I said yes without giving it any thought.
His one charge to me was to create a new SAR logo.
Warren surrounded me with a great committee. Howard Fisk became the vice-chair and was invaluable as we moved forward to create a new logo. We believed the best way to create a logo was to get someone outside the SAR to do the design work. After much discussion on how to get this accomplished, we opted for a contest with prize money.
The committee went to the Executive Committee and requested prize money. The winner would get $5,000; second and third place would each receive $1,000. Gregory Greenwalt reached out to 44 graphic design schools and advertised in both the SAR and C.A.R. magazines to reach as large an audience as possible. It worked.
The committee worked on fillable forms, which were created by Victor G. Murray of the Florida Society. With Mick Pitzer and Michael Scroggins’ help, a link was set up on the SAR website to direct potential contestants to the page where the contest rules were posted and they could download the forms to submit their entries.
The committee received more than 300 logo designs by the Dec. 31, 2019, deadline.
Just a quick note about our committee members: There were 13 members from across the country on the Branding and Engagement Committee, and they ranged in age from 35 to 70 and over. It was a right mix of young, middle-aged and older members, a great cross-section of the SAR. Then came the judging. A Google spreadsheet was set up for members to log their votes. As the entries were received, they were sent to the committee in groups of 10. Each member would vote yes or no. After all the entries were received and the first round of judging was completed, totals were run on each entry for the number of yes votes. Votes for each entry were tabulated and put in groups of 0–13. It was an exceedingly complicated process, but the committee narrowed the field down to the top 10.
All the contestants were then notified about the first round of judging. From the top 10, the ExComm selected the “final four” to go to the trustees. The trustees met and voted three times, eliminating one entry each time, leaving us with the final logo.
And now a little about the winning designer: Stephen Harrington from Connecticut submitted the winning design. Stephen received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design. After a brief stint as an art director at a Connecticut advertising agency, he decided to go out independently. In 1987, he became a full-time, self-employed illustrator and designer. His favorite projects combine his two passions: art and history.
As he stated, this is why his work on the SAR logo was such a labor of love. What follows is, in his own words, how he came up with the winning logo. “First, I came up with a shortlist of visual icons I associated with patriotism, the theme of the logo.
I thought of the American flag, the bald eagle, the Liberty Bell, the Minuteman statue, and the American Shield—all bold, easily recognizable symbols that would translate well into a logo. I decided the color theme, regardless of the design, had to be red, white, and blue (what’s more patriotic than that?).
I then created several thumbnail sketches, determined which were the strongest, and then rendered those at full size on my computer using Photoshop and Illustrator. “The winning logo’s inspiration was to combine the majestic beauty of an eagle in flight with a flag waving in the breeze. My design originally started with an entire eagle’s tail feathers morphing into an American flag’s stripes.
Type was always an important element of the design, integrated into the eagle’s shape and the flag. Once I created this initial design, I realized the eagle/stripes were too small and did not have the presence I was looking for, so I revised the design using just the bald eagle’s head.”
Thank you, Steve, for all your hard work, inspiration and enthusiasm, and for the fantastic logo you presented! It is a design that represents our organization well and one of which we will all be proud. Compatriot David Perkins presented Steve’s check. Chancellor General Peter Davenport submitted the paperwork, and we have received the copyright for this logo. Thanks to everyone involved in this project!