Forsyth Jail & Prison Ministry

The Forsyth Jail & Prison Ministry is a local volunteer ministry with almost 5 decades of service dedicated to serving people incarcerated in Forsyth County. In addition to a focus on sharing Christ's love and compassion with those in the county's prison system, the Ministry works to transform lives and break the cycle of crime and punishment. It does this by ministering to the personal needs of inmates and their families, as well as teaching essential skills and helping to set them up for a new life and a second chance in the community after release. It enjoys an enormous amount of success in doing so, with a single digit recidivism rate among participants, compared to more than 70% in the general population.

When the Forsyth Jail & Prison Ministry approached the Design Office of John Murph, they were experiencing a transition. The Ministry's original founder was retiring after 40 years and passing the torch to a new generation of leadership. This, combined with a pressing need to appeal to a younger audience for volunteer opportunities, the FJPM felt a brand update was in order.

Despite its undeniable success, the Forsyth Jail & Prison Ministry faced many challenges. First and foremost, the Ministry struggled with a lack of awareness in the general community beyond a few key church partnerships. It hoped to expand that network and begin to connect with partners in the business community as well.

This goal was combined with a need to appeal to a younger demographic volunteer pool, as the core participants in the Ministry were typically more than 50 years old. New leadership hoped to draw in more Millennial and Gen Z volunteers.

Finally, the Ministry felt rich in real, captivating human stories of redemption — testimonies from inmates whose lives had been changed and impacted. The hope was that this authentic narrative could somehow be translated into the new branding.

The Design Office Of John Murph hoped to capture the authenticity of the Forsyth Jail & Prison Ministry by putting a human face on its amazing work. This would include a visualization of the Ministry's proven ability to transform the lives of participants in a before/after juxtaposition. The inmates' testimonials could serve as the scaffolding for this strategy. With respect to design, the Office would leverage a fresh approach with an updated color palette and visual language. Motifs that focus on transformation and moving through challenges towards redemption would be explored.

While working towards a new brand architecture for the Forsyth Jail & Prison Ministry, the Design Office had the opportunity to meet and speak with many participants in the program. In a round table discussion, they shared consistently profound ways in which the FJPM had impacted their lives for the better. Each opportunity to share offered an even more compelling human story of transformation and gratitude.

One particular contribution was from an artistically gifted member, who shared multiple illustrations inspired by his experience with the ministry. These compositions formed the core foundation of what ultimately became the final logo solution. Based on his drawings, the design articulates an opening of doors, facilitated by the power of Christ.

This visual design was paired with a gerund-format, three-pronged statement of the Ministry's mission: Reconnecting, Redeeming, and Restoring. Collateral and outreach materials were designed with the above-mentioned before/after paradigm, showing monochrome representations of participants before their transformation juxtaposed with color parallels of them re-engaging with vibrant, positive lives. Included in these visuals was a recurring proverbial 'doorframe' through which each transformation passed.

The color palette employed an organic set of hues, connoting growth and life. Typographically, a stylistic stencil font inspired by the famous designer Milton Glaser was selected to pay homage to the printing typically found on prison uniforms.

Additional materials leveraged excerpts drawn from inmate testimonials and set in a speech-bubble format, showing the powerful impact of the Ministry.

Overall, the branding was given a capstone tagline of "Opening Doors; Opening Futures," directly speaking to the Ministry's mission and invoking the visual of the new brand logo.

As mentioned above, the new core brand concept was inspired by a powerful illustration drawn and shared by one of the Ministry's participants — a gentleman named Louie. In it, he depicts an opening pair of prison doors as a backdrop to two hands reaching out to grasp one another. One hand is implied to belong to Jesus, as it holds a crown of thorns. Beyond the prison doors, the crosses of Calvary beckon.

This illustration is encapsulated in the new logo design, which crafts a prison cell door opening up out of a cross (with a Greek configuration). In the wake of the door's arc, light emerges from the doorway. The bold illustrated cell door mimics the typographic design of the chosen stencil font for a comprehensive, branded presentation.

The new brand architecture was well received by the leadership of the Forsyth Jail & Prison Ministry and implemented in associated collateral materials. The Ministry is ready to move into the next 40 years of service. As of late 2025, it serves 1,000 participants between the downtown Detention Center and the county's minimum-security Correctional Center. The Ministry offers more than 5,000 service opportunities for the year and boasts 235 Transition to Work Program graduates.