By PETER TEO

A SINGAPOREAN Methodist has brought honour to The Methodist Church in Singapore (MCS) when his entry for the logo design for the 19th World Methodist Conference was picked the winner.

Mr Michael Tan Soo Guan, a member of Bedok Methodist Church, won the competition to select the best logo design from more than 50 entries from all over the world. He has received his prize of US$500 (S$815) from the contest organiser, the World Methodist Council.


His winning design will be used as the official logo for the World Methodist Conference which will be held in Seoul from July 20 to 24, 2006. It will now be used in all conference brochures, posters, banners, backdrops and other publicity materials.


It was publicly shown for the first time to delegates and guests attending the 8th Session of the General Conference of the MCS at Sophia Blackmore Hall, Methodist Centre on Oct 19, 2004. It was justifiably greeted by loud applause.


Mrs Roma Wyatt of the World Methodist Council in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, had emailed Bishop Dr Robert Solomon to say: "It would be most appropriate for the first public display of the logo to be at the Singapore General Conference."


A happy Mr Tan, 48, said in a recent interview at Methodist Centre: "My wife and I are ardent readers of Methodist Message. When we saw the article in the August issue of Methodist Message inviting entries for the logo design for the World Methodist Conference, my wife encouraged me to take part.


"I saw it as an opportunity for me to use my God-given talent to participate in the contest and to contribute to the church.


"However, as I did not have any idea what the World Methodist Council does, and what the word 'reconciling' means in the context of the conference theme 'God in Christ Reconciling', I went to ask friends and did some research by going into the Internet.


"I found that the word 'reconciling' means to bring harmony, to unify, to restore the church. I realised then that the Cross is a very powerful image that represents or demonstrates unity.


"Then I decided that the conference logo that I was going to design must capture the dynamism of the Methodist Church across cultures, languages and races from the four corners of the world - north, south, east and west," added Mr Tan, who has a son aged seven, and a daughter aged three.


Explaining his winning design, he said: "The conference logo symbolises the world of Methodist community coming together from the four corners of the globe (represented by the four strokes and colours), and it manifests the conference theme 'God in Christ Reconciling', coming together in harmony and unity to form a single body of Christ, which is represented by the dynamic yet simple rendition of the symbol of the Cross."


Mr Tan is the Director, Design of Citigate Su Yeang Design Pte Ltd. With more than 20 years' experience in the corporate identity programmes, branding and packaging, design and production of reports and brochures, he has worked with several government agencies and large corporations in Singapore and abroad.


He has won several design awards for his creations, including the conference logo for the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which was selected from 286 entries. The WTO subsequently adopted the conference logo as its new corporate logo, which was used from 1997 onwards.


He also developed the new identity for the National Library Board, which reflects Singapore's goal of becoming a gracious society through continual learning and knowledge acquisition, while embracing information technology.


Other key corporate identity projects he had worked on included The Esplanade, the Far East Organisation, the Ministry of Manpower, the Health Promotion Board, MediaCorp and the Singapore Parliament.

Mr Michael Tan … His winning logo design for the 19th World Methodist Conference is another feather in his cap. - Methodist Message picture.