NET Bible

Working with Types & Symbols on a branding commission for a Bible project was a pleasure from start to finish. They employed a more thorough discovery process than I’ve had with other agencies, which helped us to fine-tune the direction and requirements unique to our project. The solution they developed was unique, elegant, and striking—exactly what we needed.

—Nikki Getman

The Opportunity

Launched online as a beta release in 2001, with the first edition completed in 2006, the NET is the newest complete translation of the Bible into English from the original biblical languages. In 2018, Thomas Nelson Bibles approached us to create a visual identity for a new, printed edition of this online-first Bible.

The Team

Nikki Getman
Senior Marketing Director
Kate Armstrong
Art Director
Daniel Marrs
Associate Publisher

The History

The Bible has been translated into English many times before, but the digital nature of this project allowed for two unique things: beta testing and unlimited space. This led to the 25-person translation team releasing early versions for input, and to the inclusion of over 60,000 translators notes, allowing a view into the process of Biblical translation that had never been seen before.

Back in the mid-nineties, at the very beginning of the World Wide Web a group of biblical language scholars and web developers had the idea to make the Bible freely available on the internet. At the time, the only public-domain English translations were KJV and AVS, and licensing any of the more palatable translations for unlimited worldwide use was impossibly expensive. So this group of scholars and developers decided to do what anyone with their mix of skills would do: create a brand new English translation that would be freely available on the internet.

The Concept

For the identity concept, we focused on ways to communicate the transparency and rigor of this dialogue, and arrived at a flexible symbol and graphic device: a combination of a speech bubble, a turned page, and a single quote punctuation. Pairing this with the custom typeface designed by 2K/DENMARK, we designed covers, packaging, companion journals, and the primary graphic device for the cleverly abbreviated NET.