What’s in our RUPI logo?

We wanted a logo. Twelve years ago we were incorporating as a non-profit organization. This was exciting. We wanted a logo that would be a memorable visual connection with the words right use of power. I found a company that puts out the call to designers all over the world to submit their logo concepts. Many designs came in. They covered the whole range of what people associate with power and with right. There were logos with swords and hammers. There were designs with pretty flowers. There were square and boxed designs.  There were monochromatic designs. These concepts really helped us think about what we wanted to communicate in our logo. A group of us sat down looking at printed copies of the top ten that resonated with us.

We wanted the image connected to right use of power to be fluid instead of static, to show both depth and expansiveness, to be attractive with color both strong and warm, and to feel calm and centered. As we narrowed our focus to the last three designs, what caught our attention was the way the spiral design we chose related to the power spiral in our teachings. Our power spiral is a model for practicing right relationship with power in a multi-layered continuum. We don’t learn to use power wisely and well in one course or one book. Understanding power and using our influence well is a life-long deepening and spiraling process. We offer four orienting dimensions of right use of power: Be Informed and Present, Be Compassionate and Aware, Be Connected and Accountable, Be Skillful and Proactive. Our designer was from Indonesia. We thanked him and claimed our logo. And then something remarkable happened. My husband, Ren, and I were on our way to teach for six months in a bilingual elementary school in Central Borneo in Indonesia. Riding out of the airport in Jakarta, we were amazed to see a big billboard with an image very similar to our logo—sharper colors, less flow, advertising a city in Sumatra—but clearly similar. Right Use of Power was right at home half way across the globe from Boulder, Colorado USA. Take a look at our logo here. Does it convey to you the energy we hope for?