Will Thomas Nelson merge with Zondervan?

(NOTE: Now that Thomas Nelson and Zondervan appear to have been merged into an entity called HarperCollins Christian Publishing, these logos appear to be quite useless. Still, they were fun to create! Another thing to note is that when I made these predictions, I was not, at the time, a signed Zondervan author, although I did become one in April of 2012. My first novel, MERLIN’S BLADE will be coming out April 16th 2013.)

Okay, this post is pure speculation. I don’t pretend to know anything at all about the inner workings of HarperCollins, Zondervan, or Thomas Nelson. But I do know a bit about the corporate world, having worked there for the last 22 years.

So, in my opinion, these two Christian publishers will merge sometime soon, barring the deal falling apart. To see why I think this, click here.

So, when they merge /strong>, it is my understanding that the names Zondervan and Thomas Nelson will continue as imprints. But what will the main company be called? If Thomas Nelson were smaller than Zondervan, it might just be absorbed. But since Thomas Nelson is larger than Zondervan, I would think it possible that the main company might get a new name.

What name? In the style of HarperCollins, I would propose either ZondervanNelson, or ZonderNelson. If either of these happens to be the name that is chosen, I have some logo ideas to propose.

Yes, this is a bit cheeky, but the graphic-designer in me came up with a really cool idea … a 45 degree angled “Z” that doubles as an “N”. I have also included the HarperCollins fire and water elements, both of which have symbolism within Christianity. (Any logo may be clicked to see a high-res version of it.)

   

I realize that Zondervan might not want to drop the “van”, although I do see a benefit to keeping the two the same number of syllables and number of letters. So, assuming they want to keep the full name, here is a logo presented that way. It is not as symmetrical, but that is okay.

And here is another set, this time with the text horizontal, and the last also including the full name of Thomas Nelson:

   

Zondervan’s current logo uses a special font which I don’t have access to, and I would expect that my standard “Times New Roman” font would be replaced.

Anyway, this was fun to do. Even though I claim ownership of these logo ideas, I would gladly give them free of charge to Zondervan / Thomas Nelson / HarperCollins for use.