By a margin of 55% to 45%, town residents have expressed their preference for yellow over blue as the dominant color for a new town logo that will become a prominent presence throughout Needham.
Nearly 1,700 residents voted in an online poll conducted by the town. Residents were asked to choose between the yellow and blue color themes after the Needham Branding and Town Seal Committee settled on Town Hall’s gold-domed clock tower as the icon for Needham’s new graphic identity.
The yellow theme was favored by 939 voters; the blue theme drew 756 votes. The committee voted 7-1 in favor of the yellow version at its July 16 meeting. The final decision rests with the Select Board, and the matter is expected to be on the agenda at its Aug. 13 meeting.
The overall design received mostly favorable comments, although some voters were unsparing and others erroneously thought the design was being proposed as the town seal. Also, 26 voters commented that the cupola design looked like a lighthouse.
Ironically, the committee began its work with an “anything but a cupola” predisposition, based on the widespread use of cupolas in municipal iconography throughout the region.
“Initially we were cupola’d out,” said David Linde, designer of the logo and a former member of the Needham Branding and Town Seal Committee, of the committee’s decision to reverse its initial aversion to featuring the cupola. “But it’s probably the most identifiable thing in town.”
The committee was established to produce the logo as well as a new town seal, each to be used in different ways. The committee changed designers before accepting the logo, ending its contract with Mark Favermann and hiring Linde, a Needham-based graphic designer, to take his place.
“The sense of the committee was that we were not going in the same direction,” said committee and Select Board Chair Kevin Keane of the decision to part ways with Favermann.
Linde, who resigned from the committee in order to become its consultant, has lived in Needham since 2001 and did the design work for New Year’s Needham. His firm, Emerge Design, has created logos for the Leominster Public Library, Cullinan Oncology and National Alcohol Screening Day, among others.
He said he specializes in startups. “Because Needham has never had a logo before it’s like a 311-year-old startup,” Linde said. “Town Hall is the jewel of downtown Needham. You use it as a directional marking for people out of town.”
The new logo will replace the town seal anywhere except on official documents. “There will be no retrofitting,” Keane said. When new signs are ordered, the new seal or the new logo will be used.
Over time, the logo will be featured in a variety of ways — on town-owned vehicles, on trash receptacles, on some town websites and to adorn town buildings. The logo is a simpler image than the town seal and is more recognizable from a distance.
Once the committee’s recommendation is handed off to the Select Board, it will turn its attention to the town seal, which poses more difficult questions. The committee has not finished its debate about whether to include the Christian crosses from the current seal. Also, the committee must approve how to depict Chief Nehoiden and John Eliot finalizing the land deal that gave settlers title to Needham.
At its May 28 meeting, the committee discussed a seal design submitted by Amber Autumn Sun Orlando, the representative from the Massachusett Natick Praying Indians. The design corrected historical and geographical errors from the current seal. The background now looks like Needham’s topography, not the Rocky Mountains. The indigenous person depicted is wearing clothing appropriate for the location and the era, and the number of settlers was reduced from two to one.
Town Manager Kate Fitzpatrick stressed the committee has not endorsed the design, but members believe it is a clearer depiction than the current seal.
“They’re not similarly clothed, but there’s an air of something common between them,” Sun Orlando said. “I’m a fan of less is more. Too much is going to crowd the seal.”
Fitzpatrick said the seal will not be voted on by residents. The committee will finalize its choice and send it to the Select Board. Final approval rests with Town Meeting.
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