The Seal and Branding Committee and the Select Board voted unanimously Aug.13 to adopt Needham’s first town logo. The blue and yellow emblem, which received 55% of online survey votes, will represent the town in many public-facing spots including on town buildings, vehicles, trash bags and road signs.
After the survey results were tallied, some minor tweaks to the cupola were added, including a weathervane. “It’s a detail that’s pretty small but it does complete it,” said David Linde, the Needham based graphic designer hired to produce both the logo and the seal.
Amber Autumn Sun Orlando, a committee member and representative of the Massachusett Natick Praying Indians, agreed. “Without it, it looks like a robot doing a split,” she said.
Unlike the logo, the town seal is a stamp of officialdom used at the discretion of the town clerk. It is more likely to appear on documents such as birth, marriage and death certificates. Many municipalities across the commonwealth are in the process of revising their seals because of historical inaccuracies and cultural insensitivities. Newton has been at it since 2020, and this month appropriated $25,000 to hire a design firm.
In Needham, the efforts are being funded through a state appropriation. The Seal and Branding Committee began its work in October 2023 and hopes to present a seal to Annual Town Meeting in the spring, but the seal revisions present more complexities than the creation of a logo.
At its last meeting the committee mentioned a wide array of issues that need to be ironed out. Should the Christian crosses remain on the seal? Should the native and settler be facing one another? Should they be seated? What species of trees should be included? How much detail should the seal attempt to display?
The committee contrasted three models: the original version slated to be replaced; a seal submitted by Sun Orlando at a previous meeting; and a new version designed by Linde.
In Linde’s design a native man and a settler stand next to one another in apparent silence. The town’s original seal depicts a negotiation among one native person and two settlers. The committee felt Linde’s design needed to appear more interactive. “We have to decide what the narrative is,” said Select Board Chair Kevin Keane, a member of the committee and a graphic designer by trade.
Committee member Gloria Greis, executive director of the Needham History Center & Museum, pointed out that what is known about the event being depicted is not one the town can take pride in. “This is not a narrative that you want to go into too closely,” she said.
After King Philip’s War, said Greis, native peoples were decimated and willing to accept anything for land from which they knew they were about to be ejected. “The deeds were mostly fictional. They essentially codified that the land had already been stolen.”
Of course, one symbol can never fully embody a complex multigenerational history. “Having them face each other is at least a way to symbolize that there was a conversation and that it was peaceful,” said Sun Orlando.
The committee will resume its work at its next meeting Sept. 10.
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