You’ve got to love it when WHS & WHS join forces.
Wellesley Historical Society was looking to replicate its logo, which features town hall, for use on vehicle stickers/decals. But Wellesley Historical Executive Director Amanda Fisher says the image wasn’t quite right for reproduction, so society volunteer Jennifer Maddon connected with Wellesley High art teacher Brian Reddy in hopes that the logo might serve as a project for his digital art team.
He, in turn, recruited Wellesley High senior Sarah Dobbie, who had been seeking a volunteer opportunity. She’s been involved in art since middle school, taking sculpture, metals, drawing, and painting, and says her drawing and painting intensive class has been one of the best things of the year.
“I recruited Sarah to redraw the emblem in the center because the original one, while a well-drawn design, had poor image quality,” Reddy said. “Sarah has excellent drafting skills and is comfortable creating digital imagery, so I was confident she’d easily handle creating the new emblem.”
Dobbie drew the emblem manually and sent Reddy the digital file. He then replicated the text and banner imagery using digital apps at the high school, and prepped the image format for use in various applications.
“It was difficult taking the stippling (dots) from the original design into a streamlined version, deciding where to enhance shadows and leave spaces open. Hatching can be somewhat harsh especially when using a larger line weight, and one difficulty was trying to minimize that and maintain the shape of the building while only using straight lines,” Dobbie said. “Overall, I think it took between 3 and 4 hours.”
This isn’t the first Wellesley image Dobbie has made her mark on. Previously, she recreated the map of Guernsey Sanctuary for the Wellesley Conservation Council. That map was done on paper, and she reworked the logo digitally to make it easier to correct errors and play with different versions.
Dobbie looks forward to spotting the Wellesley Historical Society image in the wild, on a vehicle.
“It is spectacular to think that I could see something I created around town, to know that people own and are enjoying my work.”
Reddy added: “I think it will bring a little joy to the morning rush if I find myself sitting behind it on Washington St.”
This is really nice to see the collaboration between a Student, a Teacher, and WHS to re-produce a very important Logo for WHS… Thank you to all that did this wonderful work together!