Local artists design Mattituck-Laurel civic’s logo
There’s a lot to look at in the Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association’s logo.
Maritime and farming. An osprey catching a fish near its nest.
A closer look reveals even more: the North Fork Community Theatre, Mattituck Presbyterian Church, railroad station and post office.
While the artists — married couple Cynthia and Geoffrey Wells — are pleased with the finished product, they admitted during an interview at their Southold home last week that there was even more they wanted to include.
In particular, Mr. Wells said, the civic association asked that infrastructure like roads and utility poles be removed. Minus those features, the logo turned out just as they envisioned.
“We picked up on the theme of the character and the environment of both of those towns,” Mr. Wells said. “The conclusion we came to was that you can’t talk about the towns and ignore what surrounds them, which is agriculture and maritime activities.”
[Click the image below to enlarge logo]
Mr. Wells said civic president Mary Eisenstein asked him to create the logo about seven months ago. The two met while campaigning on the Democratic ticket for town offices in 2013. While both Ms. Eisenstein, a former Town Board candidate, and Mr. Wells, who ran for a Trustee seat, lost the election, they remained friends.
“We think it’s great Mary took the initiative to get together a civic,” he said. “It’s such a platform to get things resolved that’s non-governmental.”
The Wells, who moved to Southold in 2012 from Manhattan to enjoy the area’s open space and waters, have collaborated together on projects in the past, including “The Shadow of Doubt,” an award-winning short animation film featured in nearly 30 international film festivals.
Ms. Wells is a fine artist and animation filmmaker whose work includes Disney movies “The Fox and the Hound” and “Condor Man,” as well as Emmy Award-winning films “Ziggy’s Gift” and “Roman City.” She was also honored as the first woman to be nominated for an Annie Award for outstanding achievement in animation and short film for “Interview with Tallulah, Queen of the Universe,” which she produced and directed.
While living in South Africa, Mr. Wells worked at McCann-Erickson advertising agency as an art director, producing print ads and commercials for Coca-Cola and L’Oreal, among other name brands. After he emigrated to the United States, he worked in marketing and developed business applications at Walt Disney Company Buena Vista Television. He later served as vice president of information technology at ABC and also worked as chief information officer at Fox.
“Some symbols like Nike and Coca-Cola logos have to be simple,” Mr. Wells explained. “But when you talk about a civic association, you’re talking about the things that they care about, so we felt it was important to be quite detailed.”
While preparing for the civic logo project, Ms. Wells photographed the area’s iconic buildings and designed the perspective of the image toward Love Lane.
While the barn/marina storage drawing is based on a building located outside the civic association’s community, Ms. Wells decided to include it in order to best represent both cultures while saving space. She also drew the civic’s initials in a way that makes it appear as though the association, which was only launched earlier this year, has been around for generations.
In addition to maximizing space within the logo, her goal was to get all the tiny buildings to look as much as they are in reality and somewhat identifiable.
“That’s the fun part — fitting all those elements together and making them clear,” she said.
Ms. Wells said that although she and her husband don’t live in the Mattituck-Laurel area, she believes a passion for the environment and maintaining its rural character goes beyond hamlet borders.
“It’s nice to feel like you’re helping out someway, even though we’re so new to the community,” she said. “They’ve got the same concerns as everybody else. It’s blurred lines.”
Top photo: Cynthia and Geoffrey Wells at Ms. Wells’ home studio in Southold. The artist couple created the Mattituck-Laurel Civic Association logo. (Credit: Jen Nuzzo)
