Library’s Logos The Work Of A Local Art Director

By Nancy K. Crevier

The C.H. Booth Library is fortunate to have a friend in local art director and graphic designer Ray Shaw. Mr Shaw, who has previously designed several of the C.H. Booth Friends of the Library T-shirts for the annual book sale, recently donated his talents to the creation of two new library designs that residents have been seeing around town.

Mr Shaw is known locally for his Newtown Sandy Hook Vintage Base Ball Team logos, posters and photographs, for his Labor Day Parade T-shirt design, and for his baseball book, The Christening of a Vintage Nine. But because his wife, Susan, is a C.H. Booth library clerk and Mr Shaw has been actively involved as a volunteer for the book sale over the years, his talents are also known and appreciated by the library staff.

He was pleased to offer his skills once again to come up with an appropriate design for the C.H. Booth Diamond Jubilee anniversary when approached by library director Janet Woycik earlier this year, he said, as well as to fashion a logo to promote the library’s big jubilee event, NewtownREADS To Kill A Mockingbird.

Mr Shaw said that NewtownREADS design, a mockingbird perched on a branch and backlit by a bright yellow full moon, was a fairly easy bit of work.

“It probably took me only about half a day to come up with that design,” said Mr Shaw. He was a bit disappointed that the textural detail in the original design could not be carried over into the pin’s reproduction, but the bookmark and other promotional materials incorporate the shadings and other features that add to the design, he said.

The NewtownREADS program is particularly grateful for Mr Shaw’s donation of the logo, said librarian Kim Weber. The program is not funded by any grants, as in many other towns, but solely by the Friends of The C.H. Booth Library, so additional support is always welcome.

The anniversary design was a bit more labor intensive on his part, said Mr Shaw, who provided three variations of the logo for the library’s use.

“The 75th Diamond Jubilee material was created as a ‘graphic identity system’ that could be represented in a number of different mediums and media in any number of configurations,” he explained.

A simple banner declaring Diamond Jubilee beneath the caption of Cyrenius H. Booth Library, floated in front of a large numeral 75, forms the basic design. As simple as it appears, even that has been thoughtfully pulled together by Mr Shaw.

“The numbers 7 and 5 are matched to the same handwriting style on the library signs, kind of an older look,” said Mr Shaw. The library staff found that the basic design was the ideal modification for the new CHBoothLibrary.org website, he noted.

He then put together a more elaborate design that initially he and Ms Woycik hoped to widely utilize. That graphic depicts five Main Street buildings — the library, the meeting house, the general store, Trinity Episcopal Church, and the Chase Building — encompassed by the 75th Diamond Jubilee banner logo as the primary design. “I had to photograph and then draw all of the buildings in such a way that they could be reproduced, depending what [the library] wanted to do with the design,” Mr Shaw said.

It became apparent to him, though, that the design would need to be simplified in order to be used for letterhead and other materials, so the design residents will be more apt to see this year is one in which the 75th Diamond Jubilee banner is perched atop a rendering of just C.H. Booth Library.

“We would love to use the logo with all of the buildings as a T-shirt design. It’s a beautiful design,” said Ms Woycik, but presently, funding does not exist to allow them to do so.

Jackets, shirts, bags and purses are all sporting the To Kill A Mockingbird pins this month, and as the library promotes additional Diamond Jubilee events, Newtowners are bound to see Mr Shaw’s works show up more frequently.

“I always feel good when I see my stuff around town,” said Mr Shaw.