ERVING — Town officials are heading back to the drawing board in an effort to get Erving’s town branding efforts back on track.
Town Administrator Bryan Smith, in a memo shared with the Selectboard, explained that the town made attempts within the last six years to work on its branding. These efforts included working with students in a senior-level architecture class at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on a visioning project for Erving Center that included renderings of signs incorporating resident input. These designs were expected to be rolled out by the town, but the project stalled due to the pandemic, as well as concern over the prospect of featuring the French King Bridge due to its historical association with suicides.
At the time of the design work, the goal was to be able to place signs in areas around Erving, including at Park Street Park, Church Street Park, Erving Center Cemetery and the Poplar Mountain Conservation Area, along with two new “Welcome to Erving” signs.
Although no formal proposal has come through, Smith noted in his memo that town staff expressed interest in incorporating Erving’s “A Great Place to Live” slogan in the new logo designs, along with considering alterations of the phrase, such as “A Great Place to Play” or “A Great Place to Work” for use in branding. A style guide for staff to use for their own departments is one of the other elements that town officials want to see explored.
As part of the Selectboard’s discussion about the branding effort last week, board members noted the time and effort that went into the project from UMass, but they felt it was less in the direction of where a town logo should go. Selectboard member Jacquelyn Boyden voiced her appreciation for more natural colors to represent Erving, with some of the colors in the logo feeling “artificial.” Similarly, Selectboard member William Bembury felt it leaned into being “kind of cartoonish.”
“It has a place,” Selectboard Chair Jacob Smith said, adding that it’s not in the “right style and design vein” of what a municipality like Erving would need in a logo. Still, he noted it could be professional enough for the right organization.
When it came to the details of the sign options that had been developed, Jacob Smith said that while the designs were simple, there were textures with the wood and stone that came together in a way that seemed to be more representative of what messaging the town wants to put out. Boyden also spoke about some of the existing signs in Erving displaying a deeper blue hue with gold accents, which, to her, feels more “dignified.” Still, she noted that shouldn’t keep the town away from exploring other ideas for a design.
In moving forward with a description of what the town is seeking in a design proposal, Jacob Smith said the recommendation could be to keep some elements of the UMass proposal that tie into Erving’s recreation and nature elements, but to keep options open when it comes to the color pallet.
“I’m in favor of approaching this again, and with someone that’s a lot more qualified than we are, to come up with real graphics that portray the town in a positive way,” Bembury said, prompting some chuckles from the rest of the board.
Bembury suggested the Selectboard view work portfolios from other designers, and discuss the use of a larger style guide that could be used to guide future applications involving town branding, similar to the style guide that Amesbury has. Bryan Smith said he’d return to the Selectboard with portfolio options for review.
