New Logo for Hudson Library, Highlands, NC

In developing the design for the new logo for the Hudson Library Inc., of Highlands, N.C., I wanted to emphasize the fact that the library was founded in 1884, making it one of the oldest libraries in the state. The 1870's ushered in the "Golden Age" of book cover art which lasted more than 50 years. The visual arts and the literary arts have had a mutually beneficial relationship for centuries and in the late 1800's publishers commissioned contemporary painters, architects, and stain glass designers to create covers that would entice the bookstore browser to stop and take note.  The covers were made of either toiled leather or painted cloth.

British book cover art was influenced primarily by the artistic trends of the Arts and Crafts Movement, spear-headed by William Morris and the Aesthetic Movement associated with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Christopher Dresser. American book cover art was also influenced by these movements as well as the East Lake style which was considered "Modern" at the time.

Using these styles as my basis for design, I chose images that symbolize knowledge, ie. the apple, and flowing water to quench the thirst for knowledge, in a setting of our beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. The thistle is to remind us that the flora and fauna of Highlands is similar to that of Scotland, the country of immigration that our early European founders came from. And always a respect for nature which the native inhabiters of these mountains respected. And the written word became important to the Cherokee also.

— Rosemary Clark Stiefel