Robbinsville High School student Taylor Langford designed this logo of a raven, now in use by the school as its primary mark for athletic teams, merchandise and more.
RHS unveils new Raven mark
By Aliza Alperin-Sheriff
This fall Robbinsville High School unveiled its new, student-created logo. The new logo, designed by junior Taylor Langford, features a raven and incorporates the school’s alternate logo of a red R with “VILLE” written inside. It now adorns sports uniforms, sweatshirts and more.
The school needed a new logo because the old one was the same design as one used formerly by the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens. Some staff members suggested legal action had been threatened against the school district, but assistant principal Nicole Rossi said that was not the case.
Nevertheless, last spring, the Class of 2017 student council sponsored a contest for students to “develop a raven to signify and represent Robbinsville High School,” said Haydee Donza, a Spanish teacher at the school and the advisor for the Class of 2017 student council.
The student council selected Langford’s raven from six designs entered in the contest. Donza explained that part of the reason Langford won is because her logo was drawn by hand, not computer generated.
“Taylor is a real artist,” she said.
Langford, an aspiring fashion designer, didn’t even know about the contest when she sketched the winning entry.
“I was just drawing in my book because I was out of gym for injury reasons,” she said. “As I was drawing, one of the gym teachers came over and said, ‘That looks good. You should submit it for the contest.’”
So how was it that Langford was randomly sketching a raven at the same time her school was holding a contest to develop a new raven logo?
“I actually didn’t realize what I was drawing,” she explained. “I was just listening to one of my favorite bands—a rock band—and got into gothic drawings. The gym teacher pointed out it was a raven and I said, ‘Oh, it is.’”
When Langford got the news that she won the contest, she was really surprised. She wasn’t even sure what the school intended to do with the logo.
“I asked, ‘Where are they going to put it? On uniforms? Clothes?’” she reflected.
That was exactly what the school planned.
However, before it could be put anywhere, Langford still had work to do. In order to actually use the logo, the school needed a digital image, not a sketch on paper.
Langford did not know how to convert her drawing into a digital image, so she turned to her web design teacher, Jennifer Paulino, for help.
“Taylor was already on my radar as someone with artistic ability with her amazing notebook full of sketches,” Paulino said.
Langford started coming in during lunch to work with Paulino. Together they scanned Langford’s design and imported it into Adobe Illustrator, a vector art drawing program, which Paulino taught Langford how to use.
“I was awful. It was fun, but I kept messing up,” Langford said.
However, Paulino explained that is a normal experience when learning how to use a vector art drawing program.
“It’s a really steep learning curve,” she said.
The whole process took about three months to complete. Paulino saved the graphic in a variety of file types and sizes and the new logo was finally ready.
For Langford, seeing her sketch turned into her school’s new logo has been an incredible experience.
“I saw girls from the field hockey team wearing it, and I got really excited,” she said.
The faculty is also very proud of Langford’s new raven.
“How awesome is it to have a student created logo?” Paulino said.