‘I am proud of where I ended up’
The Harold Stevens Gallery is developing a new brand identity with help from Clark students who studied with Sherry Freyermuth, director of studio art. The students have designed new logos for the gallery, which is located just steps from campus inside WCUW 91.3 Community Radio at 910 Main St.
The gallery honors the late Harold Stevens, who left a bequest to the radio station after his death in 2022. The gallery opened two years later.
“The mission of the Harold Stevens Gallery is to showcase emerging and established artists while serving as a community space for exhibitions, performances, screenings, and educational events, reflecting the gallery’s creative energy and community-centered spirit,” says Ann Souza, a WCUW board member and co-curator of the Harold Stevens Gallery. “Including Clark students in the project was especially meaningful because it gave student artists and designers the opportunity to participate in a real-world creative collaboration. It also honored the history of WCUW, which was born on the Clark campus, making the partnership both creatively and historically significant.”
The students participating in the logo-design project were part of Freyermuth’s Identity in Practice course.
The logos were displayed at the gallery from April 20 to 23, and visitors could vote on their favorite designs. Students promoted the show and wrote and disseminated a press release, an experiential learning opportunity that demonstrated how to work with clients and accept feedback. During a gallery reception on April 22, students showed off their concepts.
Sophie Lee ’26, a studio art major, won the popular vote for her design.
“I wanted something simple and straightforward that still felt like it had a unique touch, which led to me experimenting with overlapping letters,” she says. “I opted to focus on typography rather than imagery, because I thought it would be a better way of encapsulating the gallery’s wide array of artists and shows.”
Determining the perfect spacing for the letters was Lee’s biggest challenge.
“I was super excited to learn that I won the popular vote,” she says. “There were a lot of really strong contenders, and I felt that it could have gone to any one of my peers.”
Souza says Lee’s logo helps create a stronger and more recognizable visual identity, “communicating the gallery’s mission across exhibitions, outreach, events, and digital platforms, reinforcing its role in Worcester’s contemporary arts community.”
Manny Torto ’27, a business administration and music major who makes his own album and song covers, chose a simple style for his design. Torto’s design bears the text Harold Stevens Gallery at WCUW in a bold font framing a silhouette of Harold Stevens.
“His figure, his relaxed posture, I felt would really resonate with people, especially the people who knew him personally,” he says. “I felt like I met Harold Stevens without actually meeting him, because you can feel a sense of his being and his legacy in the space.
Torto says he often sought input from his peers during the design process and feels more confident in his skills now. “The biggest challenge for me was toning things down,” he says. “I overcame that by getting feedback and constantly asking questions like, ‘How could I make this better?’”
Because the gallery space is an “open window” for emerging artists, Beverly Peterson ’26, a studio art major, went with a window-like design for her project featuring rectangular panes. This was her first graphic design project.
“This was very new to me, so there was a lot of back-and-forth with the programs that I was using, like InDesign and Illustrator. It was difficult, but I worked my way through it,” says Peterson. “I am 100 percent a better graphic designer than I would’ve been before I took this class. I think it was a valuable learning experience. I don’t think I’m the best graphic designer in the world, but I am proud of where I ended up.”
In addition to Lee, Torto, and Peterson, students exhibiting logos were John De-Andrade ’26, Danny Goodman ’28, Leo Gordon Bullion ’27, Vicky Liu ’26, Andy Loverde ’26, Owen McNally ’28, Owen Reimold ’28, Stazi Salazar ’26, and Chloe Venkitachalam ’26.
