Westview implemented a new school logo this March for the first time since opening in 2002. While there have been subtle revisions of Westview’s wolverine claw in the past, this new logo fully features Wallie the wolverine.

According to John Nacu, graphic design teacher and creator of the new logo,while there have been attempts at changing the previous design to include a wolverine, the task often proved too large a project to pursue. However, in May of last year, Nacu and his Graphic Design Studio (GDS) – a mentorship program Nacu runs that does freelance graphic design work, which includes students Anand Binu (12), Kalea Kennedy (12), Rishit Senapaty (12), and Jillian Tachiki (12) –  decided to take it on.

“We started working on some spirit shirts with ASB and it evolved into creating a mascot or a wolverine for Westview,” Nacu said. “There’s always been talks of some sort of wolverine [logo], but to actually take it on was a pretty big endeavor because they’re not easy to create. If you do a Google search for a wolverine logo or mascot, there’s not too many. It was definitely a long process trying to come up with that look.”

While Nacu was in charge of the actual hands-on creation of the logo, he relied on  GDS for consultation and feedback on each prototype.

“[We thought the logo should look] fierce [and use] sharp lines,” Senapaty said. “It was mainly the eyes, the nose, and the color schemes [we wanted to adjust] because people don’t really know what a wolverine looks like..”

According to Nacu, they had to go through an extensive process involving the student body via instagram polls, as well as ASB and admin to get the logo approved.

“For it to have gotten to this point where we can actually release it as part of the logo standards and can be used in the school, it’s a pretty big deal,” Nacu said. “Mid-May of last year, [we] sent some things to the district and they gave us the green light to move forward with it. But, we wanted to make sure that we worked with our admin and staff to figure out what are some adjustments that might need to be made. Then we had meetings — there’s been a lot of communication via email, trying to get things to where they are now.”

The new logo isn’t the only thing being revamped at Westview. Nacu said that he, ASB advisor Dennis Sosnowski, and art teacher Keith Obstad are in the process of visually rebranding Westview.

“We started off with some stickers [of the new logo] just to kind of roll it out a little bit,” Nacu said. “Now we have banners out in the quad. We’re working on a new mascot—one that’s references are based off of the new Wolverine. There’s a lot of things in the background that are in the works.”

While creating the logo, Nacu said that he and GDS aimed to make the logo representative of Westview.

“[We tried] to find that right balance [in the logo] that could represent not just athletics, but it could be applied to band, choir, theater, the arts, pretty much any group can use it,” Nacu said. “It’s been a long process to actually get to where we are now. I can’t wait for current and future students to see it and hopefully embrace it.”