The Marblehead Festival of Arts summoned a spirited group of new, as well as familiar, faces—including volunteers, donors and business friends—to the 2007 Logo Premiere Party on Tuesday, January 30th. The Landing Restaurant did a wonderful job in hosting the annual logo celebration. The new logo design, which had been under wraps since its selection, was made public at the party.

Matt Byers, the 2007 Logo Contest winner, is a Massachusetts native living in Marblehead. A graduate of the Butera School of Art, in Boston, with a degree in illustration, he is a professional illustrator by trade and an avid painter in watercolor and acrylic media. Matt is also a stay-at-home dad with two adoring, daughters, Summer (8 years) and India (8 months) who looked on at last Tuesday’s award ceremony. Matt and wife, Claire, live on Green Street, having met in Marblehead 17 years ago. They moved back here five years ago to raise a family.

"I like to apply a modern twist to traditional imagery,” is the way Matt described the inspiration for his design. Matt submitted work to the Logo Contest two other times, but perhaps the third time's the charm, as Matt received the top prize of $150 this year. He plans on entering his art in the summer Festival art exhibits, where he has entered and sold works in the past.

The Logo Contest runners-up this year were Susan Lee and Louis Regilio. The field included nearly 100 entries, submitted by 32 artists. While design professionals served as judges to narrow the field to a few finalists, ultimately the public decided with over 1000 votes cast in “People’s Choice” ballot boxes which were set up in 19 locations in Marblehead, Beverly, Swampscott and Salem.