MARTINSBURG — Earlier this month, the Berkeley County Council approved and adopted what will become the official county seal.

Matthew Umstead, director of policy and strategic planning, presented the design, which was created by Thea Clutter, a senior at Musselman High School.

The development of an official county seal was a project of the Berkeley County 250th Commemoration Steering Committee and the Berkeley County Council. The county’s 250th birthday is May 15, 2022.

Clutter, 17, of Gerrardstown, created all of the designs for the committee.

“Thea produced incredible work, but she also proved to be even more adept at responding to the steering committee’s many design requests,” Umstead said during the meeting on Sept. 2 when the seal was approved.

Clutter said she has been making art for years and that creating the official Berkeley County seal was a great opportunity.

“I have been making art since I was young. My mom gave me the supplies, and I would attend some art events. I focused on art mostly in seventh grade, and I wanted to become a tattoo artist. I have been in art classes through public school and a tattoo apprentice since I turned 16, creating every day,” Clutter said. “I love the freedom and purpose art gives its creator.”

Clutter came upon the opportunity through her mentor for tattoos. She said he handed her the project.

“It feels great to make a lasting impact on my community doing something I love,” Clutter said of the seal design.

She said her plans for the future include continuing tattooing, making art and possibly attending an online college.

Gary Stanley Jr., was also one who played a part in the final design of the seal. He said his main part in the project was working with Umstead to fine tune the designs.

Stanley, who has worked in information technologies for over 20 years, is a Martinsburg native and said he enjoyed working on the project.

“This has been a several-month project with various things that Matt and I had talked in great length about,” Stanley said. “We looked at different county seals across the country. We wanted this to be unique.”

Stanley said he was uncertain about how the council would react, but he was pleased with their response.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet. I am excited to see it going forward,” Stanley said.

The obverse and reverse designs of the final seal selected were among 15 that committee members reviewed and voted on over a period of several days.

“While the newly adopted official seal is intentionally county-focused, a particular goal of this project was to preserve elements of the ‘celebration seal’ that was designed for Berkeley County’s bicentennial 50 years ago,” Umstead said at the Sept. 2 meeting.

The official press release added that a plaque dedication ceremony for the official county seal is tentatively set for May 19, 2022 — the 250th anniversary of the very first meeting by the county’s governing body, then known as the County Court.