Denny’s Tour of America

We have been selling our classic American travel posters in flash sale events on Fab.com since summer of 2011. This national exposure—in addition to selling them on our own site—has caught the attention of art directors from some big national ad agencies. When the agency for Denny’s Restaurants (Erwin Penland) saw our classic American illustration and design work, they asked us if we could help them create a new look for the Denny’s Tour of America menu.

Each summer, Denny’s creates new all-American dishes for their menu, and they give it a travel theme. It made perfect sense to marry our vintage travel poster look with their menu concept. Our new pals at Erwin Penland (EP) were great to work with. They wrote the text, shot beautiful food photos, laid out the menu, and commissioned us to create 7 illustrations and a logo. The illustrations included: a menu cover and 6 American cities or regions that inspired special dishes featured in the Tour of America menu.

We started with the Tour of America logo. Staff artist Andy Gregg worked under Joel Anderson’s creative direction to design a logo that evoked the glory days of American road travel. After a few sketched concepts, the creative team at EP pitched our logo to the decision makers at Denny’s. They loved the design, and the process moved ahead with ease.

Next, the chefs in the Denny’s test kitchens developed some tasty looking new dishes. (We never got to sample the food during the process—we just got teased with gorgeous, mouth-watering photography of each featured menu item!)

Once the recipes were tested and confirmed, the art directors at EP assigned the 6 travel destinations that went with the menu items. We had our list of American cities & regions, and we set out to illustrate travel posters for each one. Andy worked on the menu cover, which was to suggest a taste bud adventure, exploring America from coast-to-coast. Joel worked with Ligia Teodosiu and Shelby Rodeffer and Andy Gregg to come up with the other 6 illustrations.

Once all of the illustrations were approved, the design team at EP took our art and skillfully integrated it into the menu design. The result was classic and delicious-looking!

Everyone liked the art so much, they wanted to see it as illustrated travel prints and collectible postcards. So we created the Denny’s Tour of America collection and now offer these beautiful posters and cards on our Studio Store site: AndersonDesignGroup.com (then click on SHOP and pull down the Denny’s Tour of America Collection.)

 

The campaign has been a success for Denny’s. We have enjoyed working with them and the great folks at Erwin Penland to blend classic art with modern advertising! Our pals at EP were proud of the outcome, too. To thank the folks at Denny’s corporate, they commissioned us to create a custom version of the menu cover that was framed and hung on the wall in the EP offices and teh Denny’s corporate headquarters. Notice how we added the EP and Denny’s corporate buildings to the landscape!