Kai Carpenter

Anderson Design Group has always been into early-to-mid 20th Century design and illustration. Founder Joel Anderson enjoys exploring flea markets, antique shops, and vintage book stores wherever classic book and magazine covers, advertising art, posters, and packaging can be found. When Joel creates, he gravitates toward hand-lettering and illustrated art that looks and feels like it was produced in the 1920s, 30s or 40s—in the days when illustration was king. Part of his creative process is collaborating with other talented artists who specialize in particular disciplines.

It's not easy to find like-minded artists who love the early 20th Century aesthetic, and it's even harder to find illustrators who can paint in the style of the Great Masters from the Golden Age of Illustration! So when Joel met Kai Carpenter, it was like a dream came true. Not only did Joel find Kai to be amazingly talented, he also found Kai to be a wonderful collaborator. These guys can finish each other's sentences when it comes to planning a series of posters about National Parks or Vintage Travel Poster Art.

Joel raves about Kai: "When I first saw Kai's work, it immediately stood out as timeless, passionate, authentic, and masterful. It was like Kai must have walked out of a time machine from the 1920s—even his hair style and clothing are classic Americana! His studio is decorated with Art Deco-era furniture and everything about him exudes classic craftsmanship and American style. Working with Kai is so much fun—he takes an idea and adds his own flair to it, receiving art direction like a pro, polishing the concept to make it shine, and telling a visual story in oil paint that goes beyond being beautiful—his work speaks on an emotional level.

It is so satisfying to work with a guy who I truly admire as a person, respect as a colleague and enjoy as a friend. My wife and I love hanging out with Kai whenever he comes to Nashville or when we can visit Seattle. Even though our work looks like it's from the days before television, we communicate almost daily via texting, e-mails, and digital file sharing. I usually forget that he is not just down the street from my studio, but all the way across the USA!"

Since so much of Kai's work is featured in our books, poster collections, and on our site, we thought you should get to know him a little better. Here is a recent interview we had with Kai...

ADG: Talk about your background. Where did you grow up? When did you realize you were an artist? Where did you go to art school? How did you become a professional illustrator?

KC: I grew up in Seattle, off the north end of Broadway. There really wasn't ever a time I decided I wanted to do art - I can't remember ever starting!  I grew up drawing with my brothers, and so that's just always how it was. I attended the Rhode Island School of Design, after which I moved to San Francisco with plans of working for an animation studio.  The studio plan fell through, and as a result I decided to go to San Diego comic con, where I got my first freelance work.  Before I knew it, I'd forgotten I wanted to work in a studio at all!

ADG: Who were your major influences?

KC: My major influences have been the Golden Age illustrators: NC Wyeth, Dean Cornwell, JC Leyendecker.  Also, the Pre-Raphaelites and their crew: John William Waterhouse, Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, William Morris, Lord Leighton.

 

 

ADG: How did you start working with Anderson Design group? Talk about your collaboration with Joel Anderson so far. What do you look forward to in the future with your collaboration? 

KC: After working in fantasy art for awhile I decided I needed to look around for someone who might be doing the kind of work I really wanted to do. I was developing a taste for doing more art in the subject matter of the 1920s-1950s, and I was getting much more serious about painting with oils in Golden Age techniques. I wanted to find someone who was interested in keeping alive the Golden Age tradition like I was. So I did some research and found Anderson Design group, and, about 2 years ago, almost to the day, we started working together!  

It has been such a great journey so far.  Joel is a one of a kind Art Director in many ways, but one thing that makes working with him great is that he really cares about the excitement of the artist. He knows that if your heart's in it, it'll be the best image it can be - and also, that the artist will be happy! I'm so excited to continue to explore this rich vein of art we've begun to mine.

ADG: Which are a few of your favorite creations? 

KC: In my time working with Joel, it's really hard to say which pieces I enjoyed the most, but a few stick out - I really enjoyed making our "Los Angeles Dreams" poster, as Joel was in town for that and shot the whole process of photographing the model, drawing her, and painting the finish. I also had a great time on our "Summer Love" painting - the models were so comfortable with one another, I really liked the composition, and I think there's a special satisfaction to be found in depicting figures at ease. I believe it turned out looking kind of how summer love actually feels.

ADG: Talk about your process from start to finish on an illustration.

KC: I start with a round of loose sketches. Once I decide which I'm most interested in pursuing, I send a few to Joel, and we settle on the best one to go forward with. From there, I get in touch with a model (or models) about the piece, and set up a time to take reference shots.  Once I have those, I pick the strongest elements from several photos and work them together into a finished drawing - usually the best pose is a combination from several photographs - maybe a hand from one, face from another and body pose from yet another shot. Once that's finished and approved by Joel, I work up a very rough value (light and dark) study as a guide for myself, and also to give Joel a clear idea of the image structure. 

   

Almost time to paint! I work on loose, pre-primed canvas, because it's easy to store and ship, and much more time- and cost-efficient than painting on stretched canvas. Since it's on a roll, sometimes I need to go over the piece of canvas with an iron first to get any wrinkles out. Using a digital projector, I then blow up and trace the finished drawing onto the canvas, and tone it with a thin layer of acrylic wash, usually a mix of yellow ochre and burnt sienna, about 2:1.  Once that's dry, the painting starts, and takes anywhere from 2-6 days, depending on the complexity of the image. It then gets photographed, I varnish it, and ship it off to Nashville!

   

ADG: What are some tips you would give to aspiring young artists?

KC: Get serious about tracing your inspirations. Strive to go as far back into art history as you can - don't stop at modern artists you love! Who inspired them - and them? The further back you go, and the more you practice determining what really excites you artistically, the better your work will be, and the better you'll be at figuring out where your work fits in the art world.  And your work will become more and more authentically you, which is what we all strive for!

ADG: Anything else you want to share with our fans and followers?

KC: Thanks so much for taking part in this, and supporting our art! I'm so fortunate to have been given this opportunity to create this work, and it, of course, isn't possible without your enthusiasm and support. Thank you!

Just in time for the National Park Service's 100th Anniversary, Kai painted a softer and more romantic series of Park posters to go alongside ours. Branching off of the Parks collection, he's also added more artwork to our From the Heart, Coastal, American Cities, and World Travel series. He's the first collaborator to have his own category on our website.

You can find Kai's work in our store and on our website in the Kai Carpenter Collection. 

A Week of National Park Hopping

As busy creative professionals, we need to slow down, get out of the studio and immerse ourselves in natural beauty from time to time. Cultivating a few moments of beauty each day keeps me centered and creative. But every now and then I hit the wall, and my creativity starts to dwindle. The cure for creative block is a dose of awe and wonder—and the best way to supercharge my creative batteries is to take an adventure into a State Park or a trek to a National Park. As an American, I am so blessed to live in a country where there are amazing natural wonders within a short drive or flight from almost anywhere.

Since I have been focused on National Parks travel poster art in recent years, I have tried to carve out time for visits to as many parks as possible. I traveled to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier National Parks with my son Nathan, who worked with me to produce and publish our 59 Illustrated National Parks book. Last summer, my wife Patty and I took turns driving a borrowed RV to take our whole family on a tour of the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon and the Petrified Forest. And last week, I took a trip with my sons David and Benji (who are also both artists) to experience the wonders of a few breath-taking parks in Colorado and Utah. I have been working intensely for 4 months to expand our National Parks series with a whole bunch of new poster art, a new coloring book, a collection of puzzles, and a new series of illustrated maps. After all that work, I really needed a break, and I couldn't wait to take some time off to celebrate David's graduation from Watkins School of Art, Design & Film with Benij by planning a bro-dacious dude trip out West for the three of us. 

My oldest son Nathan (age 25) is an expert at planning trips. Several months ago, he worked out the itinerary for this adventure, knowing that he would not be able to join us since he and his wife are expecting a baby. Benji (age 20) and David (age 22) were excited about a week of adventure in the mountains and deserts. Here is a re-cap of our adventure...

Day 1: We took a 6:00 am flight from Nashville to Denver and arrived at 8:45 am to a drizzle and some thick fog. We rented an SUV and after a huge pancake breakfast, we drove to Colorado Springs where we spent the afternoon exploring the Garden of the Gods State Park. Easy hikes around funky rock formations got us warmed up for the National Parks we would be visiting in the days to come. We slept in a bunkhouse in the Garden of the Gods RV Park. It was a small step above tent camping, and we slept in our clothes, since we had failed to pack sleeping bags, pillows or sheets.

Day 2: We headed to Great Sand Dunes National Park. When we arrived, a cold front was blasting through the mountain pass creating a sand storm so severe, we could not keep our eyes open as we attempted to climb the mighty dunes. The wind sandblasted our skin as the dunes shifted like angry moaning ghosts obscuring the epic snow-capped mountains that normally stood as a pristine backdrop to Great Sand Dunes National Park. The wind was calm enough at the base of the dunes for some picture-taking, but higher up, it was impossible to see and difficult to breath. Nature beat us into submission. After taking a few reference and Facebook photos, we retired wet and sandy to our room at the Great Sand Dunes Lodge to rest up for another attempt at scaling the dunes the next day. My son David was the artist who created our Great Sand Dunes poster, so I had him pose with our book open to his poster.

Day 3: The weather on Wednesday morning was drizzly, but much better without the strong winds. So we climbed up the dunes for about 40 minutes to get a better view—it was thrilling, but the summit of each dune revealed a valley and an even bigger dune ahead. Trudging uphill on the soft sand was as challenging as hiking in snow. We only had time to go about 1/4 of the way to the top of the dunes. Even from there, the views were fantastic. We wished we would have rented sand sleds to slide down the sand dunes. But this short trip was a scouting expedition to make plans for a longer adventure in the future—and next time we will come prepared for some epic sand sledding!

After a morning at the dunes, we packed up and headed for Mesa Verde National Park to see the ancient cliff dwellings once inhabited by ingenious Native Americans. We discovered at the Visitor Center that everything in Mesa Verde is a 30-60 minute drive over winding, cliff-hugging roads—many without guard rails. The views are spectacular, and the twisty roads are great for making passengers car-sick! After a 40-minute drive to Far View Lodge, we checked into our room. Once we were settled, we drove to a parking area and hiked around the canyon. After our hike, we feasted on burgers at the Far View Lodge cafeteria. Then we returned to our room, we poured the sand out of our boots, and showered off the layer of Colorado that each of us wore like a spray-on tan. We were dog-tired and we slept like kings.

Day 4: Thursday morning brought us sunshine for the first time on our trip. We took a guided tour of some cliff dwellings and marveled at exhibits in the museums. After scratching the surface of Mesa Verde, we packed up to drive to Moab, Utah, which would be our headquarters for the next 3 days of park-hopping.

Moab is a hip little town, nestled between Arches National Park, Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands National Park. We've never seen such a concentration of adrenaline junkies, nature lovers, hikers, bikers, and climbers. There is so much to do and see in the area, we soon realized we would need to come back many more times to experience everything the place has to offer. After checking into the Bowen Motel, we headed out to Dead Horse Point State Park to catch a sunset. The view of the canyons and mesas in the painted desert below was spectacular. We watched the sun go down on another perfect day, and we drove in pitch darkness back to Moab. 

Day 5: On Friday, we rose early to explore Arches National Park for the day. Arches is a big park with one main road running up through the middle. There are only 2 places to fill up on water—the Visitor Center at the base, and the Devil’s Garden at the top of the road. The National Parks Service recommends taking a gallon of water per person, but we didn't catch that bit of advice until mid-day after we had gone through all of our water and Gatorade. Up to that point, we had seen the giant Double Arch, several crazy balanced rocks and an array of exotic arches and Road Runner cartoon-like rock formations. We had explored about half of the park, saving the Delicate Arch for last, since it is the most iconic landmark we wanted to see. Rather than risk dehydration, one of the causes of death in most National Parks, we drove all the way up to Devil’s Garden to refill all of our bottles. Near the restrooms we saw a sign that said “Here lies Peter—he only drank one liter.”

We hiked the Devil’s Garden, saw the amazing Landscape Arch, and then stopped at a few other spots on our way to the Delicate Arch. The hike to the arch was all uphill, but totally worth the effort! After watching the evening sun sink over the red rocks, we headed back to Moab satisfied that we had experienced another epic American vista with a crowd of awestruck people from all over the world.

Day 6: We had a dilemma—this was our last day, and we knew we did not have time to explore much of the massive  Canyonlands National Park. The guys had heard of a bizarre State Park called Goblin Valley which looked like a set from Star Trek or Ernest Scared Stupid. We just had to go and see it, even though it was an hour and 45 minutes from Moab. It was worth the trip—we had never seen so many crazy natural shapes—like statues of aliens gathered for a conference about how to take over Planet Earth. We felt like the rocks were watching us. It was creepy, thrilling, and just plain awesome.

On our way back from Goblin Valley, we ventured into the edge of Canyonlands National Park to catch a sunset in the Island in the Sky area. We were once again blown away by the daily masterpiece painted across the sky and landscape by the Almighty. We enjoyed a picnic dinner with a few other adventurous souls and reflected on our travels. As soon as the sun set in the West, the moon rose over the trees in the East. It was another perfect ending to another amazing day!

Day 7: We checked out of our motel and drove back to Denver through the mountains on I-70. The drive was beautiful, and while we were exhausted, we were brimming with inspiration, great memories, having relished a joyful connection with nature and each other. Each of us came back refreshed and ready to create.

Here is a look at all the new stuff we have been working on for the last several months. (This is why I needed to take a break and get recharged!)

Deluxe 72-page National Parks Coloring Book—Our intern Derek Anderson (not actually related) worked with staff artist Aaron Johnson to redraw 59 of our National Parks posters plus 5 animal posters to be coloring pages. We laid out the book with 8 full-color pages filled with reference images of our poster art and produced the whole book on gallery-grade paper. The coloring book is being printed now and will start shipping on June 22. You can pre-order your copy now on our site.

Deluxe 500-Piece National Parks Jigsaw Puzzles—Our friend Susan Taylor licensed our art to put on her awesome puzzles. Her company TrueSouth Puzzle Co. is selling these lovely puzzles all over the USA. We saw them for sale in several of the National Parks Visitor Centers on our trip! You can buy these awesome puzzles on our site.

New Posters Featuring Kai Carpenter Oil Paintings—Our buddy Kai Carpenter works for us out of his studio in Seattle, painting beautiful pictures that give our poster collections and books a whole different look and feel. He is a modern-day master, and our prints featuring his art are also available on our site.

New National Parks Map Prints—We have started a series of maps that are all about National Parks. One print features a map of the USA and shows you where all of the 59 National Parks are located. We have also created 6 maps of our favorite parks which feature trails, roads, major attractions, and more. Our map prints are available on our site.

We hope you will celebrate the Centennial of the National Parks Service by visiting a few of the parks this year. You will come back refreshed and inspired. If you need a keepsake of your amazing experience, we happen to know where you might find a cool print, book, postcard set or puzzle featuring your favorite National Park!

Illustrating for the 2016 Macy's Flower Show

In October of last year we transitioned out of full-service design (doing branding, packaging, book covers, etc.) to focus on our passion—illustration, poster design, and hand-lettering. Since then we have enjoyed working on lots of fun projects for great clients. One of those clients was Macy’s—the legendary department store based in New York City. 

When the Macy's design department came up with the theme for the 2016 Macy’s Flower Show—America the Beautiful, they looked around the country to find an illustration studio who was good at creating classic, American Travel poster art. They saw our National Parks poster series and our Art & Soul of America collection and knew they had found what they were looking for.

The Senior Creative Manager at Macy's, Gregory DiBisceglie, was our main contact. He commissioned us to create a poster series that would celebrate the beauty of America's various landscapes via six specific regions of the United States—the Southeast, Northeast, Northwest, Midwest, Rockies, and the Southwest. There would be a main poster image to promote the show that featured a flower-covered Statue of Liberty torch, and somehow, we would need to depict 6 different flower-growing climates—mountains, deserts, prairies, coastlines, swampland and forests.

Our assignment was to create an all-American flowerific master logo for the show, a main poster, and six regional posters. All of this had to be done by February, and we knew it would be a challenge with the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays thrown into the production schedule. (The folks at Macy’s are pretty busy with the Thanksgiving Day Parade and the holiday retail season!)  Joel Anderson played the role of Creative Director, working with the Macy’s team to come up with just the right vintage Americana flavor for the whole project. He assigned Aaron Johnson to be the lead illustrator. (Little did Aaron know that he would spend the next few months rendering American landscapes filled with hundreds of flowers!)

Aaron's initial sketches explored the various ways we could show off the geographic diversity of each region, while also highlighting the centerpiece of the show: a replica torch of the Statue of Liberty decked out with flowers. The Macy’s team chose a concept that featured the torch with rays of light emanating from the center to create wedges where the 6 different regions could be depicted.

Aaron put the petal to the metal and went to work. Here he is working on the main poster. He rendered all the parts in vector format, so that they could be enhanced and expanded into 6 regional posters.

Macy’s needed the master logo as soon as possible for promotional purposes, so while Aaron worked on the main poster, Joel worked on the hand-lettering for the master logo, integrating flowers and sans-serif type that Aaron created.

With the main poster and master logo complete, the mood was set for the rest of the series. Macy's wanted a very vibrant color palette, so we cranked up the flower power by applying brighter hues than we typically use in our vintage-looking travel posters.

We adapted the stand-alone master logo to be the masthead for all the posters by deleting the flowers and housing the type in a star-spangled red, white and blue shape.

With the main image set, the six regionals were sketched out and derived from the imagery on the first poster. Ideally we would have created these first and then used the art in the main poster, but the main poster needed to be finished sooner than the others.

For the six regional posters, Aaron created imagery and typography that was inspired by the climate and the character of each region. Floral experts from Macy's made recommendations about what flowers were native to each region. Aaron carefully rendered dozens of native flowers for each of the regional designs. The resulting six illustrated posters each had a distinct vibe, while maintaining a cohesive family look. Below is a time-lapse showing how the Rocky Mountain poster design took shape from sketch to final art.

Check out the whole line!

The event is currently going on from March 20th-April 3rd at select Macy's locations across the U.S.A. If you live in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis, or San Francisco, then you are in luck! Here are some pictures from one of the show locations.

 

The whole process was a fun experience for everyone involved, and we look forward to future projects where we get to flex our illustration muscles.

“I believe that illustration can be a powerful tool for connecting emotionally with our customers by creating an experience that feels truly unique. I can personally say that our collaboration with Joel and Aaron on the Macy’s Flower Show poster series over the last few months has proven to be one of the highlights of my career as Creative Manager for Special Projects at Macy’s." 

-Gregory Dibisceglie

You can find more info at the webpage for the event here.