Anderson Design Group: Blog

Our new line of prints: Vintage Ad Follies

2012-02-14T13:59:00.000-08:00

The first step to recovery is to admit that you have a problem. OK—we admit that we are addicted to vintage advertising art and travel posters. So you’d think that after studying old advertising art for decades, creating over 80 classic poster designs for our Spirit of Nashville Collection, then doing more than 50 designs for our Art & Soul of America Collection, we might have gotten tired of the stuff.

As you’ll see, we have only dug in deeper, cranking out loads of new art that looks like it was found in a dusty corner of a defunct print shop. (We put the FUNK in defunct by salvaging and recycling pieces of our older designs and giving them new life with new color palettes and themes.)

All of this has resulted in our latest series of classic prints called Vintage Ad Follies: it’s a collection of faux advertising prints for products that never actually existed—but probably would have if we were alive back in the 1940s and 50s. Some of the designs were created for special occasions—like the upcoming elections, or prints for baby showers and decorating nurseries. Others have no real reason for existing whatsoever, except for the fact that we always wanted to illustrate a poster promoting bacon, chocolate milk, or hula dancers.

America is going to be sick of the elections by the time they finally get here in November—so we have created some art to help everyone survive by poking fun at the whole spectacle. (We are equal-opportunity spoofsters, so we have created something for political pundits on both sides of the isle.) Here are the first 2 designs in a series that will grow with the headlines for the next several months!

The style gurus at Fab.com love our prints so much that they will feature our new poster collections 4 times this year (on Feb 23rd, May 17th, August 30th, and November 15th.) For each of these special sales, we will introduce new lines of prints, building on our love of hand-lettering, illustration, and adapting bits of old public domain art to create new prints with an old look and feel. This is a peek at some of the new designs we’ve just completed for the Fab.com sale.

Some of these are designs already available on our Anderson Design Group Studio Store site. Others will be for sale exclusively on Fab.com from February 23-25. Enjoy!

2012-02-01T12:16:00.000-08:00

Our pals at Farm Boy Brands asked us to create a few more designs for their upcoming apparel collections. (They create cool stuff for folks who dig life on the farm.) We love working with them—our illustrative design is a natural fit with their vintage-Americana style.

The process works like this: their art director sends us a list of phrases and shirt colors. We sketch up rough ideas. Once they sign off on our sketches, we roll up our sleeves and fine-tune the designs to reproduce in 3 to 5 solid ink colors for screen printing or stitched designs on t-shirts, pillow cases, hats, etc. The hat shown above is a spin-off from a best-selling shirt Ligia designed last year.

Andy sketched up this concept for the Sunride Sunset shirt. With a simple color change, this design went from a rugged dude shirt to a sassy chick-tee!

Ligia got her hands dirty creating two design options for the Get Your Dirt On shirt. While both options were very cool, the simpler, cleaner design won out in the end.

Here are two more shirt designs we did for the 2012 catalog. All of these designs will be featured in the Farm Boy Brands Spring/Summer 2012 Collection and Fall/Winter 2012 Collection.

Check out all the fabulous Farm Boy/Farm Girl designs at their official web site!

Tasty NEW 2012 Music City Wall Calendar!

2012-01-19T15:20:00.000-08:00

Each year, we create a new series of vintage style illustrated prints. And each year, we partner with McQuiddy Printing (a local 100 year-old printer) to produce a limited edition promotional calendar featuring our new designs.

Nashville’s unique combination of excellent food, music and art has always inspired us. And so it was pretty easy to sink our teeth into this year’s calendar theme—we just went around Music City tasting everything from chocolate to BBQ sauce, wine, Soul Food, doughnuts, pancakes, tacos, roasted nuts to coffee, fried chicken and cupcakes. Then we worked off all the calories by creating loads of delicious-looking poster art!

This year’s wall calendar features 13 months of classic poster art celebrating a different Nashville restaurant or shop with an 11” x 14” illustrated print. We have also included some photos and a little historical info, along with 8 recipe cards featuring tasty Music City food & drink ideas.

To create the calendar, we looked around town for 13 different icons of taste—award-winning establishments that define our city—places that are truly unique to Nashville. We worked with the owners of each restaurant or shop to tell their story in a poster design and via photos and text that we added to the calendar pages. We even asked for (and got) 8 recipe ideas from these award-winning restaurant owners to include on a set of 8 recipe cards!

This calendar features several brand-new designs plus a few beloved classics from our collection. We designed it so you can cut out the 13 ready-to-frame mini prints and decorate your walls with them. Our mini prints normally sell for $19 each. So at $24.95, this calendar is a real deal! Hurry and order yours before they sell out. They are available at our studio Store or on our Spirit of Nashville web site.

Hume-Fogg 100th Anniversary Print

2011-12-16T14:36:00.000-08:00

1912 must have been an exciting year! This 100th anniversary poster for Hume-Fogg High School will be the 3rd 100th anniversary poster we've done in recent months (the other centennials will be celebrated by The Girl Scouts and East Nashville's Shelby Park).

We had wanted to create a Hume-Fogg poster for a long time, and though we’d had a few requests over the years, we weren't sure if there was a large enough audience for it. Boy, were we wrong! Over the last few months the Hume-Fogg Alumni Association gathered support by pre-selling over 400 prints. With that sort of interest in the print, we were happy to oblige. Staff designer/illustrator Andy Gregg was put on the case, and below is his process from start to finish.

This was the initial concept thumbnail. The Victorian/Edwardian style was chosen as the base aesthetic of the poster because it was popular at the time of Hume-Fogg's founding, and fit somewhat with the Tudor Revival style of the school building. Originally, just a sword was placed beneath the type as a nod to the the Blue Knight mascot.

This was the second thumbnail produced. Our contacts at Hume-Fogg wanted Hume-Fogg's old and new mascots added to the composition, so the poster would appeal to both old alumni—who identify as Blue Devils, and new—who are known as the Blue Knights. The dates 1912-2012 were added and the composition was fleshed-out more. A clean outer border was added to counteract the overwrought nature of the chosen Edwardian style.

Eventually the composition was ready for its final iteration. Andy enjoys the boring minutia of type design, and thus created all of the lettering from scratch. He also started drawing the Hume-Fogg building from reference photography he shot. Because of these two facts, this poster was possibly the design that took the most man hours to complete of any poster in the history of ADG. We fear Andy may have temporarily lost feeling in his clicking fingers and permanently lost part of his soul.

See the lack of luster in his eyes? That luster is now in the poster.

It was well worth it though, as the response we have gotten has been tremendous. Andy even signed a limited number of 50 for a select few alumni. For those who didn't pre-order a print through the Alumni Association: don't fret. We have about 150 extra prints for sale here at ADG in our studio store. Each print sells for $39. Stop by, pick up a print and say hi!

2011-12-14T13:40:00.000-08:00

NEW Classic Chicago Posters

Our Art & Soul Of America Collection of prints and gifts continues to grow. Thanks to Fab.com, Pinterest, and other cool design-oriented sites, folks from all over the world have been checking out our work, buying our prints, and decorating homes and offices in classic Chicago style. Spurred on by the success of our early Chicago concepts, we have expanded our collection of Windy City prints to 9 designs. We will keep adding new art as inspiration and demand dictates!

The first few designs were by Andy Gregg and Luke Howard working under the direction of Joel Anderson, the creator of the Art & Soul of America Collection. More recent Chicago prints by Andy Gregg, Julian Baker and Shelby Roddefer have helped to expand the series and bring even more variety to the line. For example, Andy was inspired by the 1960s-era travel posters published by TWA. So he created a beautiful Buckingham Fountain design that leans more toward modern design than his popular Deco-era Chicago Theatre or Magnificent Mile prints. Below is a row of TWA posters that inspired his Buckingham Fountain creation (featured under the TWA designs):

Below are examples of the period range our Chicago designs have covered—from Julian Baker’s early 20th century Water Tower design to Shelby Roddifer’s contemporary 21st century Cloud Gate design.

So far, this Deco-style design by Luke Howard has been the best-selling print in the collection. Our 6-piece set of vinyl magnets has become a popular stocking stuffer item for the holidays!

Stay tuned to see how our other lines are coming along. New York and San Francisco are also becoming very popular print series, too. They can be seen at our ArtAndSoulOfAmerica.com site.

New Poster Series Celebrates 100 Years of Girl Scouting!

2011-11-29T13:34:00.001-08:00

This coming year marks the 100 year anniversary of the Girl Scouts! To commemorate the event, the Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee asked us to create four poster designs, each celebrating a unique tradition of Girl Scouting. We started out with the most important step...gathering research (ahem, Girl Scout Cookies) for "inspiration". Four empty boxes later, we were full of inspiration! As with every poster design project, we started out with sketches. After several sketches, four concepts were submitted and approved.

The challenge was to create four distinct designs, but still have them look as though they belonged in a series. Ligia, our on-staff designer and illustrator headed up the project. Her solution was to include the same border treatment with each design. The borders not only hint at the Girl Scout Trefoil shape, but also contain the Girl Scout Law; the credo of Girl Scouting.

After several long hours of illustrating, the posters were completed and sent to print. McQuiddy Printing here in Nashville took care of the printing and did a fantastic job. These posters not only celebrate the legacy of Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee, but childhood innocence and the memory of simpler days gone by. If you'd like to get your hands on one, they are available for purchase at our studio store.

Ligia signing the first posters hot off the press!

Online Shopping & Inspriation for Design Lovers

2011-11-18T09:24:00.000-08:00

There are a few amazing sites out there where design buffs go for daily inspiration. Fab.com is one of our favorites. A few months ago, we were delighted to get a call from them. (It was quite flattering to have this hip, online retailer from New York invite us to do a 72-hour sale to showcase and sell our Art & Soul Of America prints!) The sale was a smashing success, and we immediately began getting calls from as far away as Dubai from people who had discovered our design firm because they, too were Fab junkies.

Fab.com just announced adding their one millionth member—they clearly are making a lot of people happy all over the world!

We are now doing another 72-hour sale with Fab.com. It started on November 17, and will go through Nov. 18 & 19.) Be sure to check it out! You’ll see lots of great stuff from some very talented creative people. They are also offering our prints at a 31% discount. If you miss it, don’t fret—we hope to be doing more with Fab in 2012. Here is a special invite to become a member: http://fab.com/koyhpc.

We asked the folks at Fab if they would grant us an interview for our design blog, and they were very gracious. Enjoy...

ADG: For those who may not have ever heard of Fab.com, tell us about it.
Fab: Fab.com is the fastest growing e-commerce site on the planet. In just five months, we've attracted over 1 Million members. We feature 12-14 new designer-specific sales a week. Sales typically last 72 hours, though in September we introduced the pop up shop concept, showcasing different themed "shops" that last longer than our normal sales - the shops typically last around 40 days. We offer a broad range of design products including furniture, wall decor, jewelry, gadgets, artwork and more all at a discount to our members.

ADG: How does Fab.com choose what items to feature on the site?
Fab: Fab.com chooses products that are unique, well-made, have a good story behind them and, most importantly, will make our staff and our members smile.

Fab's curation process is led by Chief Creative Officer and design guru, Bradford Shellhammer, with support from his buying team. Fab scours the globe in pursuit of eclectic products, researching online, attending different shows and vetting inbound requests from designers and artists.

ADG: Why did you contact Anderson Design Group and ask them to do a Fab.com sale?
Fab: We reached out to ADG because we loved the story behind the vintage travel prints and the idea of paying tribute to the travel promotions of the early to mid-1900s. Again, we love when there's a good story behind the product and artist, and we knew our users would love the classic, vintage American travel prints. At Fab, we are into travel, art, and all things vintage, so it was the perfect combination.

ADG: What new or interesting things are happening at Fab.com in 2012?
Fab: We have lots of new and exciting things coming up in 2012. We plan to keep expanding and improving our site, delivering even more fun, unique and well designed products to our ever-growing membership. In addition, you expect to see more pop up shops in 2012. Overall, we hope to continue delighting our customers with Fab products and customer service.

Our NEW Metro Parks Poster Series...

2011-11-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite TV shows is Parks and Recreation. So imagine our glee when we got a call from Metro Parks asking us if we would consider creating a series of prints that would celebrate Nashville’s favorite city parks. We quickly figured out that the Metro Parks folks are nothing like the comic misfits in the TV show. Instead, they actually work for a living, and they have very keen ideas about how to promote and celebrate Music City’s network of fantastic public parks. We sat down, made a list of the top 12 parks that would be featured in our art, and then we visited the first 3 parks on the list—McCabe Golf Course, Two Rivers Mansion, and Shelby Park.

We shot a ton of reference photos. It soon became apparent that parks can be very hard to capture in one image. Poster art is all about simple, iconic imagery. How do you choose a single feature of a park that covers hundreds of acres? We challenged ourselves to look for one stand-out feature of each park—a visual icon that would represent a key reason why you’d want to visit that park. For McCabe, it was a golfer in the foreground and the club house in the distance. Since the land the golf course sits on today was once an old airport, we placed a biplane (used in the McCabe’s logo) in the sky.

Two Rivers Mansion is really all about the beautiful old house. So to make it more interesting, we worked up some fancy hand lettering and rendered the whole piece in a fancy woodcut engraving style.

Shelby Park was the biggest challenge. This park is huge, and has baseball fields, a lake, golf courses, a nature center, walking trails, a dog park, and some really bizarre alien-like concrete structures built in the 1920s (which still have the most interesting graffiti scrawled on them by star-struck lovers who are now older than our grandparents!) One distinct feature of Shelby Park is the train trestle that can be seen from almost every vista. It’s not technically a part of the park, but when we talked to folks about what they think of first, many thought it was a very memorable and nostalgic feature.

The 3 prints turned out very differently. Since this is a series of 12 different designs, we wanted to provide a wide array of art styles so we’d create art for every taste. Joel Anderson did the McCabe poster, swiping the golfer that former staff artist Darren Welch created several years ago for a print that is no longer available. (We are into recycling here!) Joel and Liga Teodosiu created the Two Rivers print in the style that would have been popular in the mid 1800s when the mansion was built. Andy Gregg rendered the Shelby Park print with a stylish Art Deco feel, paying homage to the period when the park was opened.

The detail in these posters is a big part of their charm. It’s hard to appreciate the texture and fine detail on-line, so you might just have to come to our studio store and see the prints in person! They are also available on-line at www.SpiritOfNashville.com

Amazing (and Slightly Creepy) Photo Project

2011-10-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

We found this project via Slate and had to share. Dutch Photographer Ari Versluis and his creative partner Ellie Uyttenbroek have been categorizing different styles of dress for the past 15 years in a photo project they have dubbed Exactitudes (a combination of "exact" and attitudes"). They identify generally unintentional but nonetheless rigid subcultures/identity systems amongst different populations and then photograph the members of said subcultures. The results are both startling and intriguing. Check out the Exactitudes site to see the full breadth of their work.

Working with a Prodigy Illustrator

2011-10-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

One great thing about living in Music City is all the fabulous creative talent you find everywhere you look. Ben Shive, a local producer, singer/song writer and personal pal asked us if we would help him create the packaging for his upcoming independent CD. But he had a special request: Ben had been impressed by the crazy illustrative work of an amateur 14-year-old artist whose work Ben spotted on Facebook. Turns out the child prodigy was none other than Benji Anderson, the son of Joel Anderson (founder of Anderson Design Group!) Ben asked Benji to listen to his music and then draw whatever came to mind. Anderson Design Group was to use Benji’s art to create the CD package and then layout an 80-page hard-bound book of lyrics and prose.

Joel Anderson served as the creative director (and fatherly task master) to make sure that Benji’s art would be easily adapted to the project’s dimensions and printing limitations. Benji’s art work was deep, quirky, creative, and brilliant beyond his years. It virtually allowed the CD package and book design themselves.

original pen and ink drawing

finished CD cover art

Below are several samples of the art. The CD and book, both titled “The cymbal Crashing Clouds” will soon be available at concerts where Ben Shive is performing and at the Rabbit Room web site. The projected publication date for the book is mid-November, but the CD is available now!

It’s always a delicate dance to allow an illustrator the freedom to be expressive, while guiding him to produce art that meets creative and marketing objectives. It’s even trickier when the artist is a family member. And it is almost unheard of for a teen age kid to perform in the professional realm under the pressure of deadlines and the expectations of clients who have contracted with a well-respected design firm to produce a winning piece on time and within the set budget. Fortunately, Joel and Benji figured out a way to pull it off. (And they are still on speaking terms!)

People are already asking where they can buy prints of Benji Anderson’s artwork. Since he is still only 15 years old, we are being rather protective of his privacy. But we plan to create a few of his prints and sell them on our Nashville Artisan Gallery site some time in the near future. If you are interested in hiring Benji Anderson for custom illustration work, you can contact Joel Anderson at 615-327-9894.

Sweet Magnolia Ice Cream Co. Branding Sneak Peek

2011-09-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

Not long ago, we presented with a very delicious opportunity; branding for Sweet Magnolia Ice Cream Co. The new venture envisioned by Hugh Balthrop, would be a vintage ice cream parlor with a fresh, clean, friendly, welcoming environment that sells artisan, handmade, local ingredients, grass fed/organic diary, fresh ice cream, frozen yogurt, gelato, sorbet, etc. With unique, Southern flavors like sweet potato pie ice cream, figs and strawberries frozen yogurt, sweet tea sorbet, pecan pie ice cream, drizzled chocolate gelato, tea cake vanilla ice cream and lemon straw frozen yogurt, we just couldn't wait to sink our teeth (or spoons) into this project.

For our initial logo sketches, we pursued a wide range of concepts. We wanted to use typography that felt old and charming with illustrative touches. Our client Hugh felt drawn most to the bottom center sketch, one created by Ligia Teodosiu, one of our staff designers.

Ligia got to work on the second round by using parts and pieces of the original sketch as an inspiration and platform to explore all possible logo options. In the end, Hugh went back to his original favorite (as well as ours). The logo was polished up and finished out with colors that reminded us of warm Southern hospitality, with rich vanilla and butterscotch flavors, and a dollop of old world charm.

Now that the logo is complete, we are in the process of applying this same look to business cards, store signs, labels and other goodies as a cherry on top! Stay tuned for more to come!

Our New T-shirt Designs For Farm Boy Brands

2011-08-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

Farm Boy / Farm Girl makes very cool t-shirts for folks who love life on the farm. Their target audience is teens and young adults, which is right up our alley, style-wise. Recently, they asked us to create 5 new shirt designs—3 for Farm Girl and 2 for Farm Boy.

We always start out with research before we begin sketching. Inspired by WWII-era poster and advertising art, we sketched out rough ideas for each design.

Once the Farm Boy team approved our sketches, we rendered our designs in color using Adobe Illustrator. They gave us several options for shirt colors, and we put together color palettes that popped off of our favorite shirts. Once the color art was approved, we used Photoshop to add a classic, aged effect. The new shirts are going to be featured in the Fall 2011 line up in their catalog and on their web site.

The Pharmacy Logo: From Concept to Completion

2011-08-16T07:29:00.000-07:00

Recently, we were asked to create a logo for a new restaurant opening in East Nashville called The Pharmacy. The co-owner, Terry Raley (who also happens to be co-owner of Holland House Bar & Refuge), envisioned a turn-of-the-century pharmacy theme — when drug stores were more than just drug stores and you could get sodas, alcohol and burgers. Throw into the mix a Southwestern/German beer garden and voila! — you have The Pharmacy. Staff designer/illustrator Andy Gregg took a crack at it and below is his process from start to finish.

First, we started with late nineteenth century/early 20th century packaging. We produced a style board with multiple examples (like the ones above) to show to the client, and then got their feedback on which ones they preferred. The owners of the Pharmacy liked the colors from the Mucilage packaging and the angled typography of the Medford logo, among several other reference images.

Next, we produced several tight logo sketches. Each logo variant tried to include some aspect of what the clients liked in the style board.

The clients selected the sweeping, diagonal lettering used in a few of the versions. This was inked and scanned into the computer for tighter rendering.

After a little more development (actually a lot more) we arrived at a final black and white logo. Having already incorporated angled lettering into the design, we went with a seal motif for the tagline, as we really liked this in some of our reference images. This was also a bit more space-efficient (plus it allowed us to render a wicked-cool ampersand!)

Finally, taking color cues from the mucilage packaging above, we assembled a color version. All typography was hand-rendered, and the clients seem to be very happy with the overall result.

The Pharmacy will be opening this fall, and in the interim we will be working on even more designs for them, including a style guide, mugs, shirts, secondary logos, and much much more. Stay tuned.

Paper Vs. Digital

2011-07-12T08:03:00.000-07:00

We are excited about all the advances in e-books and the iPad. As designers, it is a little scary to think how it will change the graphic design biz, along with the printing and paper industry. Fortunately, there are some paper products that just cannot be replaced by digital media. See what we mean?

New Wine Revolution Posters

2011-07-11T14:47:00.000-07:00

It’s fun to create a new brand and watch it develop over time. Last year, we started with a logo design for our client the Wine Shoppe. Next, we helped create the look of their web site and store graphics. Then we designed a few ads and even created 5 wine prints to include in our Spirit of Nashville Collection. As the brand evolved, we made sure to keep a lush, rustic, inviting, European vibe in every piece we created.

This year, the owners of the Wine Shoppe wanted to launch a campaign called the Wine Revolution. The goal is to give the common man (or woman) access and knowledge about rare and fine wines from around the world. To create a revolutionary vibe, we designed a series of 3 posters to use during the campaign. They produced very nice video and posted it to their web site to kick off the campaign. The video does a very good job at promoting the brand by featuring brand elements we created—poster art, biz cards, their logo and views of their store interior (which features paint colors we helped them choose.) Click here to see the video.

Above are the 3 Wine Revolution posters we created. We took our visual inspiration from old Communist propaganda posters like the ones below. Then we infused the Wine Shoppe color palette and logo into our designs to tie them into the brand look we’ve established. Folks liked the Wine Revolution prints so much that we decided to print up a few extras to sell. They are available in our Studio Store for $30 each.

Next, we will help the Wine Shoppe incite a Wine Revolution by using our art on a few promotional items such as tote bags, bottle sleeves, or kitchen magnets.

Beautiful & Creative Ampersands (For Typography Nerds Only!)

2011-06-17T07:28:00.000-07:00

This ampersand character by Conor and David is based on
Helvetica Neue 75 bold and made up of 40 helium-filled balloons.

As designers, our work is often only as good as the typography and imagery we choose to include in our designs. When inspiring visual communicators create art from letter forms, the rest of us designers totally geek out! Check out Inspiration Feed’s blog to see the many ways other creative folks have interpreted one the alphabet’s most beautiful characters.

Spirit of Nashville Donates Commemorative Flood Prints to the City

2011-06-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

After the 1-year anniversary of the Great Nashville Flood, we met with Nashville Mayor Karl Dean to present him with 3 jumbo canvas prints of our Spirit of Nashville flood relief designs. We wanted to thank him for his leadership during a very challenging time and commemorate the strong character displayed by Music City during and after the flood.

Joel Anderson, founder of Anderson Design Group and the Spirit of Nashville Collection wanted to give the city a set of these prints so the art could be displayed in a public area where all of Nashville would be able to enjoy the art for years to come. The 3 over-sized canvas prints will be permanently installed in a public building that has yet to be determined.

The two flood prints from last year have already sold out, raising over $30,000 for flood relief in the process. The new 1-year anniversary print is selling well, and all the profits are being donated to the Community Foundation’s flood relief fund. To order your own print and send $30 straight to continued flood recovery efforts, visit our Spirit of Nashville site.

Creating a Brand: Peter Nappi Boots & Shoes

2011-06-13T12:26:00.000-07:00

Over a year ago, a stylish entrepreneur named Phillip Nappi contacted us to share his vision for a new artisan boot and shoe company that would honor his Italian grandfather’s legacy through hand-crafted boots, bags and other dry goods. Inspired by patterns of 100-year old boots, Phillip worked with a team of artisans in Italy to produce prototypes for a full line of boots and bags.

When we first saw the boots, we were convinced that this line of leather goods would be a smashing success if the branding & marketing materials could tell the story. Creative director Joel Anderson loved the boots so much that he insisted on being the first customer in the world to own a pair of Peter Nappi boots. As soon his boots were delivered, he knew this branding project was going to be a labor of love. (Joel likes to be a consumer of the products and services he and his team promotes—this ensures an immediate connection and a real-life experience as a member of the target audience.)

We joined forces with John Moessner, a great young film maker and photographer. We also partnered with Cabedge, an amazing web site development firm based in Nashville, TN. With our logo & brand development, John’s film and photography, and Cabedge’s web site building capabilities, we created all of the essential components needed to define the brand and launch this new company in style.

We started with research and sketching. Our logos needed to feel like they were created 100 years ago. So we poured over old tobacco tins, catalogs, antiques, ads and poster art from the early 1900’s. We kept in mind that our logo and branding art had to tell the story of an Italian shoe maker who immigrated to the USA and passed down a legacy of art and craftsmanship to his grandson. We sought to represent the quality, beauty, comfort and style that makes these beautiful $700+ boots and bags worth every penny. After several rounds of rough logo concepts, we arrived at a clean, simple logo based on the signature of Phillip’s Italian grandfather (taken from copies of his Ellis Island immigration papers.) The resulting logo seemed to fit the vision and the brand perfectly.

Once a logo was finalized, ADG designers Ligia Teodosiu and Edward Patton started creating a comprehensive style guide that dictated colors, fonts, backgrounds, patterns, etc. necessary for creating the packaging, hang tags, press releases, and a comprehensive book that would tell the Peter Nappi story and showcase the products. Joel and Ligia consulted with Cabedge to help make the web site look like a natural extension of the printed materials. Phillip and Dana Nappi already had a very keen vision of how to create the perfect showroom via colors, textures, materials, props and furniture they collected from Italy and other places. As the creators of this line, they brought their own sense of color, mood, style and story to every aspect of the project, making the whole campaign a true team effort.

The Peter Nappi web site (built by Cabedge) conveys the essence of the Nappi brand via a film created by John Moessner. The site showcases all of the products, makes ordering possible, and offers a virtual tour of the Peter Nappi showroom via John’s awesome photography.

Overall, this branding project is a great example of what happens when experts collaborate, guided by a branding strategy that ties everything together and keeps everyone “reading off of the same page.” The Nappis couldn’t have been more pleased with the results. And neither could we!

When Shoes Become Art

2011-06-09T15:07:00.000-07:00

CNN recently ran a story about artist Kobi Levi who makes amazing art that you can wear on your feet. There is a great interview with him, too... check it out!

Shirt Designs for Farm Boy Brand

2011-05-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

Farm Boy Brand has created wonderful collections of stylish casual apparel aimed at folks who feel more at home on a horse than at a desk. The Farm Boy catalog is full of amazingly-designed products—so we were flattered when they called us and asked if we’d like to create 5 more shirt designs to add to their Blue Ribbon Collection. We rolled up our sleeves and dug deep into the fertile soil of our imaginations to come up with fresh, colorful, fun designs to fit their cheeky farm girl themes.

After some good old fashioned hard work, Ligia (a city girl) got in touch with her inner farm girl and came up with 5 sketches. The concepts translated beautifully into full color screen printed designs on some very fashionable t-shirts.

Now we are working on some new Farm Boy / Farm Girl designs due to come out next season. See more of their awesome products at: www.farmboybrand.com

Limited Edition Great Southern Brood Prints

2011-05-04T15:52:00.000-07:00

The Great Southern Brood poster series, part of the Cicada Invasion! product line, was silk screened as a limited edition 18" x 24" collection and was created by staff designer/illustrator Andy Gregg. The three poster series receives its title from the nickname for Brood 19, the specific group of cicadas that emerge every thirteen years in the Mid South by the millions. Each poster design is limited to 30 numbered and signed prints printed by Kangaroo Press.

We got to stop by Kangaroo Press's workshop as Ryan Nole, founder and owner of Kangaroo Press, was finishing up our posters. He was kind enough to give us a little tour.

An old Heidelburg Press.

The super cool T-shirt printer.

Letterpress letters.

This automatic screen printer machine silk screened our posters, one color at a time. Brady, Ryan's assistant, was working so hard he was a blur.

Brady (left) and Ryan posing with the (near) finished product. All three are very handsome.

We also recently had the opportunity to work with Snowcat Press on a printing of 90 special neon colored prints. They are even cooler under black light.

NEW 1-Year Anniversary Flood Relief Print

2011-04-25T07:14:00.000-07:00

This is our latest Spirit of Nashville print. Created to commemorate the 1-year anniversary of the Music City Flood, 500 limited edition prints will raise money for on-going flood relief work. They are for sale now on at SpiritOfNashville.com.

Within a week of the devastating Nashville floods on May 1-2, 2010, we began illustrating 2 new prints to raise money for flood relief efforts. We joined forces with McQuiddy Classic Printing and Athens Paper who donated printing and paper to produce 1,000 limited edition prints which were sold at our Spirit of Nashville Studio Store and on our web site. The initial run of prints sold out in a few weeks, generating over $30,000 that was donated directly to several flood relief agencies including the Red Cross, Samaritan’s Purse, and the Community Foundation.

These two Flood Relief poster designs recently won Gold ADDY Awards, Best of Category, Regional ADDYs, and have gone on to represent Nashville in the National ADDY Awards—a competition that recognizes outstanding commercial art, design and advertising.

Within weeks of the flood, we began giving the prints for free to anyone who had lost their homes or businesses in the flood. Those who bought the prints did so for different reasons—some wanted something to commemorate the historic event that redefined our city’s character. Others wanted to give to the flood relief fund raising effort. Many flood victims bought the prints to give as thank-you gifts to friends and neighbors who had worked tirelessly in their time of need. Once we sold out of the prints, people started asking us if we planned to do another print to commemorate the 1-year anniversary of the flood.

So the answer is YES! McQuiddy Classic Printing and Athens Paper donated printing and paper to help us produce a new 1-year anniversary flood print. (Above: David McQuiddy III and Joel Anderson posed just after the artist’s proof was pulled from the Press on April 22, 2001. This signed proof will be auctioned off at a fund raising event.)

The new 18” x 24” anniversary flood prints, illustrated by Ligia Teodosiu feature a mandolin set against the Nashville skyline sprouting flowers as the flood waters recede. The print features the words Nashville: Stronger. Better. Brighter. 500 of these limited edition prints will be available at www.SpiritOfNashville.com starting on April 28 for $35 each while supplies last. $30 of every purchase go directly to the Community Foundation’s flood relief fund.

In addition to the new print, Spirit of Nashville has produced a CD featuring 2 new songs that commemorate the historic flood. Inspired by the 2010 Spirit of Nashville flood relief prints, local songwriter Wendy Wills wrote 2 songs to be released in conjunction with the 1-year anniversary of the flood. One song, titled Rise Again, is sung by Nashville singer Amber Turner. The other song titled, Play On was co-written and performed by local country artist and rodeo cowboy Paul Bogart, who knows about overcoming adversity after personally suffering major flood damage. The 2-song CD can be purchased for $6 separately, or bought with the new commemorative print for $40 at the Spirit Of Nashville store.

Preview the 2 songs:

About the Musicians:
Wendy Wills has been writing songs professionally for about 20 years. Her songs have been recorded on several Grammy and Dove Award-nominated projects. She says: “Truly amazing is how I would describe both the devastation of the flood and ethos of the city of Nashville, TN. Though people were broken and though so many dreams washed away, the indomitable spirit of this town held firm. And as the waters receded and the skies cleared, Nashville began to rise again. When I saw the Spirit of Nashville flood relief posters, I sat down at the piano and in a matter of a couple of hours had the majority of “Rise Again” finished.”

Paul Bogart is a young Oklahoma singer and champion rodeo cowboy whose life was turned upside down by the Harpeth River in May 2010. He and his wife left for church Sunday morning and could not return home for 2 days. And when they finally did, they were shocked. Yes, the damage was great. But even greater were the strong hands and willing hearts of friends, neighbors and total strangers that helped them dig out and clean up. It was not hard for Paul and Wendy to sit down and write Play On. That’s what Paul was able to do, because that’s what Nashville does—we Play On.

BBQ Fight Club is selling out at Williams-Sonoma!

2011-04-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

We got the news a while back that Williams-Sonoma would be carrying Hog Heaven's BBQ Fight Club line of sauces, but it's another thing to see it.

Apparently they've been doing pretty well too. Congrats to our friends over at Hog Heaven on a job well done.

Crazy New Cicada Invasion Campaign

2011-04-14T06:34:00.000-07:00

Every 13 years, Nashville is invaded by billions of noisy, flying red-eyed critters that emerge from the ground when the temperature reaches 67 degrees for a week. The cicada grubs tunnel up from the deep, climb trees, split out of their shells, sprout wings, and then make an infernal racket for about 4-6 weeks. Their sole purpose is to sing, fly, mate, lay eggs, and then die. This year, experts say it will happen around the end of April or early May.

The last time this happened was 1998—and it was truly apocalyptic. At that time, Joel Anderson (founder of Anderson Design Group and the Spirit of Nashville) wanted to do something to celebrate the historic and creepy event. But by the time he had a few t-shirt ideas hammered out, the plague was over. So he’s had 13 years to get ready for what is about to be another monumental natural phenomenon.

Joel and his team of artists at Anderson Design Group have created an entire line of Music City Cicada Invasion Survival Gear. Starting with limited edition posters and postcards, the collection has grown out of control with the creation of guitar-shaped cicada swatters, beer mugs, coffee mugs, stickers, magnets, t-shirts, even Anti-Cicada ear plugs! Andy created 3 limited edition silk screen prints—the series is called the Great Southern Brood. Liga created a stylish coffee mug and postcard design. Edward created a hip t-shirt. Dawn sourced a full range of products to adorn with our nutty designs. We even added a shirt and print design to our line up from Ryon, one of Joel’s students from Watkins College of Art & Design.

As Designers, it’s a lot of fun to tap into the psyche of popular culture and create art and products that will help everyone come together during a crisis, or laugh in unison as a community. This cicada outbreak has given our designers a chance to create funny and practical things that will serve as keepsakes—souvenirs of an amazing and bizarre natural event that will (thankfully) not happen again for 13 more years.

This campaign is also a great exercise in branding and marketing. (See other examples of our brand development work at : www.AndersonDesignGroup.com.) We do this all the time for our clients, but hardly ever do we go this far in such a short time (and with our own money!) Developing the colors, fonts, logos, illustrations and materials to create, launch and market a new brand—all in the span of 45 days—this was truly daunting challenge to undertake! The resulting web site, social media campaign, blog and product line will be a great way to inform and entertain Nashville during the cicada invasion. It will also be an effective way to showcase our design and marketing services.

Watch informative videos, get answers to frequently asked questions, and see the full line of whacky prints and gifts at: www.cicadainvasion.com.

A Peek at our Latest Spirit of Franklin Print

2011-03-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

We’ve been working hard on the designs for our new Spirit of Franklin Collection—we are almost finished with 4 illustrated prints. In a few weeks, we’ll be going to press to produce limited edition prints of these new designs. Then we will start selling them in stores and on our new Spirit Of Franklin site.

The Spirit of Franklin Collection aims to celebrate the history and charm of Franklin, TN through a collection of 12 illustrated prints. To do that, we are covering a range of themes like architecture, historic sites, festivals and favorite local establishments.

One very important historical Franklin icon is the Carnton Plantation, battle field and cemetery. Since this landmark was established in the 1800s, the rendering style needs to resemble art from that era. In the past, we accomplished a 19th century look on a few Spirit of Nashville prints done by Abe Goolsby when he was a staff artist. Abe’s masterful pen and ink art gave a distinctive old-world look to our Union Station, State Capitol and Belle Meade Plantation prints.

So for the Carnton design, Joel Anderson used the same old techniques starting with reference photos he shot on location. Like Abe, Joel painstakingly rendered an ink cross-hatched drawing, then created typography and line art similar that what might have been used back in the 1800s. Joel paid homage to his old buddy Abe by re-using line art of clouds from his 2005 State Capitol print.

More Franklin prints are in the works. Stay tuned to see the entire collection as we unveil it. Look for it in stores and on our web sites starting in May!

A Brief History of Title Design

2011-03-25T06:57:00.000-07:00

A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.

If you missed SXSW in Austin, Texas last week, here is a cool video presentation for the “SXSW Excellence in Title Design” competition screening. The video highlights title design for some of the most iconic films of all time.

50 & 50 Illustrated State Mottos

2011-03-21T14:04:00.000-07:00

Fifty and Fifty is a collection of illustrations by designers who are invited to represent their state by illustrating its motto. It was created by Dan Cassaro in an attempt to revamp the way we look at our country. Each state is depicted in its own unique way, but the limited color palette unites them all.

Our very own state motto was designed and illustrated by Matt Lehman,who started out as an intern at ADG, worked on staff for four years, and went on to become a successful, independent designer. Way to go Matt!

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Lettering

2011-03-08T07:09:00.000-08:00

As you guys well know, we're type fiends here at ADG. A few weeks ago we stumbled upon this collection on the BibliOdyssey blog, and needed to share it. You can check out the full collection here.

NEW Fanklin Town Square Poster Design!

2011-03-01T11:03:00.000-08:00

We shared the development process of our first Franklin poster yesterday. Here is the final version, after taking it into Photoshop and applying some secret effects that emulate an old-time print shop look.

The result replicates vintage, off-register printing techniques in the art. We will go to press on this design in the next month or two, producing a limited edition run of 500 prints.

Keep your eyes peeled for the next posters in our Franklin line!

Progress on Spirit of Franklin Poster Art

2011-02-28T08:04:00.000-08:00

We've been working on the first six posters for the Spirit of Franklin/Leipers Fork Collection, but six more are still undecided. We plan on having the a total of twelve done by summer, so don't forget to contact us on Facebook (or comment below) soon and let us know which Franklin landmarks you would like to see poster-fied!

The first six are (at least for now):
Franklin Town Square
Battle of Franklin
Franklin Theatre
Carnton Plantation
The Factory
Leipers Fork Downtown

Below are some of the thought process/development on the Franklin Town Square poster.

After starting with the color thumbnail we created the type treatment. This was a little difficult to work into our traditional poster format, so we adjusted it a little.

We also colored it. Often we create the typography first to set the tone and color palette in a poster. The type is a bit easier to control than an entire landscape.

We first worked on the foreground "hero" object(s) that will be the focus of the poster. In this case we're looking at the Civil War Memorial obelisk at the center of downtown Franklin, along with one of its four corner canons. The halftone dots we applied early on to the canon were eventually removed.

The art went through multiple color iterations. The one on the left felt too monochromatic (and pink!), but the blue/green didn't feel right either. We eventually went with something more true to the original thumbnail palette.

Finally we shifted around some of the typography and adjusted the colors a bit more, and now it's ready to work on in Photoshop. We'll post the final version here soon.

Here is a not-quite-finished Factory idea that our fantastic intern, Vanessa Baker, has been chiseling away at.

Anyway, keep those suggestions coming!

ADG Intern cleans up in the Student ADDY Awards

2011-02-24T07:07:00.000-08:00

Well, it's about that time of the year again. While last weekend, we were able to take part in the ADDY Awards for professionals, this week, the Student Addy's took place. Between those two, we've been doing a lot of celebrating! Our very own intern, Vanessa Baker, was among the night's biggest winners, taking home 3 gold awards and one silver! Way to go Vanessa! You can check out more of her award-winning work here.

ADG Wins Big at 2011 Addy Awards!

2011-02-21T09:28:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday was a windfall for us at the Nashville Addy Awards, picking up five awards (one best-of-category, three golds, and one silver) in four separate categories.

Art director Joel Anderson and bottle/poster designer Andy Gregg hittin' the sauce.

We won a gold in the Packaging Campaign category for Hog Heaven's BBQ Fight Club sauce bottles, as well as a silver for the BBQ Fight Club promo posters.

We also won a gold in the Self-Promotion category for our 2011 Art & Soul of America Calendar. This was an especially taxing project for us, so this was a nice vindication of the team's efforts.

The big win for us last night though was both the gold and the 'Best-of-Category' awards being given to Joel on stage in the special Flood Relief category. The awards were given for the two Spirit of Nashville flood relief posters he designed, in conjunction with donations from Athens Paper and McQuiddy Printing, to help raise money for flood relief. (Over $32,000 was raised last year!)

Below are some pics, mostly of us mugging, from the event.

Joel with his guitar collage piece. This artwork will eventually be auctioned off to help raise additional flood relief funds.

Andy with the 2011 Art & Soul of America Calendar.

Joel Anderson with wife, Patty.

Andy with girlfriend, Alexis.

The Importance of Office Clutter

2011-02-18T16:03:00.000-08:00

It’s important to be organized, but certain kinds of clutter are actually good for creativity and productivity. Take a quick tour around our design firm to see what we mean.... We’ll start in the entry way. It’s pretty clean, but we have strategically placed clusters of trophy clutter to say to our clients “yeah, these guys have street cred.”

We also litter our walls with framed examples of cool design work we’ve done. It decorates the walls and serves as a portfolio to show off some of our favorite projects.

We have a shelf that is also full of stuff we have designed. When clients come in, we can pretend like we are really busy, so while they wait, they can wander around and browse. This lets them see more of our work without us having to whip out the portfolio.

)

If we really take our time, they might wander over to our book shelf and see a collection of awesome pop culture icons. All of these figures represent the icons of American art and entertainment...each of these characters started out as a drawing but through marketing and design, they became famous symbols of American bliss. From Charlie Brown to Sponge Bob to Mickey to Scooby Doo and Bart Simpson... these pop culture treasures are not only fun to have around, but they suggest that we are in touch with what is fun and cool. (If clients think you’re cool, they will not tell you to make their logo as big, or use colors like mauve in their brochures.)

If we totally ignore our clients while we talk real loud on the phone to clients from New York and LA, they might feel like they have the right to snoop around. We want them to see our inspiration wall. It is full of cool stuff that we wish we had designed. There are a few of our pieces on there, too... but this magnetic board is there to inspire and push us to compete with creative folks who we admire. If the client thinks we did everything on that board, they might think we are not just hip, but uber-cool.

We also leave out mood boards. These are collages that feature research that we have done to nail down a specific vibe that is in the same cultural zip code as a logo, package or brand we’re creating. This is all part of our creative process, but by leaving it out in plain view, our clients think we must be super busy, so they will understand why we can’t get up from our desks just yet. (Never mind that the mood boards are from a project we finished 6 months ago!)

If the clients get really tired of waiting for us to come and say hello, they just walk right into our design area. By doing this, they fall right into another trap. They must pass more trophies like our Emmy, our Dove, and loads of ADDYs.

They inevitably stop at our Super Hero Collection and ponder how we actually get anything done with all the toys we keep around us.

Then we look surprised to see them and apologize for making them wait, muttering something about being lost in our creativity. They can feel the creativity swirling all around them, and they quickly forget that we’ve squandered 15 minutes of their day. Now that we are all standing around our computers, they can see that we actually made their deadline and created some butt-kickin’ design work that will get them a promotion if they make it look like it was all their idea. We encourage that. It usually leads to more work. (Like Ronald Reagan said, “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t worry about who gets the credit.”)

When we’re done hanging out with them and thanking them for the great feedback they have given us, we let them exit through the gift shop. (It used to be a conference room, but we turned it into a boutique to sell stuff we have created.) It’s full of our Spirit of Nashville and Art & Soul of America prints and gifts. Often, they buy something, and leave feeling happy.

See Mom? Our clutter is actually a god thing!

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Poster Design

2011-02-16T09:43:00.000-08:00

We just wrapped up a poster project for the Baton Rouge Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. The piece was commissioned by Zehnder Communications, a Louisiana-based advertising firm. The people at Zehnder had seen our Art & Soul of America poster series and wanted us to do a hip, vaguely retro poster that would highlight 10-12 Baton Rouge landmarks/tourist attractions. This would be part of a larger PR campaign to get both tourists and business leaders to come to Baton Rouge.

Here is a break-down the creative process to reveal the anatomy of a poster design from start to finish:

First, we started with some embarrassingly rough sketches. Zehnder picked the second thumbnail. The "Go BR" type is the name of the larger campaign, but this was eventually changed to "Baton Rouge - Red Stick" for the poster.

Next, we cleaned up the sketch.

Then we added color to the rough to give the client an idea of what we were leaning toward. We have an affinity for bright colors that occupy a gray area between cheap, retro printing techniques and a post-modernist pop aesthetic. We went with the colors pictured above. Thankfully the people at Zehnder liked them.

They had us rearrange the buildings a bit, and we sent them this color-coded sketch just to keep clear which landmarks are which.

We then produced the final vector art, sending Zehnder updates as we went along. Surprisingly, buildings and landmarks stayed in pretty much the same places they occupied in the rough sketches. This never happens.

Finally, we brought the vector art into Photoshop and rounded off edges, added airbrush shading, and generally dirtied up the art a bit for a more organic, screen printed feel. A border was also added with the old "Visit Baton Rouge" logo in the corner.

The guys at Zehnder seemed pretty happy with the final art. Apparently, the art will eventually be used in an interactive mini-site to promote the city of Baton Rouge, so keep your eyes peeled.

Our Package Design—Featured on CBS and Martha Stewart’s Blog!

2011-02-10T17:02:00.000-08:00

Our friends at Olive & Sinclair have been showing up all over the place lately. (And thus we are too!)

Last week Olive & Sinclair chocolate bars turned up on CBS's The Early Show as part of a segment on unique Valentine's Day Chocolates. Though the co-host was a bit picky, we thought the feature was still pretty cool. Also, notice how the generically packaged, neighboring chocolates get passed over entirely without any camera time at all. This is the elusive power of fun design.

They also turned up on the Everyday Food Blog at MarthaStewart.com. We felt the love too.

"I picked some up out of curiosity – such a cute label! – and loved what I tasted."

Finally, Olive & Sinclair even turned up as Christmas gifts sent out by Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle site. Again, we were left feeling like we had done our jobs.

" . . . aren't they lovely?" "We all gobbled them up {de-lish!}, but not before admiring the chic packaging . . ."

Cool Opening Credits Typography

2011-02-10T16:09:00.000-08:00

This caught my eye - how could it not? Enter the Void is a French film directed by Gaspar Noé and is described as a "psychedelic melodrama" (according to Wikipedia) that takes place on the neon streets of Tokyo. I haven't seen it.

What piqued my interest as a designer though were the title credits that I found posted on Youtube. It seems that every person of any status involved in making the film got their own personal logo /type treatment in the manic, febrile opening credits. Some of the type stays on screen for less than a second - that's a lot of design mileage!

It's cool too because the type seems evocative of a very specific time; that is, maybe mid-to-late 1990's (though the film was made in 2009). This would be in keeping with the intense rave music as well. Are we seeing the very beginnings of 1990's cultural nostalgia? I suddenly feel old...

Anyway, enjoy.

Great TV Commercial

2011-02-04T15:15:00.000-08:00

Cute sells. Especially when it has gone over to the Dark Side.
Enjoy!

Be a part of our NEW print series (coming soon)—The Spirit of Franklin!

2011-02-01T09:29:00.000-08:00

Our Spirit of Nashville Collection now features over 70 limited edition prints that celebrate the history and charm of Music City. We’ve covered a lot of themes in Nashville, but we have not had a chance to venture very far outside our city limits to depict other worthy landmarks and themes. A lot of folks have asked us to create art that features scenes from Franklin and Leiper’s Fork, TN.

So in response to these requests, we have decided to create the Spirit of Franklin Collection. Created in the same style as our Spirit of Nashville Collection, we plan to introduce 12 new limited edition print designs in 2011. We’ve already started work on 6 designs, and we are looking for feedback from folks like you to let us know what other 6 designs we should create to complete the 2011 series! Keep checking this blog for a behind-the-scenes look at the prints in progress. We will update it several times each month with photos, sketches, and other behind-the-scenes tidbits. As you follow our progress, you’ll see how we create these prints—from initial sketches to finished illustrations!

We’d love to hear your ideas and suggestions for new Franklin or Lieper’s Fork poster themes. Visit our Facebook page and post your suggestions for your top 6 poster themes. They can be landmarks, festivals, places—anything you love about Franklin or Leiper’s Fork—anything that defines their rich history and charm. We will create 6 new designs for the Spirit of Franklin Collection based on the feedback we get here on our Facebook page, so please tell everyone you know to chime in!

We’ll keep you posted on our progress as we go.

Fighting for Attention

2011-02-01T08:29:00.000-08:00

An update: ADG has made it to The Dieline (again) for our BBQ Fight Club sauce bottle packaging! Check it!

Cool (and a Little Creepy) Typography

2011-01-27T07:49:00.000-08:00

Got to love these examples I found on how type can be used in creative ways. The first picture kind of freaks me out, but I can't seem to take my eyes off it. Be inspired.

Amazing Star Wars Posters

2011-01-20T07:49:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of cool posters I tried to get my hands on a few months ago, only to see them sellout in a matter of minutes. Oh well...

High Tech Humor

2011-01-17T05:39:00.000-08:00

If you ever stop to think about our conversations about hi-tech gadgetry, it sounds a lot like this funny BBC video. Enjoy!

Logo Review

2010-12-29T10:02:00.000-08:00

It’s hard to believe that 2010 is almost over! This time of year, it’s always healthy to do some reflection and evaluation. What worked? What bombed? What should we enter in the awards, and what sort of logo should we vow to never do again? Logo design is probably the hardest thing we designers do. But it is very satisfying to create a mark that defines a brand and launches an enterprise into public view. Here is a parade of logos we created over the last year and a half with some commentary about each one:

These 2 logos were actually done a few years ago, but we’ve never included them on our blog. Lucky Strike Lanes of Princeton, Kentucky is a small independent bowling alley. The owner hired us to create a nostalgic look that would give the place a classic American feel. We obliged them by creating logos for the bowling alley and the restaurant. In order to get into the right frame of mind, we had to go bowling and eat bowling alley food. Just part of the job!

A Nashville-based hard core heavy metal band needed a logo for free. Since Joel Anderson’s teenage son was in the band at the time, Joel did the logo in trade for free concert tickets, a t-shirt, and some heavy-duty earplugs.

This logo was created for CongregationalSongs.com, a website aimed at musicians and worship leaders who are looking for new songs that can be sung by church congregations. Note the icons representing a congregation of people with sound waves rising above the crowd.

This logo for the Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Company won several ADDY Awards, including Best of Show. It was also featured in Print Magazine and featured on the Die Line. Needless to say, it has been one of our more successful logos!

This is an example of an unsuccessful logo. It was for a talented photographer who does very artful wedding photography. While we feel like we created a logo that captured the name, vibe and target audience, we never really found ourselves reading off the same page with the client. Sadly, none of the logos we submitted pleased him, and we ended up settling for a kill-fee and parting ways. No hard feelings... sometimes things just don’t click.

This logo is for a product line that is still in development. So we cannot say much about it, other than it has to do with old denim. We think it’s cool, and we hope to see it in use soon!

One of the craziest logos of the year was done for a pal in L.A. named Alex Mebane who is an actor, song writer, video producer. He created a hip-hop rapper persona called $pyrul and wanted us to whip him up a logo for his iTunes and YouTube promotions. We had a budget of $1 and had to do the logo in 3 hours. Since the whole idea is a parody on rap music, we were encouraged to be as cheezy as necessary to achieve the desired look. (We broke all of our own rules about NOT using every Photoshop effect available... this logo actually features drop shadow, inner bevel and lens flare!)

Hog Heaven has been around since the 1980s, but they never really had an official logo. So when owners Katy and Andy Garner called to say they would be on Food Network, we got to work creating a logo that they could use for all their promotional needs. We tried to make the logo match the establishment—a weathered rib shack that has never been fancy or flashy. Just real good.

The Davidson County Clerk’s office has never really had a logo, either. Since the county clerk is elected, the name changes every so often. We made the logo adaptable, so the clerk’s name could be swapped out in the future. We also created icons to represent the various services the County Clerk’s office provides (like birth certificates, business licenses, automobile registration, titles, etc..) These icons will be used in creating directional signs and rack brochures.

A new church in Hendersonville, TN needed a logo and some branding to let folks know their doors were open. Logos for churches and community organizations are always tricky. The colors, fonts, and overall vibe needs to match the mission, purpose, membership, and target audience. In this case, Redeemer is a young energetic congregation with reformed orthodox evangelical theology.

The Wine Shoppe in Green Hills is known for their expertise in fine and rare wines. The new owners wanted to do a total brand overhaul. Their logo needed to look established with an old-world European look and feel. We researched fonts, wine labels, European pub signs, and poster art to arrive at the logo they chose. Above are some of the other logos we experimented with in the process.

We will do this again at the end of next year. Until then, Happy New Year, and a prosperous creative 2011 to you!

NEW Print Shop Poster Series

2010-12-28T15:04:00.000-08:00

We’ve always been fans of Hatch Showprint, Isle of Printing, and Yee-Haw Industries—classic Tennessee letterpress print shops that consistently produce striking illustrated poster designs. Computers have really changed how designers and illustrators create. Thanks to Photoshop and desk-top design programs, it seems like most contemporary commercial art is full of drop shadows, highlights, layers, stock photos, and lettering that was just typed—not really typeset or styled. What we wouldn’t give to get our hands dirty every now and then and create something from start to finish that was never touched by a pixel, mouse click or megabyte!

We work on Macs all day long. But we also draw, sketch and paint as often as possible, experimenting with any hand-done medium we can find. This keeps our design and illustration work looking fresh. (Funny how “fresh” has become code for “doesn’t look like it was done on the computer!”) There is no substitute for traditional hand-lettering, drawing or carving done by real artists. And old world printing techniques like letterpress and screen printing are great at forcing designers to limit the color palette and focus more on typography, illustration, use of positive and negative space, and simple composition.

If we had the space, we probably would buy some old printing equipment and move backward in time, doing less and less on the Mac and conventional 4-color printers! Since we don’t actually own a letter press, all of our art ends up on the computer at some point as a digital print file.

This nostalgic longing for long-lost craftsmanship inspired our latest batch of posters for the ever-expanding Art & Soul of America Collection. We limited all the designs to 3 colors so they can eventually be reproduced as screen prints, letterpress posters. The results were very satisfying. To start, we did a test run of 4-color process printed posters made to look like letterpress prints. (They are available on our Art And Soul Of America site.) In the future, we will actually produce limited edition screen printed versions of the most popular designs.

Check them out and let us know which ones you like best!

The Art of Advertising

2010-12-17T16:38:00.000-08:00

Back in the golden age of poster art (a period from the late-1800s to the mid-1900s,) advertisers hired talented under-employed artists to create posters that promoted everything from live shows to chocolate to soap. Even though the posters were merely hawking everyday products, they were often beautiful and eye-catching, masterfully created designs. Illustrated posters are not used much in advertising today—probably because of how much time it takes to produce this sort of art, and because most cities have laws against plastering posters on every surface.

Even though posters don’t get much display space in modern commerce, we thought we would revive the long-lost art of illustrated advertising posters in an effort to promote our client’s establishments. Rather than look for commercial wall space, we created the posters to be framed as art that folks would use to decorate interiors—restaurants, homes, offices, etc..

The Wine Shoppe in Green Hills hired us to redesign their logo and create a new branding scheme that emphasized their expertise in rare and imported wines. In addition to creating store signs, biz cards, gift tags and ads, we illustrated a series of 5 classic wine posters. In Tennessee, Wine and Spirits stores are not allowed to sell anything but wine and spirits. They can only use the art to promote the store. But we are selling the prints for $39 each on our Spirit of Nashville poster web site. These limited edition prints make great wall decor for any wine enthusiast. And while they add charm to any kitchen or dining room, they will silently promote the Wine Shoppe for years to come!

Another client, Hog Heaven created 3 new BBQ sauces, but did not have a big marketing budget to advertise. So we took the label art we had designed for the sauce bottles and made posters and tin signs for display in their rib shack and to be sold on-line. These prints will also be available on our Spirit of Nashville site and Nashville Artisans Gallery site in January.

The idea behind making striking poster art is simple: create art that folks love enough to hang on their wall, and you’ll have them staring at your logo all year long! So even if our clients don’t plan to plaster Nashville with poster art, they will still gain prestige and visibility as food poster collectors buy the prints to decorate their home and office walls.

iSpirit of Nashville

2010-11-11T08:29:00.000-08:00

Check out this short new video to see how the app works!

Several months ago, our friends at FireFly Logic and RedBone Entertainment approached us about creating an iPhone app that marries our poster and postcard art with video footage, GPS mapping, and web links. The result is a hand-held virtual tour of Music City that even allows you to send digital postcards of our Spirit of Nashville art to your pals as you walk around Nashville, enjoying everything this great city has to offer.

The process was simple on our end—we just created the iPhone screen art. Then Firefly took our poster designs, some content from our web site and video footage and built a very easy-to-use (and cool-looking) app. After a few rounds of testing, they sent it to Apple. Now everyone with an iPhone can take an artsy virtual tour of Nashville, Tennessee.

If you download the $2.99 app, you’ll be able to experience Music City from anywhere. If you are lucky enough to be in town, you can plan a fun-packed day in The Ville by checking out video clips, poster art, and links to Nashville’s most popular destinations and landmarks. After using the map feature to navigate to your destination, you can send a digital postcard of your adventure featuring one of the 70+ designs in the award-winning poster collection.

Next we’ll be thinking about turning our Spirit of Nashville Coffee Table Book into an e-book for the iPad. More details on that to come!

Download the iPhone App for only $2.99 at:

http://spiritofnashvilleapp.com

French Paper. American Design.

2010-11-08T14:58:00.000-08:00

We designers tend to geek out about stuff like illustrated posters and postcards—(especially when they are printed on cool paper!) So when the coolest paper company on the planet asked us to partner with them to create a new promotional calendar, it was like being handed an authentic Boba Fett costume and being asked to make a personal appearance at a Star Wars Convention.

We have long since been fans of the French Paper Company’s amazing products—made famous by their promotional materials designed by Charles S. Anderson (no relation to Anderson Design Group founder Joel Anderson.)

French Paper encouraged us to dream up a deluxe promotional calendar that would feature Smart White and PopTone papers. So our team of artists went right to work, trying to out-do our previous Spirit of Nashville calendars by assembling a brand new collection of illustrated prints and uber-cool postcards that feature original travel art of our favorite U.S. cities and national parks.

McQuiddy Classic, a 100-year-old Nashville printing company partnered with us in a 3-way joint promotion to produce this 13-month calendar full of 11" x 14" ready-to-frame mini prints. Printed on Smart White paper, with a set of 16 postcards printed in silver metallic ink on PopTone paper, this became the perfect opportunity to unveil our new Art And Soul Of America poster collection.

McQuiddy Classic Printing has helped to put the Spirit of Nashville Collection on the map by producing fabulous promotional calendars each year since 2004. In a few weeks, McQuiddy reps will have 500 of these special edition 2010 calendars to give away. French Paper reps will distribute 2,500 calendars around North America, and Anderson Design Group will give away 250 calendars to clients and friends. For anyone else who is interested, we have also reserved 250 calendars to sell on our ArtAndSoulOfAmerica.com site.

We hope you can get your hands on one of the 3,500 limited edition calendars that French, McQuiddy Classic and Anderson Design Group will be giving away. And if you can’t snag a free promo calendar, you can always buy one at www.ArtAndSoulOfAmerica.com.

Running with the Right Crowd

2010-11-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

Anderson Design Group has had the pleasure of working on dozens of posters ever since our Spirit of Nashville Collection became popular. Recently, we were asked to create a new poster and t-shirt design for an annual charity race called the Boulevard Bolt. The race takes place every Thanksgiving Day on scenic Belle Meade Boulevard in Nashville, TN. Since 1994, the Boulevard Bolt has grown from 2,500 participants to nearly 8,000 participants. Today, it ranks among the largest 5-mile races in the country, having raised over $1.4 million for the homeless community in Nashville since it began.

The Boulevard Bolt Committee representative emphasized that the event always happens Thanksgiving Day, so a fall theme would be in order. So ADG staff artist Andy Gregg produced a couple of concepts that were like Art Deco Olympic posters. The designs looked right at home in the Spirit of Nashville Collection. Unsatisfied (and a little bored with himself) Andy set out to create a design that would involve some kind of graphic pattern or rhythm based on autumn colors and symbols, using positive and negative space to create drama. Inspired by a 1960's-style Modern design style (made famous by TWA Airlines travel posters,) Andy created a bold, stylish option with hand-lettering that was very different from the Spirit of Nashville look. To his surprise, the Boulevard Bolt committee picked this more inventive and risky design.

In Andy’s own words: “I've always loved retro design, and having illustrated many of the Art & Soul of America prints, I had had plenty of chances to work in an Art Deco style. However, I really hadn't been able to break out of the first half of the 20th century on a poster design project. I saw this as an opportunity, figuring the Modern style would be conducive to the flat, graphic nature of this concept. What you see is the final product. The header typography I created is admittedly not really 60's Modern, but rather conflation of 60's and 70's script styles. When designing a piece that does not need to be from a specific design movement, why limit it?”

The project took about 5 days from start to finish. Andy had a great time working on it, and the Boulevard Bolt committee was very pleased to have such a cool design for this year’s event.

Opening Doors with Great Design

2010-10-21T08:49:00.000-07:00

The Grand Ole Opry suffered catastrophic damage during the flood in May. Almost 4 feet of water covered the wooden stage, destroying it along with the pews, curtains, and walls. The staff was able to salvage the historic six-foot circle that was cut from the original Ryman stage and placed into the Opry House in 1974. The famous backstage dressing rooms were all ruined and had to be completely gutted.

As soon as the waters subsided, a massive renovation project began. Just 5 weeks before the grand reopening, we got a call from a Grand Ole Opry official who asked us if we would team up with Kathy Anderson, a well-known Nashville interior designer who was hired to completely transform the old back stage dressing room area. All 18 of the dressing rooms had themes celebrating the glory days of the Grand Ole Opry. They needed us to create unique door signs for each dressing room—signs that would hint at the distinct theme, decor scheme, color palette, and heritage that each dressing room represents. The Opry folks wanted a classic look for the famous rooms which Minnie Pearl, Little Jimmy, and Roy Acuff, even president Clinton used — a warm, timeless Music City feel — inspired by our very own Spirit of Nashville Collection!

So we (Joel headed up the design team of Edward, Ligia and Andy) set out to create 18 full color die cut logo signs. Each sign started out as a sketch. Once the sketch was approved, we created a vector illustration with a die cut template for each unique sign shape. Finally, we gave the vector illustrations a classic aged look in Photoshop before being sent off to Phase 3 Media, the sign vendor. The door signs were all installed just days before the grand opening celebration. A special open-to-the public backstage tour event was named “Spirit of Nashville Day” as a nod to the famous collection of prints that these door signs were patterned after. Of course, we were flattered.

We really enjoyed working with the excellent folks at the Grand Ole Opry and the interior designers at Anderson Design (not related to Anderson Design Group!) If you ever have a chance to take a back stage tour, be sure to check out the custom art that identifies each dressing room!

Here are 2 videos shot after the renovation was complete:

http://www.opry.com/news/2010/10-02.html

http://www.wsmv.com/entertainment/25228734/detail.html

Design like a Fool!

2010-10-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

Recently, a really cool company called Book Fool asked us to help them create 2 new t-shirt designs that would appeal to college students. (Book Fool sets up near college campuses and offers cash for used text books. Then they sell the books online at a discount, infuriating college bookstores, while helping students save lots of money!) Book Fool was looking for an underground way of promoting their brand on campus—something pretty hard to do, since companies are not allowed to advertise on school property. They also wanted to reward "Friends of the Fool" with some fun, irreverent swag. The solution: we decided to create some really cool shirts, so students could legally advertise all day long in shirts that they would be proud to wear.

Our hip young team of designers were in college recently enough, so they knew exactly what to do:
1. Andy Gregg illustrated and designed a shirt based on old pulp fiction Sci-Fi movies and novels. (Even though the budget only allowed for about 10 hours of design time, Andy went the extra mile by pouring his soul into 65 hours of sketching, inking, and Photoshopping. He even pulled an all-nighter to finish it off, then slept in his car for an hour before popping back into the studio to work another day.)

2. Ligia Teodosiu designed a shirt in the persuasive style of Victorian newspaper advertising. (She didn’t have to work all night to finish her design, but she did spend many hours studying and illustrating turn-of-the-century facial hair fashion.)

The results were totally what you might expect. Book Fool is getting rave reviews, and from now on, students everywhere will probably use their “used book money” to buy cool t-shirts instead of beer. We feel pretty good about our contribution to collegiate fashion and sobriety!

Check out Book Fool’s blog site...

Gettin’ Saucy

2010-10-08T07:21:00.000-07:00

When local BBQ legends Andy and Katie Garner asked us to help them create a brand for their famous BBQ sauces, we said YES without even having to think about it. That’s because we LOVE their smoked ribs, pulled pork, brisket, turkey & chicken. But the secret to Hog Heaven’s success has always been in their sauces. You can get them in a little plastic tub with your meal, but until now, the sauces have not been available in a bottle.

We started by batting around names for the brand and the individual sauces. They had a Barnyard Brawl theme stuck in their crazy sauced up heads. We loved the idea of food-fighting animals, and over the course of the design project, the brand became BBQ Fight Club with sauce names like Kickin’ Chicken and Punching Pig. ADG staff designer/illustrator Andy Gregg rolled up his sleeves and started inventing awesome fight club characters for the label art (which will eventually become trading cards and posters to help promote the sauces!) The process was a blast, and the end-product definitely lives up to its name.

The process started (visually-speaking) in a low-rent Luchadore district, wandered around in a stylish zip code, and ended up in a hot & steamy barnyard brawl fight club. Note the progression of the sketches and colors:

Hog Heaven sauces can be bought at Hog Heaven or at the Spirit of Nashville store.

Steeling the Show

2010-09-28T06:57:00.000-07:00

We have worked on a magazine called On Track for many years. This annual magazine was created by Venture Publications, and is purchased by Community Colleges who want to encourage middle school and high school kids to stay in school and go on to college after they graduate. Each issue needs to feature a celebrity that will get the kids’ attention and make them pick up the magazine. And every issue needs one show stopping centerfold that will end up on a kid’s wall, serving as inspiration to follow their dreams. This year, pro-bowl NFL player Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers agreed to share his inspiring story with On Track Magazine.

Edward Patton, our resident sports authority and Terrible Towel-waving design star was the right man for this job. He started with the text and some mediocre stock photos of Troy in action. The photos were pretty cluttered, and there was not much to arrest the eye.

It was going to take a lot of magic to make the article and the poster come to life... (but that’s never been a problem for Edward before!) After working some Photoshop genius into a solid layout, Edward created a truly stunning piece of editorial design work. Full of energy and crazy cool detail, this poster and 2-page spread “stole the show” as the coolest chunk of the magazine. The client was very pleased, and we are sure that thousands of kids will pick up the magazine and be drawn to this uplifting article. Hopefully, they will be inspired to stay in school—and maybe even become graphic designers!

Art for ReTune Nashville

2010-09-16T11:57:00.000-07:00

Four months after the historic flood, many Nashville businesses and individuals are still struggling to rebuild their lives. Among the hardest hit were the local musicians who stored their gear and instruments in a facility called the Sound Check. The entire place flooded and millions of dollars worth of musical instruments were ruined overnight. Sheri ONeal, A local photographer began collecting damaged instruments and giving them to local artists who would turn the sad remains into brand new pieces of art for an upcoming charity auction. Thanks to her efforts, and then the enthusiastic involvement of many others, ReTune Nashville was born. The big event will be on October 23 at 7:00 pm at the SoundCheck. Funds raised will go to: Nashville Musicians Association Flood Relief Fund and MusiCares Nashville Flood Relief.

Two months ago, Anne Browne of the Arts Company handed Joel Anderson a beautiful (but useless) warped guitar that had been salvaged from the SoundCheck. He immediately started to think about how to turn it into a piece of art for the auction.

Eventually, he created a giant collage built on a salvaged door layering together his flood relief posters along with a bunch of picks, strings, bottle caps and drum sticks donated by other musicians he knew. Joel cut a hole in the door and lowered the guitar into the cavity and sealed everything up with an acrylic medium. Kevin Dransfield from Belle Meade Framers donated the frame to finish it off. The finished piece is called Play On. All together, it was a cool melding of graphic design and fine art. We hope the piece raises a bunch of money for this worthy cause!

Will Work For Food

2010-07-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

Design can change the world... especially when your world is awesome BBQ and smoked ribs! Our design firm just happens to be down the street from one of Nashville’s favorite BBQ joints—Hog Heaven. When the wind is blowing just right, the heavenly aroma lures us down the sidewalk to the little rib shack run by our pals Katy and Andy Garner. They sure do know BBQ, ribs and sauces... but they admittedly don’t know how to create a brand for their amazing food. Since we love eating BBQ and we happen to know a thing or two about branding, we figured this would be a match made in heaven!

Owner Katy Garner poses under her new sign with 2 mocked-up bottles of sauce. (The sauce will hit the market soon.)

This hand-painted alley wall was the only branding Hog Heaven had. (Notice the original hand-lettering on the hog’s butt!)

Katy & Andy called to tell us that Food Network was coming to film a special about their famous white sauce. We had talked for a long time about creating a logo, branding, store signs, and designing some packaging that would help them take their sauce to market. Now we had a real deadline of 3 weeks to make it all happen before they found themselves on national TV without any branding. (They have been in business since 1986 and all this time, they never even had a sign out front to let folks know where they were located! People just followed their noses to get there!)

We started with sketched logos, then created color options, and finally chose a winner. Then we applied the logo, colors, & fonts to a menu, t-shirts, and new art for a bricko block wall that one of their employees had painted several years ago. We also mocked up some bottles for their sauces which are due to hit the market this Fall. (We will unveil the sauce labels in the near future!)

Our goal was to give Hog Heaven some cool new branding that looked like it had always been there. Part of Hog Heaven’s charm is that it is a little old BBQ shack next to a crappy biker bar, near to Centennial Park. Everything we designed needed to suggest hand-pulled pork at a casual, friendly “mom & pop” dive.
These sketches were just a little too cute. So we tried some other options to make the brand a bit more serious.

After a few rounds of sketches, we dreamed up some fun color options. Once we narrowed down the concepts to a final design, we had about 2 days to whip out art for signs, menus, t-shirts, sauce labels, and the alley wall (which Katy and Andy stayed up until 3 am painting the night before Food Network arrived for filming!

Katy & Andy spent 48 hours painting, installing signs, etc. on the hottest days of the year. All this was done on a shoe-string budget, for the love of design and hot BBQ. To keep the design fees low, we agreed to trade-out a bunch of design time for free food. It was a lot of work under hellish conditions, but the results are quite heavenly!

Logos

2010-06-26T07:54:00.000-07:00

Logo design is one of the hardest things we do as designers. Don’t get me wrong—it’s fun to work on the same little puzzle for days on end and then do 30 rounds of revisions until you have met the marketing objectives, figured out the client’s personal tastes, and created something you are proud of.

It doesn’t always work, but when it does, it can make all the difference in the world to your client. For better or for worse, logos stick around for a long time. (One of my worst logo memories haunts me every time I see it—plastered all over the back roads of United States—more than 10 years after we created it! The Hunts brothers Pizza guy can be seen at every rural gas station and convenience store in the country. You may know it as the pizza guy who looks like Saddam Hussein.) I love hearing the conspiracy theories about this infamous logo... some people actually think this is a business that was founded by the Bath Party as a money-laundering scheme to buy weapons and support terrorism! In reality, the client just kept tinkering with the art until we gave up and said “have it your way!”

The logo is everywhere. If I made a penny for every time it is used, I’d be hanging out with Bill Gates.

Logo creation is about 50 things at once: it’s creating a visual icon—a reminder of what the brand is, why it is special. it’s about making sure the logo gets noticed, reads clearly at a glance, is memorable, and communicates effectively. You must make sure it is easy to reproduce in all sizes and media. For the next few months, we will post a few examples of logos & brand identities that are particularly interesting.

Olive & Sinclair Chocolate packaging featured on The Dieline

2010-06-04T07:11:00.000-07:00

The Dieline, known as the #1 packaging design web site, featured our work for Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Company. We are truly honored to be recognized by such a prestigious collective. Some of the blog's comments include:

"It's the antithesis of Method, Pepsi, et al. A brand with character always outshines a brand without;"
and "These are so beautiful I'd frame them."

Thanks to the folks at The Dieline!

We Art Nashville

2010-05-26T13:52:00.000-07:00

On Friday, May 21, Joel joined our friends at The Arts Company for a special ceremony to present Mayor Karl Dean with the first two (1/100) Spirit of Nashville flood posters. The event was a benefit for Nashville flood relief and included many other neighboring galleries. The money raised from $10 wristbands, 10% discounts, and $35 Spirit of Nashville posters went straight to the Community Foundation. It was a great night! (To see more photos from the event, check out The Arts Company's Facebook page.)

These posters, which have raised over $24,000 for Nashville flood relief, have been a huge success.We sold over 800 posters in one week. Drop by or call us today if you want one before it's too late!

NEW Spirit of Nashville Flood Relief Posters

2010-05-13T07:28:00.000-07:00

ADG teamed up with McQuiddy Classic Printing and Athens Paper to produce 2 limited edition prints that celebrate Nashville’s incredible strength, generosity and sense of community during the recent devastating floods and recovery efforts. Spirit of Nashville will sell the prints online to raise money for flood relief. 100% of the profits will go directly to Samaritan’s Purse and the Red Cross. The prints will be available on Monday, May 17, 2010, but you can pre-order them now.

We will produce a limited edition of 500 prints of each design. The prints will sell for $30 each. For every sale, $30 will be donated directly to the relief agencies. For online orders, shipping will be added to the price, unless the purchaser wishes to pick up the print in person at our studio store.

One poster is titled “Spirit of Nashville” and features two hands joined in lifting a guitar out of the water with the words “Spirit of Nashville: Courage, Hope, Strength, Pride, Generosity” running across the state Flag of Tennessee. The other poster titled “Play On” features a female musician performing in a spotlight. The design was originally created by Matt Lehman when he was one of our staff designers. The woman was on stage in the original design, but in this new version, Joel revised the art by adding flood waters covering the stage, with one of Music City’s new motivational themes: “PLAY ON.”

To see all the various Nashville flood relief posters produced by other designers, check out Collide Creative's blog.

Nashville Under Water...

2010-05-06T08:18:00.000-07:00

Anderson Design Group and Spirit of Nashville were very blessed to have not been affected by the terrible floods that did so much damage to Music City last weekend. For that we are very grateful. Thanks to all of our out of town clients and friends who have asked how we are doing. We know many people who were not as fortunate—we will be lending a had to help folks clean up the mess this weekend. And over the next few months, we want to help flood victims in two other small ways:

1. If you own a Spirit of Nashville print that was ruined in the flood, you may bring the water-damaged print to our studio and we will replace it for free. (Sorry, we cannot replace the frame, but we will be happy to replace your flood damaged prints between now and June 30th, 2010. Some designs are no longer in print, so we may need to replace an out-of-print design with another design of your choice.)

2. If you have a friend whose home was flooded, we would like to give them one free print as a house-warming gift, once their home is restored. It may take several months for folks to clean up and get their walls ready for art again. And we realize that art is the last thing on everyone’s mind right now. But a Spirit of Nashville print is a wonderful finishing touch for any home. It’s also a great gift to give to a friend who has been through a hard time. To take advantage on this offer, please bring a photo of your friend’s damaged home. We will give you a free note card & envelope to write an encouraging word for your friend, too. (One free print per customer, please.)

Olive & Sinclair -- Good as GOLD!

2010-05-04T13:53:00.000-07:00

Anderson Design Group was honored to take home a GOLD Award for the packaging category of the AIGA Tenn Show Awards on Friday, April 30th. Tenn Show, the state’s most prestigious juried design competition, was open to professionals and students throughout Tennessee involved in designing visual and creative communications in print, motion graphics, packaging and seven other categories. Mayor of Nashville, Karl Dean, gave a presentation during the event about art and community advocacy. Over 200 AIGA members and non-members participated and their work was judged by a panel of creative professionals from each Tennessee AIGA chapter. Only one GOLD Award was given for each category.

Much like the recent ADDY Awards, our Olive & Sinclair Chocolate bar packaging design caught the judges’ eyes. We can swear on the Bible that they were not bribed with delicious chocolate—(that’s because we ate it all ourselves! Then we stuck cardboard inside the wrapper and made dummy bars before we sent in our entries.) Anyway, this packaging seems to be doing its job. Olive & Sinclair Chocolate sales continue to increase, and people continue to buy the chocolate and save the labels!

Where We Work featured on FastCompany.com

2010-04-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

Fast Company posted a nice review of Where We Work, a book we designed last fall. Read it here.

Dollar General Art

2010-04-30T06:39:00.001-07:00

Dollar General Corporation has a beautiful corporate headquarters in Goodlettsville, TN. In the fall of 2009, they called to ask us to create 4 pieces of art that would commemorate a very special event. But it was secret—(they were bound by federal law to keep a lid on the details.) It was pretty obvious that there was a public stock offering in the works, but nobody was allowed to talk about it. So they said, “We have a long tradition of collecting original art for our corporate offices and spaces. Do something that celebrates our history and our brand, and make the art contemporary enough that it will suggest where we are headed into the future.” They wanted real paintings—4 Joel Anderson originals.

So Joel took a tour of the corporate facilities and the extensive fine art collection that the Turner family had amassed over the years. It was rather intimidating to know that he had to create 3 giant paintings to be the focal point of the lobby, and do a fourth piece that would grace the executive level board room. Oh yes, one of the pieces had to be turned into a signed and numbered limited edition print for 60 VIPs. A version of the art needed to be blown up big enough to hang as a 2-story tall banner out front of the building, too.

So Joel set to work on the art. He started with sketches, then vector designs in Adobe Illustrator. Then he bought 6 foot tall canvases, projected his art onto them and started painting. To add a dimensional effect, he cut up a mosaic of painted paper strips and affixed them to the canvas. The resulting works are the focal point of the grand lobby. Limited edition prints were given to corporate executives, Wall Street investors, clients and traders in recognition of their work to make the public stock offering a success.

This project was an interesting fusion of fine art and graphic design—of corporate America supporting the arts while using art to promote a corporate vision.

Our Retail Store

2010-04-14T07:34:00.000-07:00

What does a design firm do when the sluggish economy forces clients to cut back and spend less? We crank up a studio store and create cool stuff to sell to the general public! One nice thing about downsizing is getting more free space to do creative things (like turning your conference area into a retail boutique!) Since we have extra space in our building, and we have created a plethora of cool prints & gifts, retail seemed like an easy way to “make lemonade out of economic lemons.” Retail is actually fun—we have enjoyed talking to people who walk in off the street to browse and shop our Spirit of Nashville and Art & Soul of America creations. In between creating logos, brochures, book covers, etc., we find ourselves chatting it up with folks who are looking for art to decorate homes and offices. Or advising shoppers as to the perfect gift for co-workers, parents, graduating kids, friends or lovers! That’s the cool thing about design—you can sell your art on everything from note cards, posters, and tote bags to t-shirts, mugs and magnets.

Anyway, most folks don’t know we have a retail store inside our design firm, so we printed some of our most popular designs onto metal signs and mounted them to the outside of our building. Now everyone who drives by can see the place where all of those Nashville prints come from. Only problem is, retail customers expect us to be open during retail hours! So we are looking into how we can keep the studio store open past 5:00 and on Saturday.

Abingdon Press Book Series

2010-04-07T14:18:00.001-07:00

One of our publishing clients, Abingdon Press, asked us to design the titles in their new Christian Fiction book line. They wanted to launch the line with a splash, get lots of reviews, and have covers that would compete with all the other established fiction publishers. We started with 10 titles and after 3 release cycles, we have cranked out over 30 covers — each one unique, and each one done on a very tight budget! Our team approached the challenge with extended research, group brainstorming sessions, intense photo searching, and a variety of design and illustration styles. We're currently working on covers for their Fall 2010 Fiction book line. Stay posted for more!

The Hermitage Annual Report

2010-04-07T13:04:00.000-07:00

ADG recently designed The Hermitage's (Home of President Andrew Jackson) first annual report. Using antique & decorative elements, illustrations, and warm imagery, we helped the folks at The Hermitage share their powerful story. April 2009 marked the Ladies' Hermitage Association's 120th anniversary!

Sugarland CD & Vinyl Record packaging

2010-03-31T07:31:00.000-07:00

OK, so this really is not news... we did the Sugarland packaging a while ago. It won some awards, and helped them sell a zillion records, but back when we did it, we didn’t have a blog. Now we do, and if you never got to see it, here it is. Funny thing... since we did this, the economy tanked, so we haven’t really done much more in the way of music packaging. If you are a recording artist in need of a cool new CD package, give us a call. We’re in the mood to do another cool CD project!

Inspired by Matchbook Cover Designs

2010-03-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

One of our clients makes very cool vintage-looking wood and metal signs. Meissenburg Designs, located in Montana, asked us to help them create a new line of fun little prints that would be bought by owners of vacation homes. The new line, called the Matchbook Series made its debut in their 2010 catalog, and they are selling quite well!

This art is inspired by the old matchbook covers you might find in antique stores. We also found a wealth of inspiration looking through the classified ads section of 1940s magazines like Look, Sports Illustrated, etc.
Here is a page from Joel’s sketchbook, made while he was thinking up ideas for a few of the designs.

ADG's New Full Time Designer

2010-03-23T07:59:00.000-07:00

ADG is proud to announce the latest addition to our design team. Ligia Teodosiu has been decorated by the Society of Illustrators, AIGA, and the American Advertising Federation in Nashville for her award-winning student work. She recently shined so brightly as our intern that we just had to offer her a full time spot on our team! She joins us as a full time staff designer in April.

A little background on Ligia: Born in Romania, she moved to the USA as a child. After receiving her B.S. in Psychology from Ohio State University, Ligia had every intention of continuing on to graduate school. However, after getting married and moving to Nashville, she became aware of her obsession with graphic design and illustration. She attended Watkins College of Art, Design and Film where she beat out dozens of applicants for a coveted internship spot at ADG. During her time with us, she proved to be an excellent thinker, illustrator, and designer in a wide range of styles. Ligia enjoys illustrating stories, designing logos, dabbling in web design, and perfecting her southern drawl (much to the chagrin of her northerner friends).

Gwyneth Paltrow on Olive & Sinclair

2010-03-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

We recently learned that actress Gwyneth Paltrow commented on our
Olive & Sinclair Chocolate packaging. "The chocolate itself is some of the most flavorful we’ve ever experienced and the combinations are amazing...
Each wrapper’s design, is, like the chocolate inside, exquisite." She's been filming in Nashville for an upcoming movie. To read to her full blog post about her Nashville experience, go here.

Introducing Where We Work

2010-03-16T09:07:00.000-07:00

Produced by This Ain't No Disco and published by HarperCollins, Where We Work will be available in stores and online this April. ADG designed the book's interior & cover during the fall of 2009. The book's jacket has a foil and spot varnish.

Showcasing forty-five of the world’s most extravagant and inspiring work environments from internationally acclaimed and recognized agencies within the advertising, media and design industry, Where We Work explores how creative agencies transform lifeless commercial spaces into bastions of creativity, offering inspiring interiors and visual insight into the breadth and depth of each agency’s thinking. Spaces that not only inspire, but invite us to re-evaluate our lives from nine to five.

Big Book Series

2010-03-11T07:23:00.000-08:00

ADG was approached by Crescent Hill Books and Harper Collins to redesign the cover for a good-selling book that was beginning to look dated. We devised a bold, graphic new look for the title in question. Then we applied that look to other books in the series, establishing an eye-catching new line-look that could be adapted to future titles. The fresh design dramatically improved sales of each of the old titles once they were updated, and continues to spur the series on with new titles. We're currently designing the interior for The New Big Book of Layouts.

New Spirit of Nashville Poster Designs

2010-03-09T11:43:00.000-08:00

We just finished the latest additions to the Spirit of Nashville Collection: a new print for WPLN Radio and another for Saint Cecilia Academy. We were happy to create art that will help these two important Nashville icons celebrate milestones of achievement—WPLN’s service to Nashville for over 40 years, and Saint Cecilia Academy’s 150th Anniversary. Both prints were designed by Joel Anderson. The Saint Cecelia print was based on an original painting Joel created specifically for this occasion. The original painting will hang in the school’s lobby.

People ask how we decide which Nashville icons to feature in our art. Occasionally, we just create designs that feature places or themes we love. Often, Nashville establishments ask us how they can be featured in our Spirit of Nashville Collection. If a business or institution has been a significant part of Nashville’s culture, or if they add to our city’s reputation in a unique, creative way, and if we think the print will be something folks would enjoy hanging in their home or office, we will produce a work of art as a limited edition print run if the establishment agrees to buy 300 of the 500 prints (at the wholesale cost.) This helps to help defray part of the cost of creating the art. To see all the designs in the Spirit of Nashville Collection, visit our site at www.spiritofnashville.com

Wired Magazine on iPad

2010-03-04T11:31:00.000-08:00

Man...the world is turning more and more like the movie
"The Demolition Man". Sea shells anyone?

It's Wedding Season at ADG

2010-03-04T11:17:00.000-08:00

Edward is marrying Morgan at the end of March. His invitations, printed on Curious Metallic Ice Gold paper, have a ribbon and inside pocket. The invitation's elegant pattern was the most time-consuming.

Amy is getting married to Forrest this summer. For her Save the Date, she scanned in hand-cut paper letters to spell June. Adair Freeman was their photographer. The serif typeface is Delicato, and the paper is Mohawk Via Vellum. Advocate Marketing & Print printed them digitally.

Art & Soul of America Collection

2010-03-01T11:35:00.000-08:00

ADG set out to celebrate the history and charm of America’s favorite destinations in a series of classic travel posters after Creative Director Joel Anderson got fed up with the cheesy, low-quality postcards & prints available in the gift shops of his favorite places. So he began directing a little symphony of artists who interned at his firm, guiding them in the creation of new imagery in the style of the Golden Age of Poster Art. The new “vintage travel” designs are sold as limited edition prints at www.ArtAndSoulOfamerica.com and licensed to stationery and gift companies for the production of not-cheesy keepsake items and memorabilia.

Special thanks to interns Julian Baker & Andy Gregg.

ADG Intern Rocks out at the Student ADDYs

2010-02-25T09:07:00.000-08:00

Our Spring intern, Ligia Teodosiu, won 1 Silver, 4 Golds, the Judge's Choice Award, and Best of Show at the Student Addy's. She is currently a Junior at Watkins College of Art & Design. We are so proud and lucky to have her on our team!

Joel Wins Addy for Art Director of the Year

2010-02-23T12:28:00.000-08:00

It's true: Joel left the Addy Awards with Best of Show and Art Director of the Year for his work on the Olive and Sinclair Chocolate campaign. See our last post for more information on the campaign. Click here to read the article in The Tennessean.

ADG Wins 3 Gold ADDYs and BEST OF SHOW!

2010-02-23T11:21:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, February 20th, Anderson Design Group won the top honors at the Nashville Advertising Association’s ADDY Awards for the Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Company’s logo, packaging, and promotional posters. Joel Anderson, designer and creative director worked with Scott Witherow, owner of the start-up Southern Artisan Chocolate company to create a brand identity that looked as classic, hand-crafted, and delicious as the all-natural, slow roasted, small batch gourmet chocolate. As a start-up venture, funds were very limited. Joel was not even sure he could commit to taking on this project and do a great job on such a small budget. And his talented team of designers were already booked on projects for other clients. But after tasting the amazing chocolate, and seeing the passion of its creator, Joel decided to take on the project himself. Diving in head-first, he figured out ways to create a killer logo, packaging for 8 different products, and 3 limited edition Spirit of Nashville posters on a shoestring budget (and in exchange for lots of free chocolate, which he did share with the other designers on his staff!) Reflecting on his decision to take on Olive & Sinclair as a client, Joel said, “An artful, creative branding project like this—for a product so unique and delicious—doesn’t come around very often! As a designer, illustrator, and owner of a design firm, I wanted to work on this, no matter how limited the resources were. From day one, I recognized the potential for some great portfolio pieces. And as a small business owner myself, I wanted to see Scott succeed after all of the work, risk and passion he has poured into his fledgling company.”

It started with the logo. Scott gave Joel some scrawly sketches... he wanted an old-time logo that felt like it was done a hundred years ago. So Joel went to work on creating a logo that said Chocolate at first glance, and did so in a fancy, yet humble artisan-crafted style. The logo was finished just in time to be entered into PRINT Magazine’s Regional Design Issue. It was selected to lead off the Southeast Section of one of the world’s most prestigious design journals. This was the first hint that the O&S campaign would be a memorable one.

Once the logo was done, Joel and Scott started to think about packaging. The chocolate bars needed a wrap label that would set the product apart from everything else in its category. Scott had initially asked Bryce McCloud (a Nashville-based print maker, illustrator and designer) to create the package art. But once Joel had nailed the logo, Scott thought it would be best to let Anderson Design Group produce the packaging to keep the look consistent. Joel loved the way Bryce had rendered the word CHOCOLATE in one of his packaging concepts. So Bryce’s hand-lettering and some bits of his original art were built into the final design for the flagship flavor (67% Cacao.) Joel and Scott worked for weeks to create a full line of package variations for the other flavors. The product started selling like crazy as soon as it hit store shelves. Joel reflects, “People would tell us that they bought the chocolate because they liked the packaging so much. In fact, they saved the label because they couldn’t bear to throw it away after they ate the chocolate! Fortunately the product tastes even better than the packaging looks!”

After the chocolate was selling well in stores, Joel thought it would be a good idea to celebrate the South East’s best chocolate by creating 3 new posters for the Spirit of Nashville Collection (Joel’s line of vintage-looking prints that celebrates Nashville’s history and charm.) In exchange for more free chocolate, Joel created 3 prints, each illustrating a different feeling that O&S chocolate evokes: two swans gracefully drifting in a chocolate pond, two enraptured lovers chest-deep in chocolate, and a shapely diver plunging head-first into a pool of chocolate.

Joel summed it up this way: “We entered several pieces of the campaign in the ADDY Awards, hoping to win something and add a bright spot to a brutal year of challenging economic woes. To win gold ADDYs was a thrill. But ot win Best Of Show was something I never would have imagined! This project is an example of how effective branding and design can truly make a difference in the success of a product or business launch. It underscores the importance of collaboration between the designer and client, but most of all, it illustrates how important it is to be totally passionate about what you do.”

ADG to be featured in Designing for the Greater Good

2010-01-19T14:28:00.000-08:00

In an age when nonprofit organizations are struggling harder than ever to have their messages heard, the value of branding and design has become increasingly essential to their survival. Today, a first-of-its-kind book, Designing for the Greater Good, was released to offer readers insights into great nonprofit branding campaigns in 24 inspiring case studies and hundreds of illustrated examples. ADG was among the firms whose outstanding campaigns were selected for inclusion in this prestigious collection. The book is based on authors Peleg Top and Jonathan Cleveland’s nearly 40 years of combined experience working with nonprofits and corporate communications departments across the country.

The book features our 2008 YMCA Annual Report for Middle Tennessee. Our main objective for this piece was to re-enforce the YMCA of Middle Tennessee’s adventurous branding and vision—and do it in an effective and engaging way. The piece had to communicate financial findings, recognize donors, volunteers, and staff, and demonstrate the client’s emphasis on growth and community. We built on a camping theme to help celebrate the new overnight cabins at the YMCA’s campground. Each piece was die cut into shapes like a knapsack folder, field guide, compass, lantern, canteen, pan, or map—all of which fit into a folder that looks like a back pack.

Designing for the Greater Good (Harper Design, an imprint of Harper Collins) is available to the public starting January 26, 2010.