Opening Doors with Great Design

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