Hauntings of Hermitage

It's the time of the year for Halloween themed posters, and this year we were fortunate to have the opportunity to make one. Our project began when The Hermitage asked us to redesign their logo to reflect their new direction. They wanted to rebrand the site as as Andrew Jackson's Hermitage and make our nation's seventh president more prominent in the name and logo.

Located in Middle Tennessee, Andrew Jackson's Hermitage gives tours that tell the story of how 1000 acres changed from frontier forest to Andrew Jackson’s prosperous farm, deteriorated into post-Civil War dilapidation and was finally rescued to its current state as a public museum and National Historic Landmark.

We started with the portrait of Old Hickory himself. Fun fact; the $20 bill is one of the most circulated pieces of currency in the world. This makes his portrait one of the most recognizable faces around. Illustrator Aaron Johnson came up with a few different ways to depict the iconic portrait based on classic paintings of Andrew. Once AJ had drawn a few AJs we all took a shot at different configurations.

The client picked a style they liked and Aaron finished it out in color. One of the challenges was making Andrew's signature more legible so that it can read well when seen at a glance. To accomplish this Aaron used letters from different scans of signature provided by The Hermitage. The client wanted a logo with the portrait off to the left, and we also created a centered version for use on their sign. 

The Hermitage hosts an annual Halloween event with rides. ghost stories, and a mystery trail. This year's theme was based on Edgar Allen Poe's classic horror stories, which are featured in the mystery trail. You can find our more about the event here. 

Aaron designed a poster that highlighted themes from the two Poe stories featured at the event: The Raven and The Fall of the house of Usher.

If you live near Middle Tennessee and haven't been to The Hermitage we recommend checking out their historic site or attending one of their events. Here's a link to their Facebook page.