Fifty-Nine Parks Print Series
The US National Parks and screen printed posters are two of my favorite things. That's made working on Fifty-Nine Parks a dream come true. The strength of the series comes from an eclectic mix of artists and the unique beauty of each park. The idea for this one is simple: celebrate the parks and some of our favorite poster artists in the world! It's a total blast to work with so many talented artists and build another brand from scratch. The series is archived by The Library of Congress and has traveled all over North America. We've also helped raise over $250k to support conservation efforts in the USA!
Art Direction
Part of what makes this series exciting is working with so many different artists. We work together through research, concept development, initial sketches, and final art. The goal of each poster is to capture a scene that best represents the park. We balance that with highlighting each artist's aesthetic strengths and interests. It's no small task to create a static image that captures the essence of each park but that's part of the fun. Every artist has a different working style too. My job is to work within each of those styles to help bring a sense of cohesiveness to the entire series.
Brand Management
One of the challenges of building a brand and maximizing your own output is knowing when to bring others into the fold. That has meant working with designers like Curtis Jinkins. Curtis helped design the branding for Fifty-Nine Parks. We also teamed up with type designer Riley Cran to design a custom typeface for the series. This meant I was freed up to build the parks website, grow our social media reach, and art direct the creation of each new poster.
Licensing & Collaborations
Completing the initial series of over 60 parks means we have a ton of beautiful art to work with. Through licensing and collaborations, we've had the pleasure of working with good folks like Random House, Field Notes, Insight Editions, Topo Designs, Mead, and many others. It's such a joy to see the series take on a new life in ways we never thought possible. Take our board game PARKS for example: Over 200,000 copies exist in the wild! The game is translated into three languages and brings people together all over the world!
Publications & Writing
I’m passionate about educating and inspiring people who love art and nature. We’ve teamed up with Insight Editions to publish Art of the National Parks, a book that blends art and history. This title documents the series and offers insight into each park. We’ve also partnered with Random House on children’s titles like Animals of the National Parks, with the goal of getting kids excited about reading, nature, and creativity. It's a joy to write for each of these books and design the children's books! Wonderful illustrators like Kim Smith and Glenn Thomas collaborated on the children's titles. Art of the National Parks features the entire collective of artists from the larger series.
Creative Direction
One of the most exciting challenges is thinking strategically about what moves to make next. One day I'll be art directing artists and working with printers to get the colors just right. The next I'm working with wholesalers, creating promotions, and negotiating licensing agreements. Building a brand takes time. It took seven years to create posters for each of the National Parks. Early on we were limited by things like working capital and production times. But those limitations are fun to work with—they often lead to some of the best creative problem solving. It's also exciting to dream up new things that we can introduce to diversify the appeal of the series. This is totally my dream job and I'm grateful to do work that is meaningful to me!
