Vintage Poster Art to Inspire Your Next Road Trip
There's no doubt that these are strange times we're living in. It's essential to make the best of the circumstances. We have to keep our spirits up and always look for the silver lining whenever possible.
To help prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), we temporarily closed our design studio in Nashville (we're still shipping online orders though!) Most of our staff are now working from home. We're practicing social distancing, we're staying home as much as possible to honor the quarantine guidelines, and we're doing all of this to help ease the burden on our public health experts and medical professionals.
One of the silver linings in all of this is we've had time to go through our art collections and reflect on what each poster means to us, how each poster inspires us, how we feel when we appreciate the artwork. As we perused through the American Travel Collection, we got to thinking about what we want to do when the coronavirus emergency has come to a close, when life becomes normal again.
The first thought on everyone's mind? Road trip!
American Travel - Vintage Travel Art of America's Great Destinations
With over 380 unique poster designs, our American Travel collection is our most extensive vintage art collection yet. This assortment of handcrafted art has been a work in progress since 2010, an endeavor to create renditions of our favorite American cities, landmarks, natural wonders, destinations, historical sites, etc. The works of this collection were inspired by the Golden Age of Poster Art, the iconic travel art of the early-to-mid-20th century.
As we went through the American Travel art collection, we thought it would be fun to pick out some of the most spectacular and travel-worthy places in the Northeast, the Midwest, the South, the West, and the Pacific Northwest. Are you looking for road trip ideas in any of those regions? We found a few great ones!
America's Heritage and History in the Northeast
The Northeast is the birthplace of America. This is where it all began when European settlers first touched down on Northeastern beaches in the 15th century. Today, the Northeast is a huge melting pot of culture, history, language, and ancestry.
From the busy streets of New York City, the largest city in the United States, to the forested mountainsides of the Adirondack Mountains, and from the lush, well-tended grasses of the Boston Commons to the deep blue waters of Cape Cod National Seashore, the Northeast is a history lesson and a nature session all in one. Visitors can take selfies on Times Square one day and hike the rock-strewn beaches of Maine the next.
The Midwest, the Heart of America
The Midwest is also called America's Heartland, and that's because this region is considered the nation's broadest representation of American culture. The American Midwest was home to one-quarter of U.S. Presidents, and it has been the birthplace of most of our country's first inventors and entrepreneurs. Airplanes, automobiles, electric lighting, transistors, petroleum and steel production, it all started in America's Heartland.
The Midwest's travel attractions are many and diverse. From Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan to the historic buildings of downtown Chicago, from Hoosier National Forest, Indiana to the public art displays of Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Midwest has something inspiring for everyone to see.
Getting Back to Our Roots in the South
The Anderson family is from Nashville, Tennessee, so the American South will always hold a special place in our hearts. The South is known for being a place where everything moves just a little bit slower, where people take the time to converse or just sit and appreciate life from the comfort of front porches and rocking chairs. Add to that some of the best music in the world (and some of the best cooking too!), and the South is truly a fantastic place to visit.
Our favorite places in the South range from the beaches of Destin, Florida, to wild Tennessee state parks like Cummins Falls State Park. We also enjoy the winding roads of the Appalachian mountains (nothing beats a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway!)
The Southern cities are worth traveling to as well, from historic Broad Street in Charleston, South Carolina to the Railroad Park in Birmingham, Savannah, Georgia's Forsyth Park, and many others.
Big Sky and Beautiful Terrain in the Wild, Wild West
Though our art team has traveled all across the country to garner the inspiration we use in our poster designs, there is likely no region of the U.S. that we've explored as much or as often as the great American West. From Kanab, Utah and the numerous monuments, parks, and natural lands nearby to Black Elk Peak, SD, Conroe, TX, the Colorado Maroon Bells, Flathead Lake, MT, and the Hoover Dam in Arizona, when you're out in the West, it seems as though there is something incredible to see down just about every path and trail.
The western states offer some of the most rural, untouched, and undisturbed lands in America. This region is home to vast swaths of protected lands. One can be hiking through the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho one day and swimming in Lake Tahoe, Nevada the next. It's a region synonymous with travel and exploration, and it has served as the inspiration for a great deal of our poster art.
A Nature Lover's Dream in the Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a wild tangle of verdant growth, colossal mountain ranges, diverse wildlife, semi-dormant volcanoes, old-growth forests, cliffs, coastlines, and modern urban centers mixed in. Few places in the Northwest embody this diversity as much as Seattle, a technologically advanced city just a stone's throw from some of the wildest, most untamed regions of America, the Cascade Mountain Range.
The Pacific Northwest is also home to the incredible state of Alaska, the Last Frontier, and the ultimate road trip destination. Kenai River, the Alaskan Skagway, Sitka, Ketchikan, and Homer, every Alaskan village and town tells a story of American life in what is arguably one of this country's most beautiful wilderness regions.
Your 2020 Road Trip, Inspired by Vintage Poster Art
A lot of people are probably feeling a little bit of cabin fever right now, and that's understandable. The beautiful thing about vintage poster art and travel art is that it allows you to escape the present and dive into the nostalgia and wonder of early-20th century illustration and design. Retro art has a way of inspiring us to dream big and to act even bigger. If you were thinking about a big road trip but weren't sure if this year was the right year for it, we hope our American Travel Collection and other vintage poster designs can inspire you to pack the trunk and go for it! (Just as soon as it is safe and morally okay to do so).
From our family to yours, stay safe, wash your hands, and we hope to see you on the road soon.
-Ren Brabenec
Anderson Design Group Writing Staff
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