In 2019, I was contacted to do my first official park collaboration. I was honored to be asked by Holiday World to create an original collection of products to be sold as park exclusives. While we initially had a very grandiose vision for what that could be, given our time constraints and that the season was already in full swing, we settled on creating a unique interpretation of The Voyage logo for a t-shirt that would launch during the HoliWood Nights enthusiast event.
The response was overwhelmingly positive so we decided to revisit our original vision of a collection of posters featuring the 4 coasters at Holiday World for the 2020 season.
The Big 4
The Big 4 collection is a quadriptych set of prints that focuses on the 4 coasters currently in operation at Holiday World. Each print illustrates a subtle nod to their respective theme, while the overarching visuals, when displayed together, connect to reveal a cohesive story in the order that they opened.
Holiday World puts a great deal of thought into the theming, backstory, and design of each of their coasters. That made it pretty fun for me to try and craft a visual theme around those stories, while creating posters that would work as stand-alone pieces or displayed together as a set.
And we made these as silk screened stickers, too!
The Throwback Collection
We all really dug how the posters turned out. In fact, Holiday World asked if I could print them on t-shirts. Technically speaking, it could be done with specific screen printing techniques, but I didn't feel that the posters really worked as wearable art. So I pitched another direction for t-shirts: The Throwback Collection.
The Holiday World Throwback collection is designed to be an old and tattered thrift shop find, that romanticizes a fictitious retro logo.
Imagining what the branding for a specific coaster would've been had it debuted in a different era of design was right in my wheelhouse. It gave me the opportunity to inject more of my style, and overall, it was just super fun to create.
Santa Claus Land
Lastly, we couldn't say the word "throwback" without thinking about Holiday World's origin as Santa Claus Land. Utilizing some of the original print brochures from the park, I recreated the look and feel into a modern, retro-style print that pays homage to their iconic history.
One of my favorite parts of this print is the subtle nod to the first post office in Santa Claus, Indiana, which was later incorporated into Santa Claus Land and redeveloped as a new attraction when the park opened in 1946.
All of the little nuances of this park, and the rich history that comes along with it, makes creating products like these incredibly fun. And I couldn't ask to work with a nicer group of people than the team at Holiday World.
Thank you all for taking a chance on me. Thank you for letting me be a part of your history. Thank you for letting me do this for the fans. I hope I did right by them.
This limited-run collection will be available exclusively at Holiday World, opening June 17, 2020. Please reach out to the park for availability.