This bold poster captures the tragic, foreshadowed destiny of Myrtle Wilson in the Jazz Age classic, The Great Gastby; a role for which Park Ridge native Karen Black won her second Golden Globe Award.
This poster is among those in the “Legends of the Pickwick Theatre” series which highlights movies, locally raised celebrity actors and others whose work has appeared at the Pickwick Theatre, itself an Art Deco masterpiece.
This inspiring poster depicts Sir Edmund Hillary, the first climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Hillary was a resident of Park Ridge while working as a lecturer for Field Enterprises. The poster advertises the comic play written, performed and produced as an annual fundraiser by parents of District 64’s Washington Elementary School for more than half a century.
Like the Pickwick Theatre’s entrance architecture it mimics, this poster evokes the classical Greek theatrical mask depicting Comedy. Its heroic scale is a fitting salute to Park Ridge’s “Renaissance Man,” Alfonso Iannelli—internationally famed sculptor and artist whose original works have adorned the Pickwick Theatre since it opened in 1928.
This poster in the “Legends of the Pickwick Theatre” series celebrates the Art Deco masterpiece.
This poster honors architect R. Harold Zook, designer of the 1928 Pickwick Theatre that one critic called “a poem in stone.” Instead of the French Louis XIV style popular for theaters at the time, the Hinsdale architect used bold Egyptian motifs beloved of the Art Deco movement. Originally built as a live vaudeville theatre, the movie house still features live performances on occasion.
Another poster honoring Zook, “Fox River Moderne,” depicts the dramatic St. Charles Municipal Building designed by Zook in 1940.
Buy the Pickwick Theatre poster here and the St. Charles Municipal Building poster here.
This poster celebrates the merging of two art forms in a unique Roaring ‘Twenties-inspired event: Exuberant New Orleans jazz by Preservation Hall, performed in the boldly ornamented Pickwick Theatre. The poster also honors the work of the late Pickwick Council leader Catherine Kenney and is part of the “Legends of the Pickwick Theatre” posters series.
This chic and charming poster celebrates the joie de vivre of Paris in particular and French culture in general. It was used by the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra to promote a concert that featured selections from Saint-Saëns’ majestic Symphony No. 3 (“The Organ”) and from the musical drama, Les Miserables, based on the work of French novelist Victor Hugo.
This poster depicts the dazzling grace and speed that inspired branding for the future Illinois High Speed Rail project.
The streamlined look, based on the ultimate cool blue color palette, was produced in a flash to meet a very tight deadline.
This design, was used on ads, brochures, websites and signs as well as posters, has inspired and informed the public about high-speed rail’s opportunities.
This bold poster honors bold literature; specifically, the novel Ulysses by Irish author James Joyce. The occasion was June 16, 2004, the centennial of Bloomsday, the fictional day on which Joyce’s epic novel takes place. In 2004, thousands took to the streets in Dublin, following in the footsteps of protagonist Leopold Bloom; in Chicago, the Irish American Heritage Center celebrated with “Bloomsday 100,” a week-long festival for the once banned novel critics dubbed “The Book of the 20th Century.”
An evocative portrait of Joyce, in an image and in his own words, provides energetic inspiration that promoted concerts, films, discussions, tours, readings and more. Park Ridge resident Catherine Kenney, director of the Irish American Heritage Center, was delighted to learn that this poster was featured on BBC Dublin television.
Typefaces have distinct personalities, just as images and words themselves do. These posters celebrate the handsome, hand-forged elegance of “Arts & Crafts” type fonts designed by Frederic W. Goudy, another world-renowned member of the Park Ridge art colony.
Goudy was a legend; America’s superstar designer of the shapes that dress our words. He created more than 100 magnificent faces, many still in popular use. Goudy’s designs bridged the gap between the print and digital ages with an elegance and energy that are eloquent — and timeless.
Buy the Goudy HotType poster here, the Goudy: The Big Snooze poster here, and the Goudy A to Z poster here.
Designed for the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra, posters celebrating composer John Alden Carpenter mirror his lofty, buoyant energy. Hailed by longtime New York Symphony Orchestra conductor Walter Damrosch as “the most American of our composers,” Carpenter was a Park Ridge native; son of the municipality’s first mayor, George Carpenter; and related to the Aldens of Early American fame.
Carpenter’s whimsical suite, Adventures in a Perambulator was on the docket for Walt Disney’s planned sequel to Fantasia. His innovative ballet, Skyscrapers, which enjoyed success in New York and Munich, was the only American work commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes.
When Park Ridge Civic Orchestra launched in 1994, it performed these pieces by its native son at the Pickwick Theatre, built during Carpenter’s jazz-age era. These posters are part of the “Legends of the Pickwick Theatre” series—a modern Art Deco masterpiece.
Buy the Skyscrapers poster here and the Adventures in A Perambulator poster here.
Created to support Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics, this bold and graceful series celebrates the diversity of athletic accomplishment. Posters formed the basis of a comprehensive branding program, used by the high-profile “Citizens
For 2016” committee, that included identity design, website, direct mail and other communication tools to raise awareness and funds. The whimsical logo, upper left, combines design elements of the City of Chicago flag, classical Greek columns, and a dash of contemporary “buzz.”
Buy the Boxing: Games On! poster here, Rowing: Games On! poster here, and the Gymnastics: Games On! poster here.
Revisiting the iconic American post-war era of drive-ins and road trips, these posters are from the “Route 66 Rocks” series. An ode to “the mother road,” its quintessentially American, retro spirit gets its energy from a blast of brilliant ‘50s colors.
Buy the Classical Gas poster here, the Fly Me to the Moon poster here, and the headline Route 66 Rocks poster here.
Created for the University of Chicago’s Music Department to publicize its performance of the romantic Shakespearean tragedy, this poster combines timeless symbols in fresh ways to release visual drama. A rose, an arch, a sword and a drop of blood serve as visual metaphor for the tragic love story of Romeo and Juliet. The poster forecast a luminous performance, led by Barbara Schubert, of the University Symphony and University Chorus.
Park Ridge native and epic movie star Harrison Ford was the inspiration for this sophisticated poster, along with the original, ornate “jungle” grillwork of the 1920s-era Pickwick Theatre, seen behind the heroic figure. The poster evokes adventure in a setting of Art Deco drama—a cinematic experience unique to the Pickwick Theatre that intrigued a young Harrison Ford—and youth of all ages, before and since. Recalling the Saturday afternoon serial cliffhangers of Ford’s (and the artist’s) boyhood, this poster is part of the “Legends of the Pickwick Theatre” series.
Created for the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra’s 21st season grand finale concert, this spellbinding poster blends a touch of moonlight, a dash of stardust and a generous dose of musical genius. It depicts the luminous solo in Mozart’s Flute Concerto in G Major, performed by Kathryn Chiodo, a Park Ridge Civic Orchestra/Rotary Club scholarship winner; and recalls another highlight, a powerful performance by Maestro Victor Muenzer and the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.
A sleek and angular combo of complementary hues shot with black evoke a torch-song’s noir mood in this poster, designed for a contemporary band performing Swing-Era classics. Long on glitz, glamour and style, it recalls the long era from The Thin Man to Mad Men, when urbane cool always wore a tie.
This is one of a series of posters celebrating the artistry and craftsmanship of The Village Press, founded in 1903 by Frederic W. Goudy in Park Ridge, Illinois. The Village Press venture was modeled on the ideals of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The first publication of The Village Press was the William Morris essay, Printing; it went on to publish The Door in the Wall & Other Stories by H. G. Wells and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving.
It was Goudy’s international reputation for type design that made this private press so extraordinary. In 1924, Goudy purchased a model Albion letterpress used by William Morris himself. That press is now famously called the Kelmscott/Goudy Press.
The second poster was inspired by the Kelmscott Press, founded by William Morris in Hammersmith, London, in 1891, and where he produce the highly-regarded book, The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1896).
Goudy was born in Bloomington, Illinois, as was Elbert Hubbard, founder of another fabled print house, The Roycroft Press.
Elbert Hubbard founded the Roycroft Press (1893) in the village of East Aurora, New York, near Buffalo—he also advocated the Arts and Crafts movement ideals of William Morris.
Buy the Village Press poster here, the Kemscott Press poster here, and the Roycroft Press poster here.
This bewitching image captured the magic powers of music at the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra’s Family Halloween Concert. Part of a complete new branding program for the 21-year-old orchestra, the poster became the talk of the town and helped launch a new, annual tradition bringing kids and thrilling classical music together.
This poster is a tribute to Clara Barck Welles, a creative, economic and political force in the Park Ridge Art Colony. Degreed as an architect but unable to find work because of her gender, Welles established the Kalo Shop in Park Ridge, IL in 1907, inspired by the Arts and Crafts legend William Morris. Welles hired other talented American women as designers and well-trained men, mostly Scandinavian immigrants, as silversmiths. One apprentice silversmith who worked and lived in Park Ridge was Grant Wood, future world-famous painter of the iconic “American Gothic.”
By 1916, the Kalo shop employed two dozen people in Park Ridge. As its fame grew, Welles relocated it to Chicago’s “Magnificent Mile.” Hand-wrought pieces by Kalo artists are the preeminent silver of the American Arts & Crafts movement.
Welles also was a leader in the women’s suffrage movement, helping Illinois women win the right to vote in Presidential elections in 1913, seven years before the 19th Amendment gave U.S. women full voting rights in 1920.
Buy the Clara Barck Welles Suffrage poster here and shop the Kalo poster series here.
Artist Rex Parker remembers growing up in a small rural community, where everyone home-canned tomatoes, green beans and corn from backyard gardens.
This eye-catching poster for the Park Ridge Farmers Market mixes childhood memories and Park Ridge’s connection with artist Grant Wood that gives a fresh look to a local attraction.
In 2016 the City of Park Ridge chose this image for its annual vehicle stickers.
Buy the original poster here and the updated COVID-19 edition of the poster here.
