Just your type
When George Hanna isn’t at his day job as art director at the Icebox in Atlanta, he’s making vintage-inspired signs in his Old Dirty Type workshop in Decatur.
Hanna, a former T-shirt graphics designer for the Gap and other stores, had planned to make prints on paper, but he quickly opted for wood.
To achieve the worn look he wants, Hanna finds typefaces from old signs, photographs them and incorporates them into his art. He also burns, scrapes and often splashes coffee on the wood to give it a more authentic look and feel. No two signs are alike.
Hand-distressed signs featuring intown Atlanta neighborhoods are popular. So are the “Dirty South-ATL Players Society” signs. (The “Dirty South” refers to Southern states and the rise of Southern rap/hip-hop music.) Other signs feature bourbon and Southern foods, but Hanna will do custom signs, too.
Prices range from about $50 for a 12-inch-by-12-inch sign to $350 for a 3-foot sign. The midrange signs ($100 range) are 18 inches by 24 inches. Find signs online at Scoutmob.com under the "Old Dirty Type" shop name or at www.bourbonandboots.com.
In the Atlanta area, find signs at Paris on Ponce (www.parisonponce.com), 716 Ponce de Leon Place, and at the Young Blood Gallery & Boutique (www.youngbloodgallery.com), 636 N. Highland Ave. To contact Hanna, www.etsy.com/shop/OldDirtyType.
College town art
Sue Harnett’s idea for a company started inside a closet at Duke University’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Blue Devils’ home basketball court.
In the closet, she discovered file cabinets filled with historic photographs of stadiums and game-winning plays. As an All-America basketball player at Duke, she thought fans and others might want must-have shots from college and professional landmarks and sports across the country. In 2003, Harnett started Replay Photos in downtown Durham, N.C.
The company recently launched a collegiate line of subway wall art, which became an instant hit. Best-sellers include large colleges with successful football teams from the Big Ten and SEC, but more than 90 colleges are available as gifts for a fan or alum.
In the college town series, a canvas print (16 inches by 40 inches) or framed art (19 inches by 36 inches) is $209.95. If you want to add your name, that's another $10. In the college colors series, campus landmarks, traditions and surroundings are printed on a 24-inch-squared canvas in your college colors. To order, contact www.replayphotos.com/subway-art.
Poster boy
Joel Anderson collects old posters and classic American advertising art. He also is the founder of Nashville, Tenn.-based Anderson Design Group, which designs poster art, logos, book covers and other products for big-name clients, such as Chrysler, Golden Books, Williams-Sonoma and Universal Studios.
At the award-winning firm, Anderson and his team are inspired by the golden age of poster design, a period from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s, when everything was hand-lettered and hand-drawn. They start out doing everything by hand and use the computer as a finishing tool. The hands-on touch gives the colorful, ready-to-hang posters a classic, vintage-style look and feel.
Top-selling posters include the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge and many prints from the Nashville collection. The playful Rainbow Wiener Dog print from the Mod, midcentury collection has sold well. But there are other retro-vibe prints to match your passion, whether it’s coffee or travel.
Anderson’s newest collection of prints is also one of the company’s hottest. The Southern Delights line celebrates the South’s unique culture and charm. As someone who lived in several different countries and states growing up, Anderson is proud to be called a Southerner and delights in promoting the South’s cities, sayings, food and landmarks.
Prices range from $19 for 11-inch-by-14-inch mini-prints to $39 for a gallery print (18 inches by 24 inches). For $399, you can special-order your favorite design on a 36-inch-by-48-inch canvas. Many of the designs are available as postcard-size, too. To order, visit www.AndersonDesignGroup.com or stop by the firm's Studio Store, 116 29th Ave. N. in Nashville.
‘Beauty Everyday’
Georgia’s Rebecca Wood is well-known for her colorful handmade pottery. But recently, Wood teamed up with Rinne Allen and Kristen Bach to create “Beauty Everyday” ($100). With its indigo blue cover, the 365-page book features photographs of Southern sights and scenes in and around Athens, home to the University of Georgia.
A book signing for “Beauty Everyday” will be from 5-8 p.m. Aug. 23 at Steve McKenzie’s, 996 Huff Road N.W., in Atlanta’s West Midtown design district. P.S. Isn’t it time to refresh your coffee-table books?
Best of the South
Do you have favorite finds from around the South that you give as gifts, buy for your home or rave about to friends? If so, please share them with us. Send your suggestions to: lljerkins@gmail.com. Please include your name and contact number. Also find more Southern-made products, featured in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, at Southernfinds on Facebook.
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