U.S. Destinations Calendar

Carta Bella Paper Co. has been a leader in papers and accoutrements for over a decade. In 2018 they launched into the gift and stationery category of retail with their parent company Echo Park Paper. I was commissioned to create two destination calendars that had a realistic vintage -style. Illustrations that looked as if they had been created circa 1950-60. I instantly jumped on to the project.

I am an avid traveler and have visited every US state. While growing, up my family took several cross-country-road trips to visit family back east in Pennsylvania. We’d stop at all the National Parks along the way, some state parks too. I have been collecting ephemera from these parks since the early 1960’s, so I was very much familiar with the look of destination ephemera and the actual destinations that I would be tasked to illustrate.

 We decided upon destinations that were popular, marketable, and easily relatable for the month that they were to represent. My first illustration was of the Grand Canyon. It is one of my favorite illustrations that I have created to date and would be used for the cover of the calendar. All of the illustrations are infused with personal memories, with the March graphic of old Hollywood and Grumman’s Chinese Theater being very dear to my heart. Growing up in Los Angeles I spent many hours watching movies in the majestic movie palace.

 The calendar was put into a limited 1,000-piece release as one of two keystone products for Carta Bella’s initial launch into giftware. It became well collected by travel enthusiasts and collectors of my work and sold out quickly.