I love the holidays and vintage travel posters. This year I decided to look back into my own childhood memories and draw inspiration from happy thoughts of watching Christmas movies like Holiday Inn and White Christmas. Duly filled with holiday nostalgia and warm cocoa I set about sketching out ideas for my own snow filled winter playground.
Illustration by Oktopolis: The Art of Brian Miller for the Holiday Season.
"Who's going to Vermont? We are. I mean, we should. All that snow and the fir trees and the clean fresh air and... Great change of pace, just what we need."
— White Christmas, 1954
All year long I've been dreaming of a white Christmas. Living in the Arizona desert snow can be hard to come by. I decided to create my own illustrated homage to the holiday classic, White Christmas, in the form of a vintage style travel poster. The kind the Haynes Sisters may have seen at a train station in Florida.
White Christmas is considered one of the most beloved Christmas movies of all time. The star-studded cast is packed with several favorites from the era, like Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera-Ellen. What's more, the film introduced to the world a number of catchy sing-along tunes, including The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing, and Snow. Not to mention, the hit holiday song White Christmas.
I start by creating a rough mock-up in Adobe Photoshop, loosely painting in some snowy mountains and evergreen trees, then blocking in the ideas I have for the travel poster style text.
Using my mock-up as a guide I painted the snowy wintery wonderland backdrop. Then I added rows of taller trees along the sides before drawing the focal point of the illustration, Columbia Inn and ski-lodge complete with vintage "woody" station wagon.
Next, I painted in the subtle greens and reds needed to bring the scene to life along with a touch of gold for the sky. Then I added in the falling snow, snow, snow to complete the scene. I finished off the design by creating the final text treatments.
Who wouldn't want to visit Columbia Inn at Pine Tree, Vermont? Truthfully, there is no such place. General Waverly's Columbia Inn is set in the fictional location of Pine Tree, Vermont. Fictional, as in it doesn't exist on any map. The sets used in White Christmas for the Columbia Inn can actually be seen a decade before in Holiday Inn. The set on the Paramount lot was later refurbished for the snowy White Christmas.
Part of the joy of watching White Christmas each year is the playful banter between Bob Wallace and Phil Davis, played by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. Picking up on their colorful descriptions of Vermont with the "shushing and snowing" I added the headline of "Have Fun in the Snow" as well as the tagline "New England's Winter Playground" to the final poster design. Hopefully these details evoke find memories of the movie to all who gaze upon the artwork.
When it comes to the music, many folks assume that the titular track White Christmas originally came from the movie with the same name. In reality though, Bing Crosby first performed the tune 13 years before White Christmas came out, on the radio. Then, he sang it in Irving Berlin's 1942 classic, Holiday Inn, as well as Blue Skies in 1946. Still, most will agree the White Christmas movie version is the one they remember best.
I really enjoy decorating for the holidays. Hanging the Christmas lights, trimming the tree, and putting out the advent calendars. Now I have this White Christmas inspired artwork to add to my holiday decorations. I've been thrilled to see so many other people making this artwork part of their holiday traditions. When you can share a keepsake with family and fiends it adds to the warmth and enjoyment of the holidays.
Illustration by Brian Miller © Oktopolis. All rights reserved. This artwork may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of Oktopolis.