Project: City of Potlatch Idaho Centennial Celebration

Name: Potlatch Centennial Brochure

Media: Photography, Drawing, Scanning, MS Word, InDesign CS, Photoshop CS, Illustrator CS

Client: Potlatch Historical Society

Client Type: Non-Profit

Client Background Information: The Potlatch Historical Society is a community group of volunteers that works to preserve the legacy of the company town of Potlatch Idaho.

Medium: Print

Services Provided: Design, Pre-press printing, Print Proofing

- Design a double-sided mailer that will also serve as a program for a community centenail celebration for the town of Potlatch, ID

- Work within machine limitations for color copies and folding machines tolerances so as not to add cost to the project.- Final Size – 8.5 X 11 unfolded.
- Mailer will be folded at least two times.
- Relationship for the folding, and both sides of the poster are active design elements.
- Limit colors to B & W +1 other color.

- All provided copy must be utilized.
- Must exhibit a clearly the history of the town
- CD of approved images provided
- Themes and ideas to be generated from research about the town.
- Brochure must conform to US Postal Regulations
- Integrate the USPS Postage Paid Permit into the design, and still be legal and functional.

Potlatch Idaho was founded as a company town to log the many stands of white pine and process them at the mill that was built by the Weyerhaeuser Company. Looking at the cities historical photographs two things struck me. The mill and how central it was to the town’s growth and decline, and an annual report from 1907. These two elements became the two central influences to the choices in terms of layout, font, and color that supported the client provided copy.

Choices such as framing around the photos and dominant “Western” looking headings were inspired from historic photographs of signage in the town. The red color is taken from the annual report, with The front panel of the design laid out similar to the annual reports interior with the interior set in single panel with columns to spread out the information as wide as possible like the original.

All photographs were obtained from the historic archives of the Potlatch Timber Corporations that had been collected onto a historic photo CD and from which the sales were used to support the town’s centennial. These were restored, cleaned up and combined into a panoramic shot for use.

The Mill Illustration was an addition I drew in illustrator and was not in the original scope of the project. As the centennial had no iconic image representing it I felt that a clear illustration of the mill was necessary outside of the B&W photos and its use could be incorporated into the text. When revealed to the historic committee the illustration garnered a lot of excitement and the image became immediately adopted as an unofficial symbol of the centennial and was used on small unofficial promotional materials.

Lament was expressed that it could not have been used on major centennially promotional materials as they had already been purchased and new promotional goods could not be incorporated into the deadliness and budget.

One year after the centennial I was approached by the historic society to purchase the rights to the Illustration for use as their Logo.  I offered to rework it for them, but they wanted it as is was, but without the text on saw blade.