The Spirit of Vincennes group hosts an annual gathering of revolutionary war and colonial life reenactors at the historic location of the Battle of Fort Sackville in Vincennes, Indiana. The program is provided to visitors as they enter the grounds to provide a schedule of events, locations of food and other vendors. A unique theme is used for each year's event for which the program cover must be tied into. Using Photoshop, multiple images are integrated into each cover design using raster tools, such as layer, masks, layer effects, blend modes and filters, brushes, clone stamp, and burn/dodge, to tell the story of the historical theme. The challenge can be the limited access to images for themes from more than two centuries ago, so creativity must be used to produce an engaging composite image. InDesign was used to layout the rest of the programs due to the type heavy content, multiple panel folds, and multiple pages.
Shapes are overlapped around a central, emphasized figure in the designs to unify the elements and create depth and motion. Emphasis and contrast are also used within the type to make the event name the most important word.
Research and client meetings are the necessary first step in the design process and to full understand the topic of the theme. Images often need to be photographed or acquired from other resources. Rough layouts are shared with all members of the various committees within the organization for accuracy of content, as well as being shared with local historians for accuracy in the representations of the historical figures, clothing and tools. For instance, approval of the Native American face paint, hair, clothing, and feather needed to be approved on the 2009 cover. The theme was Tenskwatawa, known as “The Prophet” and brother to Tecumseh. Research was done to learn that he was not a handsome man and was a poor hunter who had shot out one of his eyes by accident. In 1805, he had a religious epiphany and began preaching to his fellow Shawnee to reject treaties of the white men. He gained their respect by accurately predicting the timing of a solar eclipse.
Sample spread and cover from 2022.
A sampling of cover designs from the past 20 years
