A Day in Franklin

We thought it would be fun to take $20 to Franklin Tennessee and see how much fun one person could have in 5 hours. We sent Jenna, our intern to Franklin with these instructions: take your camera, walk around, and do whatever looks fun. She found plenty of small-town charm and big-city sophistication during her half-day in historic Downtown Franklin. Jenna set out to visit 3 places inspired by our new Franklin postcards—the town square, the Franklin Theatre, and the Factory.

Down Town Franklin...

“Main Street has great shopping and dining. The cute stores, restaurants and galleries all added to the charming small-town atmosphere. Franklin has a wide variety of shops to choose from including trendy boutiques and locally owned shops with hand-made products. I saw lots of civil war historical markers and land marks—history is everywhere you look in Franklin!” 

Landmark Booksellers...

“I walked into Landmark Booksellers, located on Main St. in Franklin. This beautiful mansion from the 1820's is now a book store full of rare books, new titles, vintage magazines and more.”

The Factory...

“Next, I drove 2 minutes north from downtown to the The Factory at Franklin. I could have spent all day in this place! Built in 1929, this renovated factory building is a great place to shop, dine, or just relax. With everything from a wedding shop to kids pottery classes, there is something for every one.”

Yum!

“I started getting hungry, so before leaving the Factory, I stopped at the Boxwood Bistro.  Housed in the old payroll office of the factory, this American bistro puts a local spin on its delicious dishes. Most of what they serve is locally grown. All of it is delicious!”

As you can tell, it was really good! 

The Franklin Theatre…
“I drove back into town and checked out the historic Franklin Theater. Sadly, I got there before it was open, so I could not go inside. I’ve heard it is great place to catch a movie or live concert. I have plenty of reasons to go back to Franklin. Next time, I will go later in the afternoon so I can catch a show and dinner!”

How do we make the art?

The Spirit of Franklin Collection aims to celebrate the history and charm of Franklin, TN through a collection of 12 illustrated prints. To do that, we are covering a range of themes like architecture,  historic sites, festivals and favorite local establishments. We are rendering our prints in a variety of styles, taking cues from vintage poster art from the late 1800’s to the mid-1900’s. Our artists draw everything by hand and finish the print-ready art on Apple computers. Here is how we create the art, in case you ever wondered how we do it...

We’ll use one very important historical Franklin icon, the Carnton Plantation, battle field and cemetery as a good case-study. Since this landmark was established in the 1800s, the rendering style needs to resemble art from that era. In the past, we accomplished a 19th century look on a few Spirit of Nashville prints done by Abe Goolsby when he was a staff artist at our design studio. Abe’s masterful pen and ink art gave a distinctive old-world look to our Union Station, State Capitol and Belle Meade Plantation prints.  

For the Carnton design, Joel Anderson (founder of Anderson Design Group and the Spirit of Nashville Collection) used the same old techniques. Starting with reference photos he shot on location, Joel painstakingly rendered an ink cross-hatched drawing. Then he created typography and line art similar that what might have been used back in the 1800s. Joel paid homage to his old buddy Abe by re-using line art of clouds from his 2005 Tennessee State Capitol print.

Once the ink line art is rendered, Joel scanned it into his computer and layered borders, type, and even watercolor washes of color. The final composite was sent digitally to a local printer who produces all of the limited edition prints for Anderson Design Group’s various poster collections.

More Franklin prints are in the works. Stay tuned to see the entire collection as we unveil new prints each month!

Decorating with Post Cards

If you like the Spirit of Franklin prints but you don’t have enough wall space for all of them, we have a great solution for you. Decorate with postcards—it’s cheap and easy!

Think of all the ways you can display photos. Most photo holders can also hold postcards.

Postcards fit many photo frames. (Postal regulations require postcards to be 4.25" wide by 6" tall. So you might have to trim your cards to fit a standard 4" x 6" photo frame.)

Even if you do not have frames handy, our postcards are stiff enough to stand alone. They mix well with other small decor objects adding color and charm to any little corner!