Hockey

BY JACKIE BUSSJAEGER INTERIM QUAD EDITOR

Pucks will fly at the Hockey Day Minnesota festival in White Bear Township—and one local artist has captured the excitement in his vintage approach to the official event poster.

Steve Thomas, a Forest Lake resident, was approached by the organizers of Hockey Day Minnesota to create a poster that evoked the hockey history and hometown flavor of White Bear Township, the host site of this year’s festival. Events will take place Jan. 26-29 at Polar Lakes Park.

Thomas’ modern vintage style seemed uniquely suited to the huge event, especially considering the area’s extensive hockey history.

Part of the influence for his style comes from working in graphic design in newspapers. Visuals in the newspaper need to be bold, creative and readable at a glance: qualities that translate well to the minimalistic color blocks and line art of Thomas’ retro posters.

“A lot of inspiration comes from the early 20th century travel posters and advertising,” Thomas said. “It’s the graphic screen print look, that also includes a lot of text. When doing informational graphics, you have to keep it somewhat simple and bold and easy to read.”