Hockey Day goes retro with vintage-style poster

BY JACKIE BUSSJAGER INTERIM CITIZEN 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.”

He has previously produced posters for big acts such as Pearl Jam, Blink 182 and the Pixies, as well as the 2011 commemorative poster for the Minnesota State Fair.

The poster is meant to incorporate elements from the hockey history of White Bear Township and surrounding area. The poster shows the White Bear Town Hall located in Polar Lakes Park, as well as familiar locations sch as the Hippodrome ice rink.

The poster even includes a small portrait of Frank “Moose” Goheen, a White Bear Lake native who won two U.S. Amateur Hockey Championships with the

St. Paul Athletic Club, enlisted in World War I and captained the U.S. hockey team at the 1920 Summer Olympics.

“I just wanted it to look dynamic; a large hockey player in there with some vintage gear,” Thomas said.

White Bear Lake and Bald Eagle Lake also make an appearance on the poster, and on the map of Minnesota, White Bear Township is pinpointed in the circles of the center ice like a bullseye.

Thomas added that he wanted to be sure to include a female player, because his daughter Rissa Thomas, a 9th grader, currently plays on the Centennial High School girls team. His three children occasionally make cameos in his various artwork. He also wanted to make sure a goalie was included in the work, since goalies are sometimes overlooked.

In addition to his work creating posters for prominent events and concerts, Thomas spends his time creating a wide selection of pop culture artwork including officially licensed Disney and Marvel, Star Wars and Star Trek, space travel-themed and national parks posters.

See more of his work at https://www. stevethomasart.com.