Joel Anderson

View interview

Personal Information

Bio

Joel Anderson was born in Denver, Colorado in 1965. His family moved to Dallas Texas shortly after, and continued to move every few years to places such as Curacao, El Salvador, New York, and South Carolina. (He got to go with them.) After high school, Joel headed off to Ringling School of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida. At Ringling, he concentrated on Illustration and Design to prepare for a career in Commercial Art (since he was not cut out for the life of a starving artist.) After graduating in 1986, Joel married his college sweetheart and moved to Nashville where he worked at Carden & Cherry advertising agency for 7 years. While there, Joel won several ADDYS and an Emmy Award for his work on hey Vern, It’s Ernest—a Saturday morning TV show for kids. During that time, Joel exhibited & sold his paintings in galleries, he designed and created clocks, and he worked on numerous free-lance illustration projects.

In 1993, Joel his friend David Thomas started Anderson Thomas Design, which grew into an award-winning firm with a client list that included Universal Studios, DreamWorks, Hasbro, Golden Books, Harper Collins, and National Geographic along with many local and regional clients. In 2008, David retired and Joel reorganized as Anderson Design Group, Inc. and narrowed his focus to branding, publication design and product development. One of the lines of products he and his team created is the Spirit of Nashville Collection, which started as a limited edition promotional calendar that would feature 14 posters of Nashville icons, designed in the tradition of the “Golden Age of Poster Art”—a style which was popular from the 1920’s to the 1950’s.

The first collection of Music City posters took Joel and a team of 6 other artists several months to create. The finished product was a smashing success. It went on to win numerous awards, and has been featured in several top design magazines. People from as far away as Europe began asking where they could buy prints of the Nashville poster art. So, the Spirit of Nashville web site was created to make this limited edition print series available to the general public. See it at www.SpiritOfNashville.com.

In response to the success of the Spirit of Nashville Collection, Joel began creating new series of vintage-style travel posters such as the Art & Soul of America Collection, The Coastal Collection, and the World Travel Collection. All of these print series can be seen at www.AndersonDesignGroup.com, along with a plethora of design projects created for Chrysler, Denny’s, Williams-Sonoma,Mercury Records, and many other local, regional and international clients.

When he is not directing a talented team of designers and illustrators, Joel creates original fine art, gardening, and spending time with his kids and his wife of over 25 years. He also enjoys gardening, painting, and writing. Joel has written, designed and published 11 books.

Name of Business / Organization

Anderson Design Group

Homepage

http://www.AndersonDesignGroup.com

Twitter

http://www.twitter.com/adgnashville

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/andersondesigngroup?v=app_4949752878

Location

History

Member for

11 years 51 weeks