Project Brief

Every year the Louisiana Department of Tourism in conjunction with the Louisiana Department of Archaeology celebrates the rich history of the state by conducting an “Archaeology Week” campaign. The campaign focuses attention on a different specific archaeological site located within the state to help raise awareness on a statewide level.

In 2004 the Department was looking for a new graphics vendor to create a poster for the campaign and Aeon was selected for the project. In years past, the poster was to be distributed to locations around the state to help raise awareness of the week-long event and this year was no different. The subject of this particular project focused on an exhibit regarding a Native American village in Avoyelles Parish.

Surprisingly, the attention garnered by the poster design was more than expected. It was so well received that the department decided to award Aeon with the annual project for the next six years.

Later during the same year, the department head reached out to Aeon founder Carl Accardo to discuss additional projects that were on the books for the next few years.

CLIENT BIO

INDUSTRY

Tourism

LOCATION

Louisiana

SERVICES

Print Media Promotional Material Design

Website Design

Report & Brochure Design

Photography

Indian Mound Driving Guide Brochure

The next project was a printed driving guide brochure detailing the locations and history of the Native American mounds in Louisiana. The brochure also included a custom-designed fold-out map and bio’s describing each mound site. Once completed, the graphics were used to create an interactive online version of the brochure as well as a downloadable pdf for those who wanted a portable copy. The brochure contains 52 pages detailing all of the mound sites, both private and public, located in the north part of the state.

Thousands of copies were printed and distributed to every rest area around the state.

Additional Projects:

In subsequent years, Archaeology Week was expanded to become the Archaeology Month Celebration.

Posters and campaign to be designed for some of the upcoming archaeological month celebrations included:

• “Uncovering the Past” – a poster to publicize an exhibit of artifacts recovered from the old LA state capitol site, which was also a former United States Military post (Circa 1810-1886)
• “The Civil War Sesquicentennial Commemoration”  – a poster spotlighted one of the best-known Civil War sites in Louisiana. The site is known as the Port Hudson Battle, which lasted 48 days during the summer of 1863.
• “Indian Mounds Driving Trail” poster was a follow-up to the successful Indian mound brochures created in the previous year. The trail guide and mound locations had become the focus of the archaeology community for the entire month in 2009.
• “The Tchefuncte River Lighthouse” poster spotlighted the site on the north shore of Lake Ponchatrain that was built in 1838

2007 Lousiana State Archaeology Poster

2009 Lousiana State Archaeology Poster

Attention to detail:

For the poster of the Port Hudson battlefield, Aeon wanted to create a “vintage” look. They designed a textured appearance similar to a period-accurate newspaper or poster from the days of the Civil War. Fonts and styles were researched to ensure an authentic look was captured for the recreation. Modern elements were also included to tie the past with the present.

2011 Lousiana State Archaeology Poster

UNESCO Proposal:

Aeon was also contracted to design and compile the application to declare the Poverty Point Indian Mound site a UNESCO-protected site. Carl assembled the final document from text and images provided by several members in the Department. The completed application was massive. the 230 + page document was about the size of a “department store” catalog. The report was completed and submitted to the United Nations in January 2013. The Poverty Point site received its designation on the prestigious list in 2014.