Case Cutlery 125th Anniversary Poster

In November of last year I was hired to create a sketches for a possible 125th Anniversary illustration for W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery.   After five months of sketches the project was ended and the artwork will not be finished.  So let's start here with some of the earliest sketches.  The origanl art director requested an image of the knives being assembled or something to stress the long history or knives that have been "Made In The USA".

The original art director was taken off the project at this point and we started over with an image of the history of the company.  They wanted everything from the company's history included in this piece including the office secretaries, one of the owners Maple tree farm and the collector club.  I couldn't see the appeal of these images to the collector of these knives.  If I'm a collector of knives I don't want a picture of other knife collectors, I want to be blown away by the company and the product.  So I talked them into this image showcasing the very earliest Case wagon, their involvement in creating knives for WWI,WWII and the Apollo mission,  the commemoration of Haley's Comet, as well as their history creating razors and hunting knives.  We got close but in the end the artwork was never taken past this point.  I'm working on finishing it up in my spare time so watch out in my portfolio for a final product one day.

All Sketches are  © John Perlock 2014