Faux Hearst Castle Brochure

One of our projects in Graphic Design 210 was to create a brochure. It was to be printed on both sides of a standard 8½x11 inch paper, then folded into equal thirds. We were encouraged to use our own artwork.

Unlike many others in the class I'm not an illustrator. I do take photographs. Some of my favorite photos are from Hearst Castle in San Simion, California. So I combined information about the Castle and some of my photographs to make a faux brochure.

You can see my final work in PDF format: Faux Hearst Castle Brochure (3.6Mb)
Disclamer: This is NOT an official Hearst Castle document. The information is accurate as of this date, however it was not vetted or approved by anyone representing Heart Castle. This was done only as a student project. I do claim copyright on the final work.

There is a bit of a story attached to these photographs. On July 4th, 2003 Scott and I were on one of our employers enforced vacations. We drove south to visit Hearst Castle.

We ran into some very bad luck on the way. We got a flat about 30 miles south of Big Sur, as is always the case, the middle of nowhere. The cellphones didn't work and we hadn't seen a town in many miles. We got out the spare and began to remove the tire. We where shocked to find the dealer had been kind enough to provide free locking lug nuts, but didn't bother to provide a key.

Nine hours later we arrived at our Bed & Breakfast.

Due to this loss of an entire day we had to make new reservations for a tour of the Castle. Being a holiday it was booked tight. The only available tour started at 8am. Normally I wouldn't even consider getting up at 8am while on vacation. Isn't sleeping in part of the definition of a vacation? For this I made an exception.

I'm now so happy I did. Some of the best photos I've ever taken were shot that morning. The Castle is beautiful. The early morning sun cast sharp shadows and dramatically lit the grounds.

If you've never been there I have to recommend it. Beautiful views and it's amazing that at one time it was owned and occupied by one of the most powerful men of his day; William Randolph Hearst. His taste is art was rather... erratic. But impressive nonetheless. It was a memorable morning.