Swedish American Hall Illustration

This playful cross-section illustration showcases the historic Swedish American Hall along with its charm and secrets

Illustration

I created this illustration for Noise Pop to serve as the navigation experience for the Swedish American Hall website. It features Noise Pop operated Swedish American Hall and Café du Nord venues, both housed within this San Francisco landmark.

Concept outline behind initial sketch of Swedish American Hall illustration

Noise Pop handed me the concept of a cross-section building illustration and I ran with it, sketching out a simple rendition of the building interior along with some notes and stylistic concepts.

I took a trip to the building itself so I could explore, snap some reference photos and hear some ghost stories. Back at home, I took the information I had gathered and sat down to draw out the cross-section in greater detail. In the initial drawing, each floor is populated by simple figures that didn't end up making the final illustration.

Photo of Parker's sketchbook featuring a pencil drawing of Swedish American Hall cross-seciton illustration

When it was requested that the adjacent buildings be added to either side of the illustration, I utilized Google Street View to gain reference shots of the neighboring structures and penciled them in. I then brought the drawing into Illustrator to recreate it in vector form. The completed illustration and detail shots below are 'nighttime' renditions I made to enhance the glowing lanterns and candles around the building.

Vector illustration of Swedish American Hall cross-section at night

Legend has it that the library of Swedish American Hall is haunted by the ghost of a grieving woman whose husband once frequented the bookshelves housed within. Illustrating this specter's presence in the library was one of my favorite aspects of the project.