Where to find Gov. Whitmer's popular vintage-inspired Great Lakes posters

In January, New York-based graphic designer Catherine LaPointe Vollmer noticed an unusual uptick in sales of her vintage-inspired Great Lakes posters and wasn't sure what to attribute it to. 

It's typically a "slow time of year," said LaPointe Vollmer.

Turns out the answer was not what, but who. 

"I assumed someone had shared them on social media, but a few days into the rush, a customer mentioned they had seen them on a recent interview with Gov. (Gretchen) Whitmer on MSNBC," said LaPointe Vollmer of Lionheart Graphics in an email.

And that's not the only place. LaPointe-Vollmer's posters have been all over social media and cable news shows, especially this week. In a tweet Monday, Room Rater, a popular Twitter account that rates celebrities and public officials' Skype backgrounds (@ratemyskyperoom), gave Whitmer a 10 out of 10 and called it "Top Governor's Room."

"Love the Great Lakes prints," they tweeted.

LaPointe Vollmer, who has a shop on Etsy.com and is based in Potsdam, New York, close to the Canadian border, was eventually able to track down the MSNBC interview with her posters in the background and was "delighted to see my artwork gracing the walls," she said.

The posters come in three sizes -- 5x7, 11x17 or 24x36 -- and prices range from $50-375. Individual posters range in price from $26-$70 and there's an option to have them already framed, said LaPointe Vollmer.

The posters were inspired by LaPointe Vollmer's own travels. She started collecting vintage posters featuring the national parks a few years ago, but when she tried to find a similar style poster featuring places closer to home, "I didn't find what I was looking for, so I started designing my own," she said.

"I started with posters featuring the geographic regions of New York and the Great Lakes, and then a series of outdoor activity posters," she said.

Today, her Great Lake posters are "very popular," said LaPointe Vollmer, who sells prints featuring the Adirondacks, Erie Canal, Finger Lakes and more. She also has a new Michigan poster, featuring a sandy path down to the water through a stand of birch and white pine, bordered by dwarf lake irises, Michigan's state wildflower.

Vintage Great Lakes posters

• lionheartgraphics.com
• Available on Etsy.com here. 

mfeighan@detroitnews.com