So many things about L.L.Bean are considered classic – including the design of our catalog covers. This year, in celebration of our 100th anniversary, we are reinterpreting four favorite “classic” covers from years past. Our Fall 2012 catalog, in mailboxes this week, features the third cover in the series by award-winning photographer Randal Ford.

The original catalog cover from 1966 was painted by Glen Flesichman and was aptly titled “The Perfect Spot.”

To recreate this idyllic scene, Randal Ford, L.L.Bean creative directors Marcia Minter and Jenna Klein Jonsson and their team headed to Maine’s Acadia National Park. The final cover is actually a composite of several locations, with this main shot taking place on Acadia’s famous Loop Road. Do you recognize it?

The models are friends of L.L.Bean, too. The woman exiting the vehicle and sporting a denim shirt from our Signature collection is freelance stylist/art director Basha Burwell, who has worked with L.L.Bean for many years. Her husband, acclaimed writer Peter Behrens, is the one casually smoking a pipe. And the man with the binoculars is our own employee, Tom Cavanaugh. (We just had to include the family dog too.)

We think the red Ford, the silver canoe and the great American outdoors help to evoke an authentic 60s aesthetic. Do you agree?

If you’d like a copy of this catalog, you can order a free issue here. To go behind  the scenes at past cover shoots with Randal Ford, watch this video. Stay tuned to the Trail Mix blog for the backstory of our Christmas cover, featuring another Randal Ford interpretation of a classic L.L.Bean catalog cover.