Hermann Arminius was a chieftain who, in 9 AD, led a group of Germanic tribes to defeat the Roman army in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. Here in New Ulm, Minnesota we have the country’s third largest copper statue in the United States; a monument to Hermann. Combining images of these two symbols pays homage to our strong German-American heritage in New Ulm.

To unify both focal points of the railing we used a radial composition (like rays of the sun) which allows both the vertical shape of Hermann and the oblique shape of the eagle to line up with the underlying direction of the piece. All lines point to a common vanishing point somewhere out of sight. The clouds add to the visual story while establishing a colorful gradient of shapes that diminish near the lower corner of the railing. Even in a railing good design is important in order to sustain long term visual appeal.