Slow Clouds

I love the Bicycle Commuter Contest.  I love seeing people out on the road, riding in groups, wearing neon orange and yellow jackets, zipping around town in blur of caution and warning.  I like the fact that the bike shops always seem slightly under staffed in April as flocks people come and go with either smiles, or looks of uncertainty as they prepare themselves for a month of riding.

For those unfamiliar with the Thurston County Bicycle Commuter Contest, the BCC is a Intercity Transit sponsored event that takes place during the month of May and is designed to encourage area residents to commute by bicycle to work or on errands. Cyclists record their miles as individuals and as a team in an effort to earn prizes, but more importantly, the data is compiled to demonstrate the positive effects on the environment, individual health and traffic reduction. If you’re interested, read more about the Bicycle Commuter Contest.

This is my third year participating in the BCC and with Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters’ Chain Gang team. Generally, each team that participates in the BCC creates a team shirt and since I’m designing our team’s shirt this year, I thought I would try and lay it out by hand.  Below is a draft of the design I decided to stick with.

The design is heavily influenced by one of my favorite designers, Jay Ryan and his 2000 poster titled Everlasting The Way. (View the original design here.) Obviously, I modified my design to represent a cyclist and I tried working with two different hand drawn type styles. The first is my own take on a uppercase italicized Helvetica, with noticeable alterations done to the characters C and G. The bottom text is my version of the architype Tschichold, which was designed by Jan Tschichold in 1929 though never put into production.

After a few iterations, I finally ditched the hand drawn type for “CHAIN GANG” in exchange for digital type (Trade Gothic Standard). I wanted the hand drawn version to work, but it wasn’t and after redrawing it three or four times, it still looked forced and unskilled. Not everyone can be like Mr. Jay Ryan.  

I will post photos of the screen printed version in a week or so when they are finished. In the meantime, go ride your bike because it’s fun and it’s good for you and your fellow Olympians.

I recently went to the open house for a single-family residence named the Harpoon House, designed by Matt Kirkpatrick. I’d been riding my bike by the site for weeks and watching their progress and the emergence of a three story wood rainscreen-clad building. There was a well-designed sign in front that gave some basic information about the project and the website address where I have since learned a lot more about the house; including the process they have gone through with the bank,  project costs (less than $200k), and all the ups and downs of the construction.

Located on an urban infill lot in the inner Southeast Portland neighborhood of Buckman, the Harpoon House is 16 by 28 by 28 feet tall (1152 square feet) and built of structurally insulated panels, with the exception of the unconditioned basement, which is concrete and stick framing. The siding is a ventilated rainscreen made from unfinished cedar 1×4′s, held off the sheathing with 4×4 posts. Waste pipes and other utilities are hidden behind the screen to reduce thermal bridging that would occur by carving up the panel insulation. The house has beautiful triple pane wood windows, the single most expensive part of the project, and in my opinion, worth every penny. The construction is 100% green roof coverage, thanks in part to a grant received through the city of Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) to cover the cost difference between doing standard roof construction and green roofs (estimated at an additional $5/ sq. ft.).

The interiors are tastefully restrained, I’m sure in large part a need for economy, but they put their money where it matters; in the beautiful wood floors, a combination toilet/ sink fixture for graywater reuse and some nice built-in cabinetry. Most impressive, however was that the landscape was not an afterthought or cut from the budget towards the end, as it so often is. They had already put in a gabion rock retaining wall and several fruit trees and planted beds well before the construction was completed! The green roof is entirely planted out and the street trees stand ready to go in the ground. Oh, and they even have a very nice root cellar in the basement to put all their fruits and veggies in at the end of the season!