Bathymetric contours of a submerged chasm in the Willamette River inspire our holiday greeting and message for hope, peace and goodwill throughout the coming year.
Thousands of years of water have carved a deep ravine beneath Willamette Falls in Oregon City. Through the pictorial language of contours, the elegance of an intriguing, concealed underwater gorge is graphically revealed. The landform is so deep and shear that the contour lines stack, appearing as two opposing ribbons. Between these ribbons, we explore the intersection of topography and typography. The contours are now altered to divulge a secondary subliminal message about how rivers bring features of our natural world and its people together.
A New Take on the Bike Commute Challenge
At Mayer/Reed we are proud of our commitment to alternative modes of transportation. But we asked ourselves, how are we actually commuting as an office? So during this year’s Bike Commute Challenge we broadened our participation in the studio by tracking all modes of travel. In addition to biking, we wanted to encourage and reflect on our use of other forms of alternative transportation. We had fun drawing our routes on a large shared map and marking a colorful chart to track walk, bike, bus, MAX, carpool and single occupancy car.
Mayer/Reedies used them all! We are happy to see that we traveled by bicycle more than any other mode of transportation and only 30% of commutes were by single occupancy car. Here’s looking forward to doing even better next year!
Catch the Orange: Pattern & Texture
In celebration of the Orange Line opening, our latest studio artwall installation is on display at Mayer/Reed. In its eighth year, the artwall is a rotating, collaborative display of staff submissions focused on a theme.
Submission for IAAF World Indoor Track & Field Championships/Portland 2016
Mayer/Reed was one of three finalists who submitted designs for the countdown clock recently installed in Pioneer Courthouse Square as the promotional centerpiece for the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Track & Field Championships, March 17-20, 2016. Our concept combined art, technology and craft as an expression of Portland, the world-class event and celebration.
The digital display used for the countdown clock is vertically oriented in a dramatic waterfall configuration, embedded in an internally-illuminated, translucent conical form, emblematic of Mt. Hood and re-imagined as a veil of watery lightness supported by a javelin shaped wooden mast. Led by Mayer/Reed, the design was a collaboration with Nancy Cheng, associate professor of architecture at the University of Oregon, whose work with digital fabrication processes to generate screens for filtering light inspired the design of the translucent cladding.