Hope everyone is doing well! I've been meditating on mid-century design and culture more than usual this month. One thing led to the next, and with a few coincidences this newsletter issue took on a particular style grounded in Downtown Portland, OR, 1955.
Goods
Map: Grand Floral Parade
Recently I caught a show at Revolution Hall, a historic high school converted into a venue. Culinary icon James Beard graduated from here in 1920. They had a fantastic display of artifacts from the school's history including printed ephemera with delightfully mid-century modern graphic design.
For this issue's map, I present this route of the 1955 Portland Rose Festival. It starts from the Multnomah Civic Stadium, which is now Providence Park where my Portland Timbers play. This is before I-405 cut a canyon through downtown. We have an amazing window into the event, an amateur's 8mm film.
In the first couple shots I spotted former President Harry S. Truman riding in what I believe is a 1955 Buick Century Convertible, linked here to a website called Hometown Buick, an impressive compendium of '50s Buicks. For a design nerd, it's invigorating to find a website like this, so passionately organized to time-travel through original marketing material and all the model, color, and trim options. Like, there was even a coloring book...
You could order any 2-tone paint combination. I believe Truman's ride is Dover White over Cherokee Red. Whoever spec'd it had great taste. (There's a better view of it.) It looks so swell with the shiny chrome and white-wall tires, an incredible synchronicity with the pallet of the wedding accessories I posted above.
I looked up the most popular song of 1955 for more cultural context. I'm shitting you not, it's a mambo song called Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White. Alright, Cherry Pink isn't Cherokee Red, but it's a weird coincidence.
Civic Stadium Kit
MLS soccer in the United States kicks off this weekend, which means it's time for the fashion event of the season. If you're not aware, soccer kits (jerseys) are a big creative enterprise, with teams revealing a new design before each season, leading to the fun annual design review and ranking.
So imagine this, I'm finishing up the newsletter and my team, the Portland Timbers, reveal this year's Civic Stadium Kit. Apparently it's the 100th anniversary of Providence Park, previously the Multnomah Civic Stadium, where that very same 1955 Rose Festival began. It highlights the Park's art deco arches and "the goose [that] represents the neighborhood’s iconic bronze goose statue and Goose Hollow street signs."
Starting this year you can watch all MLS games on Apple TV. Check it out and judge the rest of the league's jerseys for yourself.
Photos
Hanging Downtown for free First Thursday at the Portland Art Museum.
Off-Season on the Oregon Coast
ICYMI, my recent article recounted a trip exploring the northern coast of Oregon. It's my first longer written account of a trip, but it's filled with photography and graphics.
I have a lot of fun putting these together like a little zine and I hope you're enjoying them. All the best.
-Jackson
