This year, we have something new in Bend – The Day of the Dead Cyclocross Festival. Now Day of the Dead is in its essence a celebration to remember our loved ones who have passed to the other side. On this day (Día de los Muertos) offerings to the dead are made in many forms. From simple gifts of food, to ornate shrines (sometimes called altars) tributes are paid to their souls. It’s really just another reason to party Mexican style, so there you go!

So now we have yet another festival mash-up in Bend, this time the ingredients are comprised of bikes, beer (you gotta have beer), and the dead. And to be given the opportunity to work on something like that was just to hard to pass up. Why? I’m a big fan of beer – check out my Little Woody logo – a fan of biking and bike safety – and I lived in Mexico as a kid and remember this day specifically more than any other. Cool dark evenings on rain soaked cobblestone streets, dimly lit by candles (veladoras) – with really, really tall skeletons walking around, everywhere. I realize now they were people on stilts, and do recall my parents explaining that to me – but I was like 9 or something – at the time, the fantasy was way better than the reality – I also thought you had to have really big shoulders to play football, but whatever.

Skeletons and skulls (calaveras) are very prominent throughout this celebration thanks to one artist in particular, José Guadalupe Posada. His style of illustration truly captured the living, the dead, the spirit of this day and has no doubt inspired others to do the same.

Another type of skull commonly associated with Day of the Dead is the Sugar Skull. A candied sugar or chocolate skull made as an offering to the dead. The idea is to make something sweet and delicious to attract the soul of the loved one who has passed. Then once their soul has risen, the two of you party and drink tequila together for a day. Awesome! I dig the idea, and the look of the Sugar Skull. Mix in some bike elements (chains, sprockets), beer (bottle), and Bend – and you have a logo for a Festival! Hope you dig it. My part was the logo design – the Visit Bend peeps did a good job pulling the rest of the creative together. Make sure you check it out next weekend, there’s a bunch of stuff happening around the festival. Here’s the official Day of the Dead Cyclocross Fesitval website for all the dets!

If you happen to be cruising around Bend and stop in to Brother Jon’s Public House for a beer or massive sandwich – you’ll notice the Ride Safe Posters and now the coasters too. If you own a local place where peeps eat, drink, or chill and either walk, ride, or drive to get there contact the city to get your hands on them. Spread awareness!

Check out related posts on DowntownBend.com or BikeAroundBend.com or BendMPO.org.

If you would like a signed limited edition poster to frame and hand in your shop or home office – cruise over here.

The Bend Metropolitan Planning Organization in collaboration with the city of Bend Transportation Division, Bend Police Department and Commute Options for Central Oregon is proud to be part of an education campaign directed towards safe bike riding in Bend this summer. The campaign developed by design firm Perez Design, will be officially launched at the Commute Options 21st Birthday Open House at Lahaina Gallery, Old Mill District, Bend. This Public Awareness Campaign was funded by the 2010-2011 Building Safer Communities Mini-Grant administered by Alliance for Community Traffic Safety in Oregon. The funds are from Oregon Department of Transportation – Transportation Safety Division.  Please visit bendmpo.org/SharetheRoad to view the campaign.

Please contact Jovi Anderson at janderson@ci.bend.or.us to get posters and coasters for your business establishment or bike friendly event.

So far the posters are up at:

• thump coffee
• Brother Jon’s
• 10 Barrel

I think that party is this Friday? Should be fun. The coasters and posters were my contribution to this campaign and I’m stoked they came out the way they did. Remember, contact Jovi to pick up the posters and coasters to display at your business – they’re free! Support Bike Safety!

The posters are 18″ x 24″, silk-screened locally on Cougar Smooth 100lb Cover. There are only 200 prints of each poster available free to local businesses and organizations. If you would like one of these posters, a limited run of  50 of each poster are numbered, signed and available for purchase.
More on safe riding:
Commute Options
Bend Metropolitan Planning Organization
Ride safe!

Posters were designed to bring rider awareness to the citizens of Bend, Oregon, addressing three key issues related to bike safety: Wrong Way Riding, Drunk Riding, and Rider visibility – See and be Seen. These posters are part of a campaign including other elements that will be displayed at various retail establishments in Bend, Oregon throughout the month of June.
The posters are 18″ x 24″, silk-screened locally on Cougar Smooth 100lb Cover. There are 250 prints of each poster and of those only 50 of each poster are numbered, signed and available for purchase.

More on safe riding:

Commute Options

Bend Metropolitan Planning Organization

Ride safe!

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*UPDATE* Another 2 posters have been  sold online – so far we’ve raised $500!

Thank you:

To see where our donations are going visit Global Giving – they are updateing their page on a regular basis to show the funds raised so far.

They have also created additional direct funding options for you to donate: globalgiving.org/japan-earthquake/

Also, big thanks to thump coffee for posting about this on their thumpology.com blog!
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If you’ve already made a donation – great! If you are thinking about it, and maybe would like to get a cool poster for your efforts, here’s a link to the poster: carrrrrlos.com/help-japan/

Thanks for helping! :^)

Thank you:

Andrew B – 1 Poster

Kelly G – 1 Poster

The posters have been arriving at peoples homes and they are super stoked to have them in their hands. Feels good to support such a good cause, and to be able to pull some joy out of such a horrible event.

Another designer in town is donating some really beautiful custom made jewelery for the people of Japan: John Paul designs has created sterling silver dog tags w/ hearts and the word Japan – you can purchase/donate on his website: johnpauldesigns.com.

Also – here is an interactive Feature from NYTimes.com that shows satellite images taken by GeoEye before & after the disaster. NYTimes.com.

If you’ve already made a donation – great! If you are thinking about it, and maybe would like to get a cool poster for your efforts, here’s a link to the poster: carrrrrlos.com/help-japan/

Thanks for helping! :^)

Four more posters sold online – so far we’ve raised $400!

Thank you:

Dana W – 1 Poster

Marj L – 1 Poster

Valerie Y – 1 Poster

Amy C – 1 Poster
The first round of posters are being mailed today – I arrived at the PO five minutes past their closing time yesterday – so bummed.
Also – there is a new option to buy a poster if you are a local. There have been several requests to pick-up or meet-up to get a poster, so I have added two “Buy Now” buttons. If you live in town, I’d be more than happy to meet-up downtown and hand deliver the poster to you.
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If you’ve already made a donation – great! If you are thinking about it, and maybe would like to get a cool poster for your efforts, here’s a link to the poster:  carrrrrlos.com/help-japan/

Thanks for helping! :^)

Another poster sold online – so far we’ve raised $300!

Thank you:

George P – 1 Poster

1st Poster Editions (1 – 100) are mostly printed, signed, numbered and ready to go! 2nd Poster Editions (101 – 200) are next. Here’s a look:
If you’ve already made a donation – great! If you are thinking about it, and maybe would like to get a cool poster for your efforts, here’s a link to the poster:  carrrrrlos.com/help-japan/

Thanks for helping! :^)

Three more posters sold online – so far we’ve raised $275!

Thank you:

Courtney O – 1 Poster

Robert S – 1 Poster

Adrea P – 1 Poster
My good friend and colleague Carol Sternkopf (check out her work carolsternkopf.com) was kind enough to donate her awesome printer to make these posters a reality. So tonight, after the UPS truck arrived w/ the special order Luster paper, archival inks, and mailing tubes, we set out to print the first batch of posters.

I will be signing, numbering them tomorrow – and will be handing a few of them off personally to a few locals – thanks for the support! :^)

If you’ve already made a donation – great! If you are thinking about it, and maybe would like to get a cool poster for your efforts, here’s a link to the poster:  carrrrrlos.com/help-japan/

Thanks for helping! :^)

A big shout out to everyone who reached out and made a purchase today – together we raised $200! I hope you don’t mind but I’m going to put your names out there:

I will be posting our milestones nightly, to keep us all in the loop. Also, a big thanks to our local weekly The Source for donating a 1/4 page ad in this weeks edition to promote the sale of this poster. And to all my Facebook friends and Twitter tweeps for all the love: @GiantLoopMoto :: @CourtneyO :: @ThumpCoffee :: @SweetPeaCole :: @Kamini_Bijou :: @WonderWorman

If you’ve already made a donation – great! If you are thinking about it, and maybe would like to get a cool poster for your efforts, here you go.

Here’s a link to the poster:  carrrrrlos.com/help-japan/

Thanks for helping! :^)