Monday, 7:35pm
12 December 2011

Fir sale

mike kippenhan
Visual culture

Oregon’s handmade signs herald the coming of Christmas tree stands

With the end of the Thanksgiving holiday in late November, most Americans begin the transition into the Christmas season, writes Mike Kippenhan. One of the most visible harbingers of the upcoming holiday is the almost overnight proliferation of Christmas tree stands.

Often finding homes in retail parking lots or vacant corner lots, the Christmas tree stand is a quick entrepreneurial venture that requires little more than a truck-load of freshly cut trees and a few signs. Oregon’s status as one of the leading tree-producing states in the US guarantees that even the most modest businessperson can make extra money selling the freshest product. Advertising a tree stand often requires little more than a piece of plywood and paint. Here are some signs for the Portland metropolitan area.

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See also ‘On the road’ by Mike Kippenhan on the Eye blog.

Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It’s available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions, back issues and single copies of the latest issue. The latest issue, Eye 81, has the theme of ‘Designers and clients’.