|
WASHINGTON, D.C. Summer 2010
-
I found myself
 zipping to and from the
Museums, through busy lunchtime
sidewalks, heading to playgrounds on
Capitol Hill, or changing the occasional
diaper on a restroom floor; yep, I was a
Stay-At-Home-Dad. Having taken a break
from my professional Architecture
career, the extra time had given me the
ability to raise our first child and to
grow my Art Business -- Photographic
Collages. During my adventures of
strolling around the city, I noticed the
street vendors lacked a variety of
products. You can pick up local art in
New Orleans's Jackson Square, or a
watercolor from a piazza in Venice or a
book along the Seine River in Paris; but
why not DC? That's when I thought, what
if I sell my unique local artwork where
consumers live, work, play, shop and
explore the city's sites. I decided to
find out answers to these questions.
If I
was to become a street vendor, then I
needed to understand how I could convert
my 10x10 art set-up used at my Art
Markets into a vendor stand. First, I
took note of the existing conditions;
the amount of items being sold out of a
back of a van, the cardboard boxes
stored beneath the items labeled Made in
"insert foreign country", the lack of
business name signage, the long hours of
set-up time, etc but mainly the lack of
any notion of a design standard.
Packing my artwork in my car, driving to
a location, setting up for a few hours
wasn't going to work either. I did find
the emerging DC Food Truck scene raising
the bar of design standards while
offering a variety of quality foods with
professional graphics adorning their
mobile trucks and the incorporation of
social media as a location finder. I
also liked how some trucks used solar
panels to power operation instead of the
gas engine.
I
researched other cities and my past
travels. In Venice Italy, artists moved
throughout the Piazzas using a modified
hand dolly with fold down displays that
were quick to set-up and go when crowds
moved to another part of the city.
 This
was not unlike how a DC Food Truck
operates. In Paris, "Bouquinistes" or
second hand booksellers utilized a
closed box attached to the stone wall
along the sidewalk near the Seine River
where they could pop-up the lid for
selling or close them for storage. I
liked the idea of being mobile, having a
distinct design, having integrated
signage using social media and most
importantly being "green."
I
would need to look at a new way to
transport my multiple sizes of materials
and many of the things I would generally
use for an Art Market. Initially I
started researching opposite ends of the
spectrum, from an Electric Car to a
Rickshaw. Both options proved to be a
costly investment and too big of a
vehicle for holding my artwork. I did
like the idea of a bicycle, but it
needed more of a smart cargo area. My
idea and research took on many words;
Utility Cycling, Freight Bike, Pushcart,
Mobile Bike Business, Delivery Bicycle,
Commercial Tricycles, Urban Cab, Cargo
Bike, Display Tricycle and finally
"Cargo Trike" struck a cord.
I focused on the words "Cargo Trike,"
with examples illustrating a mobile
unique marketing platform, as a cost
effective means of travel in the city
and a zero-emission green healthy
lifestyle. My research mostly came from
Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Portland,
Oregon where bicycling is a integral
part of the culture.
 Examples range
from the early part of the 19th century
with parcel delivery bikes to the
various Watson Prickard bakers, meat and
other tradesmen bikes. Today, new
variations are constantly popping up in
the cities: a mobile coffee bar called
Bikecaffe, mobile florists, ice cream
freezers like
Icicle Tricycles in
Portland, mobile
DJ turntables in
Vancouver and
Fruitbikes in Copenhagen.
From
my Architecture background, I am used to
diagramming objects and understanding
how things fit together. I was able to
strengthen my variation, "Art Trike" by
reviewing the other Cargo Trike
examples. Since an art variation didn't
exist, I needed to come up with my
design requirements, display systems and
develop sketches for how it could be
built. I settled on three principles,
having an attractive and distinctive
design, being able to unfold with an
integrated display and being
environmentally friendly.
I
found a company called, Haley Trikes of
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who made
custom built Cargo Trikes. The Owner,
Stephen Horcha started the company after
searching for a good way to move his
drum set around downtown Savannah,
Georgia by pedal-power, and couldn't
find one.
Continue Reading to the
Art Trike Design
|
