[design] QwestDex Returns Local Color To Directories

Once upon a time, not so long ago (or was it...never mind), the phone company liked to dress up the yearly phone book by including a local scenically appropriate picture. When I was but a neat thing, back in Silverton, the company was Continental Telephone of the Northwest (which was also the reason a call to far-off Mount Angel, at a distance of four miles, was long distance, but never mind that now) and they provided some farm scene or forest scene or South Silver Creek falls scene (that's the one you usually see on postcards) on the adorable, slim (complete with hole poked through in the upper left to hang from a bit of string by the phone) directories.

This was phased out sometime in the '80's, when a more utilitaran and typographic approach was decided on. all Helevetica and American Typewriter.

This year, though, QwestDex returns local color...or maybe local duotone...to directory covers with this gem:



Clicky upon it to see it bigger. BTW, it's copyrighted by whoever the 7734 owns it, I get no money for displaying it. Never mind that now.

The photo, which is actually quite cleverly integrated with the QuestDex cover design style, is of the Gresham Central MAX Station. It's a nice touch, I think, and an example of what happens when design can be used to impart a local flavor and style to things. It's tied to our surroundings, and no matter what you think of Gresham, you have an emotional connection to the object, a sort of hometown feeling that's really missing from daily life these latter years.

And, for now, that's the design view from Baja Gresham.