Images of Mt. Hood started floating by my eyes again and again. I’m used to the mountain and I usually appreciate it when I see it. The next best thing is the many tie-ins and visual references I spot. It’s a great neighbor with everyone seemingly wanting a visual piece of it. There are the actual real life views in certain sections of town that are spectacular. Head east on Lombard Ave and it jumps out in a strange magnified way. It’s like that on the Beaverton TV Highway too. While gathering these images, Mount Hood kept appearing. It felt like I was standing on top of the mountain, running low on oxygen and hallucinating Mt. Hood bumper stickers and real estate signs. You’ll see those next year. The best I can do is present a baker’s dozen.
Never forget, Mt. Hood is your best bet as a symbol for your business. It’s sure to increase sales by 37%. As far as I know you don’t have to pay to use Mt. Hood’s likeness. This thought led me to wonder: Who owns Mt. Hood? This seems like a ridiculous question but somebody probably does. No doubt it’s been incorporated with a nice Hoodie graphic.
Take Me Home, Mountain Mural
I drove past this scene many times before it dawned on me that I was passing a mountain mural spilling into a city scape right there in South Portland outside of Suki’s Bar. Pretty impressive, really, but I don’t know how many orange buckets you want to keep in front of your mural. It spoils the view.
Welcome to Mountain View Estates
The welcome to Arbor Lodge sign is an excellent use of the Mt. Hood image. The sign design is epic with twisted and branch fonts, surrounding a powdery Mt. Hood. It’s a pleasing scene although not quite what you’d see in the neighborhood. Mt. Hood can feel like an Arbor Lodge neighbor, especially when you can get a house with a distant mountain view from at least one of the upstairs windows. Ultimately, the sign reminds us there’s a giant mountain lurking around.
Sunny Side Up
This information sign in Tigard has it all. A purple mountain majesty Mt. Hood blocking a giant sun, peeling landscapes and wild Willamette rapids in an abstract form that captures the area’s energy. It’s all here on the sign where any day anything can happen. You might surf the Willamette or melt with the snow on the mountain.
Metal Mountain Solo
Spotted heading down Lombard Ave in NE Portland, this Mt. Hood portrait looks great on a storage trailer. You’ll find this art in the Cully neighborhood where the artist made good use of this metal canvas. It sure spruces up the trailer. Tree pun intended, oh yeah.
Mount Bean
In Boring, you might have an easier time waking up to a view of Mt. Hood especially if you get coffee from the Boring Bean. Perhaps not as epic a recreation of Mt. Hood in this ink stamp, but it’s a nice representation nonetheless. A different scale of mountain art would take over the whole cup. Really I’m just trying to get a cup of coffee, not thinking about a mountain.
On The Bag
The shooting stars are a nice touch. It’s also reassuring that you can take this image of Mount Hood home with you, to look at anytime you want, if you buy this bag at any participating New Seasons grocery stores. The bag rendering is pretty epic but I’m not sure it translates to real life because I can’t recall ever being able to see Mt. Hood at night.
Mount Trash
I’m all for trash cans getting decorated for better visibility. These designs are fun and colorful. This one, as you can see, features the tip of the mountain surrounded by an abstract sky, as if the good Lord dropped something, a paint brush perhaps. But the mountain looks good, it’s recognizable. It follows my new adage about keeping it simple so we can keep admiring the mountain.
Breath Deep For Better Mountain Air
In the Sunderland neighborhood, the DEQ facility did it’s best to hang a banner with an image of Mt. Hood on it to remind Oregonians that all the hassle of going to the DEQ results in cleaner air so that you might even be able to see the mountain better. It’s especially nice to see the mountain, as the banner depicts it, on the one day of the year when almost all the snow has melted.
Keep Your Mountain In A Jar By The Door
Need to decorate a cookie jar, or any other type of jar? Slap an image of Mt. Hood on it. We all know there are many laws, possibly even copyright laws, involved in using the image of a famous mountain on anything but who is thinking about that when the image is this cute.
Beer, Snacks, Mt. Hood?
This Plaid Pantry in the Overlook neighborhood sports a Mt. Hood outline. It’s a running theme in other stores as well. It’s a nice way to decorate their front window while also saying, in Portland, we’ve got a pet mountain to go with our other landmarks.
Up Where The Air Is Clear
A mountain, a weed pun, it’s almost too easy and simply irresistible to combine these ideas on a billboard seen in the Kerns neighborhood. Are they trying to say they’re opening a dispensary on the top of Mt. Hood? I do agree that when you talk about something with elevation it makes sense to use Mt. Hood as the “tall guy.”
If You Can’t Move Mountains, Race Around Them
The Portland International Raceway wants to portray Mt. Hood as a race fan. In this ad it poses the mountain looking over the screaming race cars. This snowy September day somehow seems like the perfect weather for racing.
Choose Your Slab, Rock Or Beef?
If you want to make your beef jerky inspirational, include a picture of a rugged mountain on it. Mt. Hood seems to be the right mountain for the job. You’re telling me your jerky has quite the bite when you team it up with this rough and tumble mountain.
More Hood:
Portland Orbit 