In this, the final entry to our 2018 Annual, we've chosen to look forward to pastures new. In 2019 we have a series of collaborations being launched, and we wanted to find a way of connecting them beyond the obvious stamping of a logo. Once again, as always, we were inspired by our home, Girona.
Photographs by Ian Walton for CHPT3 x POC
The Parc de la Devesa sits on the very edge of Girona's centre: laid out and planted in 1850 it covers 40 hectares with 2500 plane trees. It serves as the respiratory organ for Girona, and although the name itself means 'pasture' it isn't used for agriculture but as a place of escape from the confines of urban life. The trees rise above 60m, making them the tallest in Catalonia, offering the sensation of being in a natural cathedral.
Returning from training rides the first glimpses of the Girona old town come through the trees of the Devesa, it serves as the final geographical marker - imprinted in our minds to signify completion.
....
If someone can't see the wood for the trees it's means they can't understand a situation clearly because they're too involved in it. Cycling is like that, especially modern cycling, all the data we have at our fingertips and the very cyclical and repetitive nature of it nurtures obsession. It's part and parcel of being a cyclist.
There's no point in denying this fact about ourselves, so we've decided to celebrate it and we've done it by choosing one of the 2500 trees and making it even more detailed, like only a cyclist could. Sorry, not sorry.
At CHPT3 we have always been interested in military apparel, the colour palette and utilitarian design has been a big inspiration, perhaps it's for that reason we could only see urban camouflage, or in technical jargon, Disruptive Pattern Material.
The bark of the plane tree has been our blueprint, and we've created our own DPM made up of three's.
This was the first iteration.
And although it was successful in 2D it was limited in 3D because of the obvious distortion in curvature, it was from working with POC that we first encountered this issue, and it was with their help that we came up with a solution.
By delineating the design and randomly rotating the '3' it can now be scaled and applied on any surface without being distorted by curvature, by doing this we disrupted the pattern and created our very own camouflage.
The POC Ventral and Factor ViSTA being the first iterations, both available now, albeit in very limited quantities.
Welcome to 2019.
