Eichler Pride Hits the Streets
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they create above) is the handiwork of Concord Eichler owner Hunter Wimmer. "It's not really a business—it's more of an initiative," he says. "I derive more pleasure from seeing other people not struggle." Photos: courtesy Hunter Wimmer |
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If you are proud of your Eichler home, you're certainly not alone in this world.
But if you are seeking something special that exudes Eichler pride and sets you apart even from neighbors who are already unconventional, well, then look no further than the curb itself.
That's where Eichler Stencils shows off their snazzy stuff!
Hunter Wimmer, who lives in the Rancho del Diablo tract of Concord, is the dedicated Eichler enthusiast behind this brainchild: Eichler curb address stencils for retail sale.
Even though Wimmer says he has managed to profit approximately zero dollars so far from his Eichler curb-appeal product, the design instructor and his group of students have produced and sold more than 100 of the reusable stencils—and at least the students have made a few bucks.
Wimmer, who has created a buzz over the years with his Eichler-focused, DIY-friendly home-improvement site, RedneckModern.com, also readily admits he did not originate the idea to create Eichler curb address stencils.
But he specifically recalls the day when the idea sparked for him. It was on a 2008 trip to Southern California in which he and his wife Casie were PT Cruising around, photographing Eichlers and Cliff May homes in the area.
"I'm driving around, and we notice these [Eichler] curb addresses and said, 'How can we make this ourselves?'" he recalled. "Turns out it's not that hard."
Anyway, the seed was planted, though it took a few years to flower. First Wimmer hunted around on the Internet for the address stencils, but unsuccessfully: "You end up needing something, and you can't find it—as they say, necessity is the mother of invention."
So the ambitious Concord man extended his research beyond the marketplace to the archives, particularly those of the Eichler Network and other resources. Starting with an image of the original script Joe Eichler used for marketing his homes, the graphic artist went to work.
"Super accuracy was not the goal, it was just to get a reasonable facsimile," Wimmer conceded, admitting having to "tweak things here and there to make everything line up" for the laser cut of his stencils. Besides patterning the script portion after the original Eichler literature, for the address numbers he chose a font he said is a predecessor to Helvetica called Akzidenz-Grotesk.
