Hi everyone, happy Friday (at this point, almost Saturday). We just left the office of our good friends and Web partners Fastspot, after reviewing the logo concepts we developed for them and the Orange Element Web concept that they’ve developed for us. I can honestly say that both the logo and the Web site are going to be incredible. It will probably be several months before our new site is launched, but when it is….watch out!

This week was crazy at Orange Element. We’ve got lots of fun new projects going on and a few really good opportunities in the works. I’ll keep you posted on that as we hear more, but the first half of 2008 is shaping up to be a REALLY busy one. After the stressful week, it’s nice to be sitting here on Friday night from the comfort of my leather recliner. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

In the meantime, check out Fastspot’s demo reel - it’s pretty awesome. Nice work, guys, and thanks for a great meeting today. We’re onto something big!

Garret Ohm
www.orange-element.com

I wanted to pass along a campaign that I thought was actually pretty cool from this week’s Mediapost Out to Launch column, which is written and published each week by Amy Corr. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend you go check it out here.

The campaign I like was done by one of the hottest advertising agencies in the world right now, Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B), for their client Burger King in the UK. The premise of the campaign is that there’s this big movement called “People for the Proper” that are pushing a proper breakfast. The ads feature the improper and proper way to do simple things like give a handshake and wear pants and then give a coupon for a “proper breakfast.”

My favorite part of the campaign was a fake publication that Burger King published called “Improper Magazine” that was published and inserted into another magazine. The magazine was actually a really clever ad for Burger King, and showed a bunch of paparazzi type photos of people indulging in improper breakfast practices. The publication also gave tips on how to how to enjoy a proper breakfast–mainly by enjoying a warm, delicious flame grilled bacon and egg butty (which I’m guessing in the UK means sandwich???).

Good stuff, CP+B. As usual, you’ve created advertising that breaks the traditional mold.

Garret Ohm
www.orange-element.com

Happy Monday, everyone. I just wanted to pass along a video that was recently recorded for Baltimore’s Urban Forest Project, which I previously wrote about here. Nice job, Aaron.

Garret Ohm
www.orange-element.com

Check it out:

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/02/18/evolution-of-car-logos/.

This is a pretty cool site that explains the evolution of car logos. You can see how they redeveloped the logo each time in a way that preserved some equity from the previous mark, but brough it into a more current aesthetic.

Yesterday was Orange Element Fun Day, and what an amazing day it was. We all met at the office in the morning and took care of a few client-related tasks before we loaded up the van and took off for Liberty Mountain. The drive from Baltimore, despite some traffic on 95, was much quicker than we had all anticipated. It could have just been that we were all so excited about the trip, but it definitely made us realize how easy it would be to do this whole trip over again before the end of the season!

When we arrived, we were pleased to find that there was almost nobody there. Apparently, as we were told later, a lot of the groups that had scheduled trips there had cancelled due to a storm that was expected over night last night. That was good news for us, because we didn’t wait in line the entire time there!

Once we grabbed a bite to eat, we suited up and hit the slopes. It couldn’t have been a more perfect day. We started out slow because we had to work out the kinks because some of us hadn’t ever snowboarded and the rest of us hadn’t been in a while. But after a few runs, we had it down and were ready for the big hills. I’m proud to say Aaron and I actually even eventually worked our way up to the black diamond slopes. I only ate snow a couple of times throughout the day.

It was such a fun day and I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to take a day off with the crew and recharge a bit. Thanks, Aaron, for taking us yesterday - it was a blast. We all made it out in one piece, although most of us are limping around this morning (especially Andy Bonner) due to using a few muscles we didn’t even know we had.

Here are some pictures from the fun:

Note: Some of these pics are from our friends at Fastspot.  Unfortunately, many of our pictures were on Aaron’s Blackberry and were erased when he wiped out!

Garret Ohm
www.orange-element.com

This is my first blog entry - ever.

And while I had hoped it would be a sampling of cell phone shots depicting instances of oxymoronic visual occurrences, I have decided that I cannot wait to find them; but rather, post them as they find me.

Instead, I’d like to momentarily share with all a few of my influences.

I was asked to lecture at the University of Baltimore tonight for an event put on by the Baltimore Chapter of AIGA. The lecture was the first of a three-part series on ‘The Business Side of Design’ with the evening topic being a discussion on ‘Marketing & Branding of a Design Firm’. I was followed and very nicely complimented by Brenda Foster, owner of GCFonline, a design firm with a core client base of educational institutions.

Brenda had the idea to close on heroes and influences and I agreed that it might open an interesting opportunity for the audience to leave with a few names to research.

Alas, we talked long and answered lots of questions-leaving no time to talk about our super heroes.

So, where better to mention these super heroes than here - our brand new, organically growing, collective Orange Element blog!

(Please note: the only heroes I know live in marvel or dc comics and I prefer it that way). The following list are rather inspirational, influential individuals to me and I think they all make the world a better place. Look them up sometime:

• Michael Jager, of JDK, for trademarking his “Living Brand” long before branding became an everyday word. Visit www.jdk.com.
• The late Tibor Kalman - for his perverse optimism, “type nuances and fetish for vernacular design in mass market culture.” Visit http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/medalist-tiborkalman

• Pentgram - for the business model and collaborative efforts
• Chris Rock - fearless, real, hilarious
• Beck - he will always be a lyrical genius
• My children - they lead with their imagination

If you’ve read this far, I promise that my blog entries will not all be this long, nor serious. Nonetheless, I’m excited to have the opportunity.

A special thank you to the team at Orange Element.

Aaron Moore

www.orange-element.com