If you’ve driven by our office in the past few months you may have noticed some changes happening to our storefront. This summer we put our intern, Irene, in charge of wrangling vendors and measuring dimensions to get the project underway. Here is a sneak peak at the process.

Left: The original storefront… and even on a gloomy day to set the tone.

Right: Irene used newspaper to decide on dimensions and plan the layout for the storefront. Here we are reviewing.

Above: Our sign was the first thing to go up. We really wanted a rusted and worn metal sign of our logo that would relate to the historic nature of the home but would also stand out as something modern and unique. The initial wearing/rusting of the metal was done by hand and the patterns of rust are expected to change as it weathers further. 
 

Above: Next we added plants to liven up the inside of the conference room and had Severn Graphics cut a san serif letter pattern of frosted glass for the lower quarter of the window.

Left: A sneak peak at the big finish… more to come soon.

There are a few more stages to complete our storefront and we plan on finishing in the next few weeks. So far we have had positive reactions to the improvements and have definitely made a mark on our corner of Fells Point. Keep checking back over the next few weeks for more photos as the project progresses and there may even be another giveaway in order once the final pieces are in place… hint… hint.

Nicolas Terry is a psychotherapist by trade, but an origami master by craft. The Frenchman has a slight twist on constructing traditional origami. Instead of using text or cover weight sheets, he takes metal-coated paper and adds an outside layer of tissue paper to both sides. After constructing new, free-form shapes, Terry analyzes deconstructed versions and then draws diagrams for others to emulate. He has written several books so check them out: http://www.origami-shop.com/terry-nicolas-m-10.html

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Through these economic times, one trend in advertising that we have seen surface is the attempt to communicate a message of either support, “we’re there with you”, or longevity, “we’re not going anywhere”. We saw some of these ads surface after last year’s super bowl such as Saturn’s Total Confidence Ads.

News stories point to a nearing end of this recession and the possibility that we may have escaped a full blown depression but I wanted to throw one more ad out there that I ran across this morning. Take a look:

This Barclays ad was directed by Nicolai Fuglsig of Venables Bell & Partners, an independent San Francisco based advertising agency.  I love how they first empathize with their audience’s uncertain state of mind and bring to surface the potential state of panic many of us may have been secretly feeling while trying to keep our cool.  

The transformation of a typical evening environment at a bar to a stage set where everyone is a mannequin, every object a prop and every building and space an illusion speaks as a powerful metaphor to the reality we have been facing over the past several months. His panicked reaction is one that many can relate to as our comfortable understanding of day-to-day conduct of business has suddenly been flipped on its head. When one thing went wrong, we were all (and I feel still are) a little shocked time after time when we listened to the news and questioned how much further it would go.

The concluding message of Barclays as a “more substantial” answer in a time of uncertainty is a strong one, even when the ad is played with the sound off. I love how the Barclays employee nonchalantly offers his assistance, as though nothing is different and they continue on with business untouched. What do you think? Any other good ones you’ve seen?

Happy Friday!

—EJ
www.orange-element.com 

This week’s Freebie Friday comes from the photos I took at Globe. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Click a link below for a downloadable image of the desktop wallpaper:

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1680×1050 Widescreen

Irene

Remember those sweet screenprinted pinball posters we gave away last year for the five year party? Ever since having them printed we have promised ourselves a trip to see where the magic takes place at Globe printing and last week we finally got the chance to go behind the scenes and experience the hands on excitement of screenprinting.

The shop was founded in 1929 and is now run by three brothers, Bob, Frank and Joseph Jr. Cicero who took over the business from their father, Joseph Cicero Sr., in the 1960’s. Since then, they have been producing screenprinted and letterpressed posters and signs for musicians, performers, and clients all over the country.

I didn’t notice how big their shop really was until Bob and Jasmine Sarp (a former Orange Element intern), took us to the back of their shop. It was incredible to see the amount of letters and equipment that they have–they could very well start a museum of wood type alone. One of their letterpresses dates back to the 1920’s, and it is one of the largest presses in the mid-Atlantic, able to print up to 40’’x 60’’ posters. They also do a lot of screenprinting manually at smaller sizes, so for some who have never used a squeegee and a screen before, it takes a lot of time and effort to produce a large quantity of prints. However, the results are great, and the ink applied onto a surface looks incredibly vibrant and rich. A lot of their posters have hand-drawn type, halftoned images and blocks of colors behind the images which create a vintage look. Vintage posters for acts such as Parliament Funkadelic and Marvin Gaye are great examples of the “Globe Poster” style. I am looking forward to see more designers work with Globe in the future to revive the woodtype and letterpressed style.