Taking our own advice, we set out to create a set of posters featuring these ideas, and to do that, we partnered with Baltimore Print Studios. We made several trips to their studio to learn the intricacies of letterpress printing and setting old-fashioned wood type, and everyone on our team had a hand in printing some of the final posters. We chose to screenprint each statement’s poster with a different colored background, then hand-set wood type specific to each design. The combination of the two printing techniques is something we grew to love very quickly!

Below are some images taken throughout the process of creating these posters, as well as a look at the final product. A special thank you to Kyle Van Horn and Kim Bentley of Baltimore Print Studios for having us in their studio and introducing us to such an amazing process!

AND, for a chance to win your very own limited edition Orange Element “Work Smarter” poster, simply fill out this form between Friday, October 7th, and Friday October 14th. Good luck!

UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed, but thanks to all of you who entered. Keep on the lookout for more exciting things to come.

Andy
www.orange-element.com

Tonight is the night! Come on down to The Windup Space at 7pm for a screening of the film Lemonade and the kick-off of the Second Shore Film Series!

Orange Element is very pleased to be a sponsor of tonight’s screening, brought to Baltimore and presented by Second Shore, the new public programming series created by Slant Six and the Contemporary Museum. Also, thank you to our co-sponsors, Novak Birch and Vitamin, for their assistance in making this event possible.

Following the film, a team member from Orange Element will join a panel discussion to talk about how the 2009 economic downturn affected work, ideas and the local creative community as a whole. Most importantly, we’ll talk about the future of ideas, innovation and what is exciting to us (and you).

For more information on the event, visit www.secondshore.com. And check out the trailer above!

Location:
The Windup Space
Baltimore’s Station North Arts & Entertainment District
12 West North Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21201-5904

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
Doors open at 7 pm
The event is free (an $8 donation is encouraged to help defray costs)

We’ve blogged about Paper Specs in the past, and we’re doing it again! Visit their website to download a free e-book on 19 ways to trim paper costs. If you have any additional tips, please share them.

ande
www.orange-element.com

This morning I ran across a similar challenge that shares the goal of testing the spontaneous, creative capabilities of our minds and our hands. Brock Davis is a Mineapolis-based artist and musician who decided to start a project called “Make Something Cool Everyday” and in his project he did exactly that. Below are just a few of the things he created and you can see more of his work here. If you are ever feeling like you’ve fallen into a creative slump maybe give a challenge like this a try, you might be surprised what you come up with.

—EJ
www.orange-element.com

With last week’s record-setting snow storm in Baltimore, everyone in the city was pretty much snowed in and out of luck when it came to heading down to the office. Orange Element didn’t skip a beat thanks to Dropbox, a FREE cross-platform, cloud-based application used to store, sync, and, share files online.

We were able to collaborate and share files with ease, just as if we were sitting at our desks! I highly recommend you give Dropbox a try, whether for work or just for fun. It makes working from home easy, and you can store any type of file on your Dropbox, create photo galleries, and even give out links for people to access files, or a public section of your Dropbox. If you have an iPhone, you can view and share files right from your phone with their iPhone application!

If you have any other helpful applications that would come in handy during the next snow storm, let us know in the comments! In the meantime, head on over to their website and give Dropbox a try!

Andy
www.orange-element.com

Orange Element is very proud to announce the start of a new brand identity for our friends and colleagues at Maryland Art Place (MAP). Established in 1981, MAP is a not-for-profit center for contemporary art that energizes encounters between artists and the public through networking, educational leadership and outreach.

MAP averages eight amazing exhibitions annually in their downtown Baltimore gallery space, organizes traveling exhibitions, maintains a regional visual artists’ registry and offers a spectrum of educational and performance opportunities to thousands of participants throughout the year.

We are very pleased to be working with MAP’s team, towards creating an identity that will connect MAP to an even broader community.

Introducing metaMAP…

And now for the fun: Through February 10, MAP is accepting logo proposals for metaMAP,their new public art project series. Visit their web site today and submit your best ideas. If your design is selected, you’ll have the chance to see your logo positioned to announce some pretty amazing projects around town.

Visit MAP today to download the details.

And visit MAP Downtown at:
8 Market Place
Baltimore, MD 21202-4015
(410) 962-8565

Well… we’re just about a month into the new year and we want to ask ”how have you started off your year?”

This year at Orange Element we have kicked off 2010 with the theme of starting fresh. A fresh year, a fresh decade, a fresh attitude towards a year full of fresh new creative ideas! That “01″ date on the calendar offers a refreshing starting point — but a motived attitude is something that can be adopted any day of the year! Taking a first step in a fresh direction may give you the feeling of conquer all power in the start, but it’s the carry-through and continuation that matters. Start fresh, continue strong and finish stronger into 2011! 

So now it’s up to you, here are a few freebie wallpapers to remind you to start your day fresh every time you look at your computer. Enjoy!

1024×768 orange background (standard)
1680×1050 orange background (widescreen)

1024×768 green background (standard)
1680×1050 green background (widescreen)

—EJ
www.orange-element.com

Penguin Classics has created a series of clothbound novels, designed by Illustrator Coralie Bickford-Smith. Each book in the series is a true work of art, and is bound in an elegant colored bookcloth and stamped with a one-color foil stamp of a pattern inspired by the work within. Penguin is already on it’s second series of these books after the success of the first. Available from Anthropologie and other stores nationwide. Also, check out some more of the artist’s work on her website.

Andy
www.orange-element.com

Until then, enjoy a Font Hour themed Freebie!

1024×768 (standard)
1680×1050 (widescreen)

The MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) Art Market is a venue for the sale of original artwork and handcrafted pieces created by more then 250 students, faculty, staff and alumni. The event, which lasts for four days, is a perfect opportunity for holiday shoppers and helps to provide funding for need-based student scholarships. Some of the works you can look forward to seeing include illustrations, prints, posters, paintings, sculptures, photographs, mosaics, stationery, T-shirts, ceramics, jewelry, textiles, book arts, tote bags, letterpressed gift tags, screen printed wrapping paper and much, much more.

Vendors will be accepting: Visa, MasterCard, cash & check.

Admission to the market is FREE.

Make sure to stop by the Graphic Design tables at their new location on the 2nd Floor to see works by current & previous Orange Element interns, Nicolette (me) & Jasmine.

Hope to see you there!!

Nicolette