During my recent vacation I stayed at a campground in a quaint little town called Seaville, New Jersey. Seaville is in a cool location in between a number of popular tourist destinations like Avalon, Stone Harbor, Sea Isle City, Atlantic City, Ocean City and Wildwood. We visited each of these towns during our trip, but my favorite by far had to be Wildwood (ok, I’ll plug the town’s Website, but it’s almost impossible to stomach for more than a few seconds - you’ll see)…

I had never been there before, but I was amazed at what I saw in this town. It was seemingly stuck back in time. My first hint was the Wawa we drove past on our way to the boardwalk - it was unlike any Wawa I had ever seen:

After passing this Wawa I started paying closer attention to the stores and businesses in the town. I started noticing that many had a similar retro or throwback design. Some of the signs were incredible. Here are some of the other sights I saw:

After coming home I immediately went online to research this town to find out the deal. I had certainly never seen or heard of anything like this - nearly a whole town that has gone retro. In my research, I found this: The Doo Wop Preservation League.

Apparently, the town of Wildwood has put together a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate the public about and preserve elements of the popular culture and imagery of the 1950s and 1960s–the so called “Doo Wop” era. As someone who has always been a fan of vintage design, I was in love.

I was really excited to see some of the really cool vintage hotels and motels of Wildwood (those were my favorite). But it was great also to see some of the national retail chains participating as well: Subway, Wawa, and Harley Davidson to name a few. As a child of the 1980s it was interesting to get a peek at what these brands might have looked like before my time.

To me, these designs have so much personality. Much more than so many of the signs and storefronts we see in modern-day America. These retro brands give me comfort for some strange reason. Perhaps it’s the association of the 50s and 60s with a time when life was simpler, slower and less besieged by capitalism? Who knows…

Having this experience and being able to digest it for a while makes me think that I’d love to see more of this style (something that really defined Wildwood in my mind) in the tourism marketing for the town. Before my trip I honestly had no idea about this unique characteristic, and that just means they haven’t done a great job of building that brand over time. Am I just living in the dark?

You’re welcome to browse more for yourself HERE.

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

Hi all - I’m just getting settled in after returning from a long vacation (more to come on this later) but I thought I’d pass along some cool graphic eye candy for you to look at courtesy of the artist and his model.

If you have a spare moment, I highly recommend checking out the artist’s Web site at: http://yehrin.proteinos.com/.  Thanks, Sarah!

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com

To continue our topic of the Olympics I ran across an article that explains Beijing’s pledge to use Renewable Energy for the Olympics. The article points out how they are using wind power for 20% of the electricity supply for the events, solar power to light 80 to 90% of the street lamps, biogas to heat 90% of the bathing water and two new incineration plants will generate 250 million kilowatt-hours of energy annually. If you have been watching the games, chances are you’ve seen one of GE’s ecomagination ads. Check it out here:

Also, since this is a design blog, I have included the environmental logo for the event. To learn about more of the design elements that went into this large Beijing event check out the Olympic torch relay page for an Olympic style guide. The site talks about the carefully considered design that went into the “brand” of this years Olympics from the design of the stadium, which is laden with symbolism beyond first impressions, down to the design of the event postage stamps, tickets and mascots. We were amazed to find that the experience of the opening ceremony did not stop at the performance or visual elements but even the environment was considered and manipulated through the process of cloud seeding used to hold back the rain on the night of the event that we saw pouring down on the cyclists the next morning! Supposedly, they say, this is friendly to the environment too… 

We’re learning how to drive less! CNN reports:

Overall, Americans drove 53.2 billion fewer miles November through June than they did over the same eight-month period a year earlier, according to the highway agency’s latest monthly report on driving. That’s a larger decline than the 49.3 billion fewer miles driven by Americans over the entire decade of the 1970s, a period marked by oil embargoes and gas lines, the agency said.

Americans drove 12.2 billion fewer miles this June than in last June.
It’s a start! Read the rest here.

I think I’ll walk to the grocery store tonight. And use my reusable bags (which are worth every penny…you should check them out!).

Have you replaced any of your driving-errands with walking-errands lately?

Sarah Rosenthal
Orange-Element.com

It’s Monday, and aside from missing our favorite blogger and marketing director, Garret, the first thing we all had to talk about was how amazed we were after seeing the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony Friday night. If you haven’t seen it yet - there aren’t many videos that do it justice online yet but here’s a Dutch video that gives an idea. It’s hard to find words to describe the visual power of mass participants as the 2,008 performers created a human kaleidoscope on our screens. Take a look and most likely you will find yourself dropping your jaw in amazement as we were.

Check back this week for some noteworthy design highlights that went into the 2008 Olympics.

Happy Friday all. It’s beautiful today here in Baltimore - no humidity, sun, breeze, etc. A great day from start to finish - especially since we’ve had a visitor in the studio…

I brought Layla to work today. She’s been on her best behavior all day, and got a great tour of the Inner Harbor at lunchtime. She even did some client work…and then she ate it.

Check her out in all her glory. I <3 her.

Garret Ohm
http://www.orange-element.com