Every once in a while something that I have probably seen 5,000 times but never noticed catches my attention. That’s exactly what happened to me just recently when I opened an Adobe PDF document on my office computer. Here is what I saw:

The design of this ‘welcome’ screen irritates me. What is the deal with the jumping man? The jumping man definitely doesn’t set a very good tone for the Adobe brand in my opinion - a brand that is supposed to be on the forefront of high technology! The Adobe Guy looks like clip art from the 1980s gone wrong…

On second thought, why must we see this opening screen at all when I open a PDF? Do I need to know all of the patents? I could think of many other things that I’d rather see in the few seconds it takes to open a PDF document…

For what it’s worth, I downloaded Adobe Reader 8 and the new welcome screen looks like this:

MUCH better design, Adobe! Simple works, and sets a tone that inspires confidence…I’m glad they fixed this so we no longer had to be assaulted with the atrocity that was the “Adobe Guy.”

Images courtesy of vincentarsenault.wordpress.com and debianadmin.com.

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

As you can see at the bottom of the navigation at right we now have the ability to add a poll to our sweet blog. This week’s poll touches on something that I think about quite a lot. At Orange Element, we’ve always had this dream of developing our own custom designed product line. But not just any custom designed product line - one in which we are able to sell the products for profit, a portion of which would then be given directly to a charity or group of charities in our community.

We’re still in the initial stages of brainstorming how we could make it work, but it’s a very exciting thought for us. The opportunity to both help humanity while creating a tangible product that represents us and allows people to interact with our brand in a whole new way is very appealing to us.

So please, weigh in on the poll. Let us know what you’d be interested in. If you have other ideas or thoughts about this potential venture, please shoot them to me via email at garret [at] orange-element [dot] com.

My vote? Oh, I’m glad you asked! I cannot wait until we can do a limited-edition run of Orange Element designed Moleskines. I’m still researching the actual process of customization of the graphics and production, but I can definitely see it being a great icebreaker for new business meetings! The best part, which is great for lefties like me is that it opens completely flat. Previously the only option I had for taking notes in meetings where those stuffy leather portfolios that you’d expect an accountant to be bringing to a meeting. And that’s definitely not me…

In the meantime, I just ordered this limited-edition Plaid Moleskine. One of only 50 ever made! I can’t wait for it to get here.

Garret Ohm
www.orange-element.com

Thanks to Beth Brady for designing the May version of the Orange Element Insights header. It looks amazing. I never thought I’d look so dashing as an astronaut petting my dog sporting “The Jessica.”

Good work as usual, Beth!

Garret Ohm
www.orange-element.com

I thought everyone here at the Orange Element office would be able to relate to these prints…mainly because of my poster obsession! They are a set by artist Ian Millard and the title is “Good Day/Great Day”. In case you haven’t figured out the message, it’s always a good day when the mail carrier brings a poster tube to the office–but some days are GREAT days, and that’s when they are carrying so many poster tubes that they can barely make it up the stairs!! For more details on this set (Now Sold Out), visit the product page. Happy collecting!

Nearly a year ago, The US Department of Energy asked us to create a Myspace Page for their Solar Decathlon competition. In addition, we also volunteered at the event and further realized what an important cause we were working for. Shortly after the competition, we also created a Myspace Page for the Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Program and their H2IQ initiative. Have you seen them? Well, they will soon undergo some updates, so be on the lookout for some changes! Feel free to poke around on both pages, as there are a wealth of links, videos, photos, podcasts, PDFs, and much much more to educate you on renewable energy. Bookmark away–and pass the links along to your friends!

http://www.myspace.com/solardecathlon07

http://www.myspace.com/h2iq

Yesterday was a really exciting day for our crew at Orange Element. It was the inaugural monthly Font Hour. Font Hour was an idea of Aaron’s in which we each vote on a Font that we’d like to see added to our collection.

Each team member was asked to bring an idea for a font they’d like, including information on the typeface designer, origin, context, display set, pairings, cost, etc. At the end, a vote was held and the winning typeface was chosen: Freight Micro by Joshua Darden. You can read all about Freight Micro HERE. It’s going to make a great addition to our collection and should really enhance some of the designs we are able to produce here in our design studio.

As is the case with many inaugural events, we did have one new rule added to the mix mid-event. We decided that typefaces that we all love of that are under $25 are eligible for purchase in addition to the winning typeface. Such was the case for 58 Rodeo from Baseline Fonts. You can read about it HERE.

The highlights of the other contenders for this month’s Font Hour included:

Herald Gothic
FF Meta Serif
P22 Underground

Here’s what the scene looked like yesterday:

Stay tuned for next month’s font hour recap.

Garret Ohm
www.orange-element.com