Aaron and I were invited by our good friends at The Brick Companies to attend the sponsor’s dinner for the Akridge Save The Bay Classic to benefit the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. It was an absolutely amazing event, held at the Phillip Merrill Environmental Center, which is the headquarters location for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. It’s just an amazing building that has set the standard for sustainable workplaces with features like geothermal walls, natural ventilation, solar panels, insulated panels, rooftop barrels, composting toilets, a bioretention system, and even more. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

This is the inaugural Save The Bay Classic, but by the looks of the event last night you would never know. The presentation was amazing, and I really learned some great things about the efforts many organizations are making to do sustainable business. Among the speakers was Will Baker, the executive director of the CBF, Ed Allenby, the director of development of the CBF, an executive from Akridge, Ron Dodson, the founder of Audobon International and Lex Birney, the CEO of The Brick Companies.

Each of these folks had a lot of great things to say, both about the role the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is playing in saving the national treasure that is the Bay, as well as how important this golf tournament is in that effort–both in raising money, but as Will Baker said it also helps to spread the word of their cause out into the public. And it’s amazingly fitting that they chose Queenstown Harbor as a location for the tournament. That is, after all one of the most sustainable golf courses in this region. It has also recently been certified by Audobon International as a cooperative sanctuary.

Unfortunately Aaron and I couldn’t be there for the tournament today due to other commitments, but we’re definitely going to play next year. Actually, if all goes well, we could even be helping CBF with their tournament marketing materials and more next year! After all, they ARE one of our dream clients!

Garret Ohm
www.orange-element.com

*Photo courtesy of the CBF Web site.

For some clients, we do everything and anything. The Brick Companies is one of those clients. We weren’t surprised when they called us and asked us to design a poster for placement at their golf courses, marinas and headquarters location advertising their Easter Egg Hunt event.

I think the concept came out really nicely, and for some reason every time I look at it, I crack up.

Garret Ohm
www.orange-element.com

Everyone should make time to check out one of the best events of its kind to ever hit the East Coast. Sweet: The Graphic Beauty of the Contemporary Rock Poster is a 2-month long Rock Poster exhibition at the Art Gallery at the University of Maryland. The show features twenty-nine of the leading artists/groups of silk-screened contemporary rock posters, on view Wednesday, February 6 through Saturday, March 29, 2008. Artist & Illustrator Jesse LeDoux has created a site-specific installation in the back gallery that displays the versatility of the screen printing technique, and artist Tim Gough has created unique signage for the exhibition utilizing silk-screening and other media applied directly to the walls. The opening was a hit, with a HUGE turnout, and the opening-day poster sale, “Sweet Booth”, was just that…sweet!!

To find out more about the exhibition, visit the Sweet website!

Images courtesy of the Art Gallery at the University of Maryland.

Andy Bonner
www.orange-element.com

Motor Trend came to Baltimore this past weekend for their annual International Auto Show so I went to check it out as I normally do. I really went for dual purposes - partially as a car enthusiast, and partly as someone who is fascinated by the marketing power of a consumer show like this. Some of my Orange Element team members couldn’t make it, so I took it as my duty to observe and report, as well as collect some of the bazillion collateral materials put out by the exhibitors of the show.

The show itself was pretty cool. Just about every manufacturer had representation from the Maryland area dealers and some even had manufacturers representatives present to give consumers the “pitch” about why their make and model was better than the next. As far as I’m concerned, the highlights of the show included a really cool robotics presentation by Ford and an over-the-top trade show display by Scion. I’m not a huge fan of their cars (I’m too old), but they really blew it away with the presentation. I liked the Jeep concept vehicle that was there, too.

One of the things that struck me at this show was the amount of waste generated in the auto industry. This is an industry that for years has been the subject of a lot of controversy for producing vehicles that guzzle gas an pollute the environment. But I was shocked at how many manufacturers freely gave out product collateral to anyone (like me) that wanted to toss it in their bag. And it’s not just a simple brochure with some basic information and pictures of the cars. Instead it’s HUGE product catalogs, some of which are upwards of 30 and 40 pages long.

I started to really notice this and at one point stood near a kiosk for Ford and watched people come up and take a product catalog without even looking at it and toss it into their bag, most likely to never look at it again. Had it been a small catalog with 10 pages or so, I wouldn’t have even noticed, but this was a pretty huge catalog and if you figure they gave away probably 30,000 of them, it’s a significant waste. Now multiply that by each car manufacturer and other company that was there and the number has to be huge.

You’re probably asking yourself, “why is a design + communications firm that does a whole heck of a lot of print work criticizing the use of print materials?” Well, I’m not really - there will always be a place for tangible print materials in a capitalistic society. I’m just saying wouldn’t the world be great if some of these manufacturers could scale down their trade show offerings and give consumers only enough information to pique their interest? This would allow consumers to investigate further at their own pace.

Some manufacturers, however, had other ways to get the job done. I was really impressed with Mercedes Benz in this year’s show. They had a rather large amount of space in the Convention Center, but notably absent was any print collateral materials. While their display was beautiful, they forewent the brochures and replaced them with credit card sized cards that invited guests to “Discover more about our newest stars” via a link to MBUSA.com/models. You can even request a brochure or more information on this site. I think it’s a very smart use of marketing materials that saves a lot of trees. I have to give credit to Saturn also for using a unique format for its brochure as well as printing on FSC Certified paper.

Ok - that’s about it for now. Thanks for reading my little summary. As a reward, here’s a picture of one of my favorite cars ever - the Porsche 911 (993).

Garret Ohm
www.orange-element.com

Hi all,

Last night was the Advertising Association of Baltimore’s NSTLOD show at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson. It was a really fun event. This year we had tons of people submit entries, which was a nice switch from last year. I think we had over 40 pieces of creative total including print ads, collateral pieces, posters, logo designs, Web sites and other 3-D designs. Compared to last year’s six entries, it was a massive success.

Orange Element did the creative for the event, but we also entered a couple of pieces of creative, one of which actually won honorable mention. It was one of the concepts for Matt Mendelson, a DC-based photographer, that we’ve done quite a bit of work for, including creating his brand and sales materials.

Garret Ohm
www.orange-element.com

p.s. Thanks and a quick shout to Sawmill Marketing, our friends that came by to visit with us yesterday. They are excellent PR practicioners, and are bridging the gap between traditional public relations and today’s social media and content integration-rich world. Make sure to go visit their blog HERE.