I think I found out where Orange Element will be taking its next company trip. We’re going to go to Amsterdam on April 30, 2009 for Koninginnedag, which translated into English means Queen’s Day. Ok, maybe not, but it does look like a lot of fun–An orange holiday.

Read more about the holiday HERE. And check out some sweet pictures below. Thanks to How About Orange for bringing this awesome, orange holiday to our attention. It’s definitely something we should know about!

Orange is cool.

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

To my amazement, I happen to be the main character in this book, Search For The Shadowman. Here’s a brief description:

“What starts out as a simple family-history project turns into an obsessive hunt for the truth behind an old family feud. Andy Bonner is determined to get to the bottom of a mystery involving an ancestor who had supposedly stolen his parents’ money and been disowned.”

So there you go–and if you want to buy it, it’s available on Amazon for $5.50. Hurry–they’re going fast!

Andy

Aaaah, the power of interactive media. Have you seen this site?

www.barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com.

How about this one? www.hillaryismomjeans.com.

I’m thinking they were clearly done by a Barack supporter, but either way they are hilarious. The Hillary one actually allows you to submit your own versions. Here’s my favorite from the Obama site, even though unfortunately it’s not true (yet):

Garret Ohm
www.orange-element.com

And for the second T-shirt-related post of the day….Thanks to our good friend Melissa Franko from The Brick Companies for passing along this story that I somehow missed. It’s an article from Brandweek that discusses a new product from Coke. They, like many of the companies in the drink category that bottle their beverages with plastic, have been getting beaten up by environmental groups for clogging the nation’s landfills.

Their solution to this problem is a new line of apparel that is made of recycled plastic bottles. While this doesn’t conjure up pictures of comfort, I imagine with technological refinements available they’ll end up being silky smooth. I hadn’t heard of this approach before, but it makes a lot of sense. The oddest material I had heard of for T-shirt production to this point was bamboo. Bamboo shirts, like from companies like http://www.bamboosa.com/, are apparently silky smooth in texture (who would have guessed) and since bamboo replenishes itself insanely fast, are also a sustainable choice.

Now, the question is, can we buy blank Coke bottle shirts in bulk and silkscreen our own designs on them? I’d be glad to co-brand the shirts Orange Element and Coke??

I love threadless. There are so many good tees. If you need a few originals for the summer, check them! The above is a sample of one I like - cool owl. This one is by Chow Hon Lam.

Aaron Moore
www.orange-element.com

This one’s for you, Beth. I just wanted to pass along this site full of brilliance: http://logobama.com/

Regardless of your political affiliation/preferences, you have to hand it to Barack Obama–he understands the role of good design and strong brands in politics! What better way to get involved than to be literally PART of the brand? The site is great, and gives you the opportunity to upload your custom logo directly to Flickr, Twitter, Digg, Linkedin, Youtube, Myspace, Facebook, etc….

Garret Ohm
www.orange-element.com