It’s April 11th, and we’ve gathered in a cozy wine studio for our agency’s annual meeting. It’s time to review last year’s financial results, present 25 slides full of numbers and statistics, conduct a self-analysis, set goals, gossip about competitors, and so on. It’s all part of our yearly routine, helping us understand where we are and where we’re headed. Yet, amidst all this Keynote-ing, PowerPoint-ing, and Excel-ing, we see fatigue setting in on faces, eyes wandering to phones and cookies on the table, and frequent restroom breaks. Even the delicious food from Sfäär doesn’t manage to make accounting questions more attractive. Eventually, once the obligatory topics are covered, we reach the final phase, and the opening of the post-meeting wine is within reach.
Suddenly, people’s eyes light up again as we dive into existential discussions about the meaning of life and our identity. The question arises: what recognizable element could visually unite us as a great team? We have orange logoed scarves in a box in the office corner, but those are only fit for summer camp-themed events. We made logoed shirts with our motto once, but half of them are probably lost, shrunk in the wash, or have come to work after the shirt distribution time. And does the motto on the chest even make sense today… We also have pens with our logo, but we can’t seem to hold them together for long enough to create a sense of unity. Everyone is excited, eager to show off cool photos and examples of their favorite accessories and clothing items that Google suggests, believing each one to be THE PERFECT visual element for our team.
On the table, there are branded sneakers, bibs, parkas, t-shirts, ringtones, USB sticks, caps, and blazers, but one item stands out more than the others: a black sweatshirt. It’s nice and warm for the Estonian climate; casual yet somewhat formal when needed; neutral enough and cool enough that everyone is willing to wear it. Everyone votes in favor, and the black sweatshirt is embraced as the unifying piece of our team. But what should we print on it? After all, everyone should immediately recognize that this is an Orangetime person, because it’s clearly of great interest to them! NOT! This time, we’re not doing that. We won’t print yet another branded item that ends up being unwanted because the orange color doesn’t match my hair color or lipstick. We are Orangetime internally, and those who know and care will see it from the outside. The sweatshirt is for us and only us. Simply, if we’re all wearing it at the same time, you might start suspecting we’re siblings or that we work at the same company. That’s why we gave the AW Stuff team creative freedom and asked them to design a picture for our sweatshirt. We appreciate awesome Estonian creators and humor and try not to take ourselves too seriously. In the end, we got our cute sweatshirts from the print, so look for us in the cityscape! Yay!Why We Didn’t Make Sweatshirts with the Orangetime Logo