Tuesdays with Media: Patriotic Compressor

For the Independence Day tweet from my office, I took a blue reciprocating compressor and spray painted an American flag on it.  The stencils I used I had to hand-cut myself and, despite never having done this sort of thing before, I think it turned out really well.

My boss, Magda, hadn't seen the finished product until this morning and when she did she was floored.  She kept saying things like "Wow!" and "That's amazing!"  Plus, even though the photo has only been online for a short time, it's the second most retweeted post we've ever had (the title holder is still the one from Valentine's Day).  Here's what the process looked like:

This was a weird project to work on, but I'm glad I did it; I had a lot of fun.

Tuesdays with Media: A Danfoss Valentine

One of the responsibility of Danfoss North America's marketing department, of which I am a member, is to increase brand awareness with our customers.  Part of that means improving product packaging and making our website more user-friendly and part of that means being more active on social media.  To help do this, every week, we meet to discuss what's planned for the week's Facebook updates and Tweets in order to fill in any gaps that may exist.  A few weeks ago, Valentine's Day was brought up and I suggested that I could take a picture of a product bent into the shape of a heart.  Magda, my boss, really liked the sound of that, so I put aside some time for the photoshoot.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a red background.  In an office where the main color is red, the closest I could find was a burgundy tablecloth (according to one of my coworkers in a different department, we have red tablecloths, but they keep disappearing).  Still I did the best I could and was able to get this out of it:

It took more work to get it in the right shape (I used a coffee mug to help make the curved top), but I'm pretty happy with the outcome.  And while the background's not the ideal color, it's still reddish, which isn't too bad.  Still, I thought I could do better, so I played around with the picture in Photoshop.

Not only did I manage to make the red more crimson, I also made the product (a thermostatic expansion valve, if you're curious) more silver-colored, making that more accurate as well.

It was fun to have something silly to do, but to my surprise, the tweet that used the final picture performed the best of all of our social media posts since we started tracking them in November.  Apparently HVACR technicians like cheesy pictures appearing in their twitter feed.

Valentine's Day is a weird day for those of us not in relationships, so I'm glad that I was able to celebrate the day in a non-romantic way.

Tuesdays with Media: Danish Art

One thing that stood out to me about Denmark was that there was art all over the place.  The hotel where I stayed had walls covered in original paintings.  The restaurant where I ate lunch on my first day was similarly be-arted.  The building where we met had paintings that predate the Renaissance.  Plus there were sculptures scattered around town.  Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of too many of them, but the pictures I do have, I'd like to share.

These first two pictures were not taken by me, as they are in the center of a couple of roundabouts on the way from Nordborg to Sønderborg (pronounced soon-dur-bore) and it's hard to take good pictures from a moving vehicle.

I like how both of these sculptures are basic shapes with a funky twist.

The rest of the pictures are Jordan originals.

This sculpture was in the center of the downtown area of Nordborg.

The plaque at the base of the statue translates to "This statue symbolizes Nordborg Castle builder Svend Grathe."

This sculpture was right across the street from the hotel at which I stayed.

"Donated by the Nordborg municipality art fund." The town places such importance on art that it has an art fund.

A bust of Mads Clausen, Danfoss' founder.

Looking back, I wish I would have taken more pictures of the art that was available.  A lot of it was terrible, but I appreciate that the Danes place such weight on works of art.

Headquarters

My final day in Denmark was more relaxed than the two previous days had been.  While there was one more meeting to attend, not everyone was present and our agenda wasn't very strict.  The meeting was also short, at least for Ritt and I, because we went on a tour of the main Danfoss office.

 

Danfoss is the second largest company in all of Denmark and is recognized through out the country.  I mention this as set up for the fact that there are multiple employees whose sole responsibility is to give guided tours.  Summertime is the busy season, but they have guest year-round.

 

Our tour began in the Mads Clausen museum, which is also the childhood home of Danfoss' founder.  The walls were covered with pictures and other interesting things.

 

Mads and his wife Bitten.



 

This ceiling was custom built by Russian POWs as part of a work-release program.

 

 



A cool looking clock.

 

After we walked around the house for a bit, we walked outside through the gardens.  Danfoss grows food and flowers that are available to all guests, free of charge.

 

The tour guide told us that this herb was a "Coca-Cola" plant. I don't know what it really is, but it did taste like Coke.

 

We then went into the original production facility, built in 1935, which focused less on the Clausen family and more on Danfoss.  (By the way, "Dan" means Danish and "foss" means river, because the first product made by the company, an expansion valve, sounded like running water.)

 

The original work clock.

 

A young Mads Clausen.

 

An original schematic for an expansion valve.

 

After quite a bit of history, we moved onto the main office, which is still use today.

 

 

While pretty to look at, the water feature and wall of living, growing plants help to regulate the building's temperature and filter the air, as well as block the smell from the fully-staffed kitchen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was one of the scariest things I've ever seen: a constantly moving elevator with no doors. You step on when the car is lined up and step off when you arrive at your floor. It's been in the building since 1955 and there have never been any accidents, but I was still nervous taking it up.

 

At the top floor is Mads Clausen's original office.  It's currently being used by his Son, Jorge, but since he wasn't using the office when we were there, we got to go inside.  There is only one way to describe it: opulent.  While the rest of the building is clearly fancy and expensive, it's to be used by everyone.  This office was built for one man.  I didn't take a picture, but the desk was made out of green, Italian marble and was heated.  Also, there was a second, smaller desk that had a chair upholstered with Zebra fur.

 

This leopard was shot by Bitten while on safari. 

 

This baby giraffe died of natural causes. 

 

 

This lion was shot by Mads while on safari.

 

After looking at what is probably the most expensive room I've ever seen, we go to look down from the top floor.

 

Don't worry: the glass I'm standing on is strong enough to support over 50 tons.

 

 

Danfoss has an impressive solar farm. 

 

As we walked down the fifteen flights of stairs, we saw several pieces of original art. This was one of them. 

 



I didn't take that many pictures of the art, but I liked this one. 

 

 Looking back up.



 

 The tour of the main office and the museum at Danfoss was really interesting.  I got to learn a lot about the company and I saw some things that really surprised me.  It was a lovely cap to the trip and enlightening experience.

Tuesdays with Media: A Whole Mess of Pictures

I was able to borrow the office camera, so I made sure that I took full advantage of it and took lots of pictures.

Flying over the Chesapeake.

I don't know what kind of berries these are, I was just trying to be artistic.

I saw many houses that had thatch roofs.

A closer look.

About a third of what passed for the "downtown" of the town in which I stayed.

"Apotek" translates to "drugstore," though I think "apothecary" is probably closer.

According to the sign, this boarding school has four main emphases: science, art, extreme, and performance.

I liked the look of the flower in focus in the foreground and the spire out of focus in the background.

A closer look at the school's spire.

A plaque just inside the school -- I didn't know that it was a high school up to this point. After reading this, I left.

"Bibliotekshaven" translates to "library garden." Must be some Latin influence on the language...

The hotel at which I stayed.

The only "selfie" I took.

While I was there for business, my colleagues and I did go on a walk through the woods.

"Vej" (pronounced "vay") means "road" or "way."

This variety of rose was created specifically for Bitten Clausen, the wife of the founder of Danfoss, who recently celebrated her 103rd birthday.

There are more pictures that I took, but I want to sprinkle some of them into other posts, so you'll have to wait before you get to see some more.

I mostly took pictures of stuff that I thought was cool or pretty, but there were a few that I tried to experiment a little.  I hope you enjoyed the first look of Denmark; come back tomorrow for more.