I am a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell books. Having read the Tipping point and Blink, I was excited to find his latest release “Outliers” traveling back from one of my recent promotional products trade shows. He delivers many insightful accounts, including one of the Chinese rice farmers of the 15th century. He describes their work as particularly meaningful and entrepreneurial. “They weren’t just planting in the spring and harvesting in the fall, they autonomously ran their own small businesses – renting the best land they could find, juggling the family workforce, hedging uncertainty with hearty seed selection, building and maintaining sophisticated irrigation systems, and coordinating the complicated process of harvesting the first crop while simultaneously preparing the next”. Sounds a lot like the challenges and rewards we face at Bloomin!

In Outliers, Gladwell talks about how today’s very best hockey and soccer players are people who are not only talented and work hard but they also benefit from weird and peculiar ways in which their world is organized. I am certain the Outlier phenomenon occurs within many of our own key people, and has been instrumental in our ability to pen our own “Story of Success”. A good read, as are all of his books.

Don Martin

These girls are the sunshine of my life!

- Tom Noyes

This place can be quiet a 8am. It's like a blank canvas this time of day.

This is what it looks like later in the day.

I love what these guy have achieved here. They put their money where their mouth is. It is not cheap to build a commercial building with the level of environmental ethics that these guys have demonstrated, especially in Boulder. Here is what they say about this on their website.

“We are proud to be Boulder’s newest and most energy efficient climbing and fitness facility. A combination of ample daylighting thanks to Jim Logan Architects design, solar panels and solar thermal heaters fromLighthouse Solar providing over 80% of our energy, and high-quality, efficient building materials and practices from Harrington Homes and Costen LLC have helped to create one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly commercial buildings in the country.”

Reading their story in our local newspaper was a catalyst to setting up solar power on our roof. Much of our power will soon come directly from the sun, hopefully by the end of the year.

-Tom Noyes

The University of Phoenix has gone green.

Check out the letterpress printed detail and all the seeds in this image.

This is how the letterpress printing looks on the inside.

Like many of our customers, The University of Phoenix wants what they want and we get them what they want. We don’t offer this card in this exact configuration, but special orders don’t upset us. Bring ‘em on! Some of our best formats have developed from customer ideas – thank you very much. For promotional ideas, come to Bloomin Promotions and see what we offer.

Here is a card showing silver ink.

If you’re thinking of a custom seeded holiday card this season, talk to your trusty promotional product distributor soon.

-Tom Noyes

You asked for it, and now we’ve got it! Small batch 4-color print runs on custom seed papers (including parsley, chives, basil, grass, carrots, lettuce, and more) are now available! Of course we can always letterpress print on any of our papers with 1 or 2 colors for that old world debossed look.

We continue to find new and better ways of doing things! Innovation is alive and well at Bloomin’ and remains the secret to our 16 years of growth.

Our NEWEST Printable Seed Paper

carrot seed paper

We made this paper for a promotion this spring. It was a 2″ x 3.5″ orange seed paper card embedded with carrot seeds and letterpressed with black soy ink. You gotta love the old-world debossed look that the letterpress stamps in the the seed paper. A couple of months later we see the photo below come through. We love seeing our paper grow even more than we like to look at it and touch it.

carrot sprouts

Here is a cool project we recently did for Clorox. We produced 120,000 pieces in less than 3 weeks time along with everything else we do here. It’s a twist in our regular PP product (4 x 5 two-part postcard). The card was printed on Mohawk 100% recycled cardstock made with wind-energy. The green wildflower seed paper was handmade here in Boulder, Colorado. Like always, Bloomin’s paper has the highest germination rate in the industry (this paper will grow like mad!). Guaranteed!

Upon receiving their business cards printed directly onto our handmade seed paper, they immediately planted the card and watched with admiration as the paper started sprouting after a few short days. We’re so pleased with their satisfaction and would like to say thank you for your business!

Take a look at the pic they sent us.

Photo taken by A Wild Lens Photography ©

It was a successful eco-product for the popular Cheerios brand cereal—and for Bloomin’ Promotions, as well. Here are a few pictures of the box itself and  how it looked on the supermarket shelves.