On July 29th, 2021, DMC celebrated its 25th anniversary! We wanted to celebrate in our offices and of course, we had to come up with a theme. We considered a silver theme as a nod to our 25th anniversary or a '90s nostalgia theme since DMC was founded in 1996 (Beanie Babies and Boyz II Men anyone?). While we love a throwback, we decided to reflect more on what’s currently happening for many of us. After over a year of separation and isolation, we’re so happy to be able to see each other again. And what better embodies that idea than a “homecoming” theme?
A homecoming would not be complete without a spirit week leading up to it. We invited all our offices to join in on “DMC Spirit Week” with themed days and after-work Activity Fund events.
Monday - School Spirit Day
At DMC, our first core value is to hire smart people. That's why in order to kick off our spirit week, we invited our colleagues to bring out their best college apparel and gear. While we can't conclusively say that Notre Dame had the most people repping the Fighting Irish, we can definitely say we saw the most Notre Dame clothing. We saw some friendly in-state rivalries between Rose-Hulman and Purdue. Even those who might have forgotten to dress us for the day came up with some expert solutions so their schools weren't left out.
No question where Aaron of DMC Chicago went to school
In-state rivalry, but friendly coworkers
Jamie and Nola showing some Tulane University pride
Nice substitute for a Rice University shirt
You don't have a shirt from college? You're not at the office? Don't worry, DMC Boston can fix that!
Tuesday – ‘90s Day
If you're following Gen-Z fashion trends, the ‘90s are coming back. So, I guess DMC became really fashionable on Tuesday when we had a ‘90s throwback. DMC Denver reminded us to never forget the glory days of cassette tapes and floppy disks. DMC Boston had some celebrity visitors from the hit ‘90s show Rocket Power (woogity woogity woogity). And finally, be sure to check out DMC Chicago's album dropping sometime next year. It's full of angst and grunge about being misunderstood—there’s nothing more ‘90s than that.
Did somebody mention Rocket Power?
DMC Chicago represents all styles of '90s fashion
Wednesday - OneDMC Day
DMC currently has eight offices across the U.S. and in the next year, we are planning to open even more new office locations! Wednesday of our spirit week was our OneDMC or "Dress Like a DMC Office" day. Each colleague was encouraged to dress in an outfit that embodied a city DMC has, or will have, an office in. Did we get boat shoes or colonial wigs to represent Boston? What about climbing or backpacking gear to represent Denver or Seattle? Not quite. But we had people dressed in overalls and cowboy boots representing our two Texas offices, concert tees for Seattle's famed grunge music scene, and plenty of sports teams representation from each city. Even some of our new DMC cities were represented. Sunhat and wine glass... Any guess where our next office is going to be?
OneDMC Chicago
Even Nola shows off her Chicago pride
Here's a little DMC trivia: our full company name is "Dynamic Motion Control Inc." However, when we began expanding our services, that name didn't encompass all of our capabilities anymore. We started going by "DMC." During this time, the infamous rap group Run-DMC was already a well-known “DMC” in the world. In true DMC engineering style, we saw an opportunity and took it. Now whenever we staff our projects using engineers from multiple office or service areas, we call it a OneDMC project. It's a play on words, but also a nod to the idea that each Run-DMC member could have found success separately, but it's their dynamic when working together that made them so great. We're better when we work together! While our rapping skills cannot measure up to the legendary Run-DMC, we did commission a One DMC rap back in 2015.
Maybe the closest DMC will come to a platinum-selling record
Thursday - DMC SWAG Day
Thursday, July 29th was our official anniversary! To celebrate, we showed off all our DMC SWAG. Our Marketing team does an amazing job of keeping us looking stylish with all our branded clothing and gear. This past winter, every current DMC employee was gifted a 3-piece winter coat, half-zip fleece, and my personal favorite, an athletic quarter-zip with thumbholes! We even have DMC-branded socks now! So on this day, we invited everyone to show off their best SWAG items. Who has the most obscure piece of DMC SWAG? Which piece of DMC SWAG from an event is most represented? How many DMC events can we find SWAG for?
While the results of these questions were inconclusive, we have a winner for the most SWAG items in one outfit: Leon of DMC Chicago. Not only did his outfit have multiple representations of our current DMC logo, but he also had patches of our original logo cut from his old work shirts.
Friday - Hawaiian Shirt Friday
A DMC employee brought the tradition of Hawaiian Shirt Friday to DMC Chicago and it's been a staple for a while. This week, we invited all our offices to join in.
Sharing pictures is just one of the ways we stay connected with our coworkers. While it was great to see all of our coworkers and occasionally their pets dressed up for each day, the real stars were the themed baby outfits! Each day, we had an adorable, thought-out outfit showcased on an employee's month-old baby. My personal favorite was for OneDMC Day. She was shown "trying her first solid food," which was obviously the classic Chicago hot dog restaurant, Portillo's.
"Have Fun" is one of our core values at DMC. This week is just one of the many ways that we showcase that fun that is our DMC company culture. Cheers to 25 years DMC! We're looking forward to many more years of expert solutions and entertaining company culture.
Read more about the fun events we do at DMC!