40th Anniversary Flashback: Promotional Items Through the Decades

As we continue celebrating ProChem Inc.’s 40th Anniversary, our Flashback Series turns to something fun, familiar, and surprisingly meaningful – the promotional and marketing items that have traveled with us through four decades of growth, innovation, and scientific partnership. These pieces may be small, but each one marked a moment.  Together, they tell the story of how ProChem Introduced itself, connected with customers, and evolved alongside the scientific community.

Where It All Began: The Periodic Table

Our very first promotional item was a printed periodic table – a simple, practical reference sheet that showcased ProChem’s original product offerings. Serving as both a useful took and an early symbol of our commitment to high-purity materials. Even today, longtime customers still mention the ProChem Inc. periodic table as one of the first items they ever received from us.

Today, that tradition continues in a modern way.  On our website, customers can explore an interactive periodic table, allowing them to browse all ProChem products by element with a single click. What began as a printed handout has evolved into a digital resource used by researchers, educators, and purchasing teams around the world.

A Mug Inspired by London – and by Curiosity

The next chapter in our promotional history began far from Rockford, IL.  During a trip to London, company founders Reno and Julie Novak discovered a set of scientific prints in a shop on Piccadilly Square. The imagery – vintage, intricate, and rooted in early scientific illustration – immediately caught their attention. The illustrations depicted historical methods of chemistry using concentrated sunlight to heat vessels, referencing techniques described by early alchemists and chemists such as Andreas Libavius. The image printed on the mug is an 18th-century engraving titled “Distillation à la lumière du soleil” (Distillation by Sunlight), created by illustrator Louis-Jacques Goussier and engraver Nicolas-René Defehrt. It was published in the famous French Encyclopédie (Volume 20, Chymie, Plate 9) edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert.

They brought the prints home, where they still hang in our office today. That artwork inspired the designs for a coffee mug and our first catalog, and remained a defining visual element on our original website until its redesign.

From Coffee to Commuting: The Travel Mug Era

As our customer base grew and daily lab life evolved, so did our promotional items. The travel mug soon followed, designed for both hot and cold beverages, fully enclosed, and built to withstand busy days in the lab, in the classroom, on the road, or at conferences. Durable, practical, and unmistakably ProChem, it quickly became a favorite.

Pens Through the Decades

Few promotional items are as universal as the pen – and ours have evolved right alongside the industry.

Early years: multi-colored pens that added personality to the lab bench – inspired by the colorful world of inorganic materials.

Lab Notebook era: blank-ink pens designed for smooth, permanent writing – essential for careful documentation of new developments, formulations, and recipes in laboratory notebooks during a period of a rapidly expanding product offering.

Digital transition: streamlined pens with stylus tips, offering a simple way to move between handwritten notes and touchscreen instruments in modern labs.

Celebration: This year our pens are paired with commemorative 40th Anniversary notebooks to symbolize and celebrate the company chapters past, and those yet to be written in the decade ahead.

Promotions in the Digital Age

With the rise of digital storage and communication, we introduced branded USB drives – often pre-loaded with PDF versions of our product flyers highlighting our best selling products. They offered a convenient way for customers to access information quickly, and not have to carry around paper flyers at conferences and tradeshows.

Today, that same convenience comes through a simple scan: visitors can access our flyers instantly using QR codes displayed at our booth. No USB needed – just a quick tap on a smartphone.

Hats for Every Field (and Court)

In recent years, ProChem hats have become a fun addition to our promotional lineup – not just at conferences, but on golf courses, ball fields, and even pickleball courts. We’ve refreshed the designs several times, including a special 40th Anniversary edition this year.

Hats have always been about more than sun protection; they’re about belonging and team spirit.  Our employees, customers, and partners wear ProChem hats as a small symbol of shared enthusiasm – and a bit of team spirit – for the company they trust and the products they have relied on for decades.

A Sweet New Tradition

One of our newest and most popular promotional items arrived at the American Chemical Society (ACS) conference in the fall of 2024: custom ProChem Logo Cookies.

These cookies were an instant hit with conference attendees. Beyond their charm, they represent how far promotional craftsmanship has come. Thanks to advancedments in baking artistry, edible printing, and nationwide shipping logistics, we’re able to order these cookies and have them delivered fresh to conferences anywhere in the United States.

They’re a small treat that brings big smiles!

Small Gifts, Big Story

From periodic tables to coffee mugs, pens to USB drives, hats to cookies – each promotional item reflects a moment in ProChem’s journey. Together, they show how we’ve grown, adapted, and stayed connected with the scientific community for 40 years.

Our Flashback series continues throughout the remainder of the year as we celebrate the people, products, and milestones that have shaped ProChem Inc. since 1986. Check back with us soon, or follow us on LinkedIn!