Publisher Hopes Logo Becomes Latest Fashion

By day, he’s a mild-mannered trade publisher. By night, he’s . . . Captain Orange Med?

One evening last week, David Anast stood before a business gathering of biomedical industry execs. He opened his suit jacket, puffed out his chest and showed off the T-shirt that he’s created to promote Southern California’s biomedical business.

The logo printed in the middle carries Anast’s trademarked words: Orange Med. It’s a name he made up that’s supposed to say something about Southern California, or Orange County, at least, and the fact that this area is a global center for biomedical manufacturing.

The logo includes a colorful graphic, incorporating an orange, medical devices and a state map. And it’s underscored by the slogan “The Largest Region for Medical Manufacturing in The World.”

Anast’s antics drew laughs among 80-some industry people who met to discuss financial options at UC Irvine’s University Club. But it remains to be seen whether Anast’s logo will catch on or whether he can sell enough T-shirts to cover his costs: $5,000 for the trademark, design and printing. Other local boosters are touting names such as “Tech Coast” or “Biotech Beach” for the area’s diversified technical industries. None have come close to the cachet of the San Francisco Bay Area’s “Silicon Valley.”

Anast, publisher of Biomedical Market Newsletter in Costa Mesa, hopes to license the concept and peddle the T-shirts over the Internet. His trademark attorneys bought some of the first few dozen he printed, and Anast expects to sell others to bankers, accountants and other professionals in the industry.

And he’s thinking globally. Overseas, anything connected with California has an immediate cachet, he says.

Barbara Marsh covers health care for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7762 and at barbara.marsh@latimes.com.