The marketing department at Emerson Climate Technologies Ltd., St. Louis, gave their imagination a workout and came up with a winning idea to celebrate two milestones.

The company reached its 25-year anniversary at about the same time its 100th million Copeland Scroll compressor rolled off the line. The trick was to create a special project that would do more than acknowledge the milestones. Emerson also wanted to celebrate compressor technology and the people who make their compressors.

And an idea was born: Copeland Scroll compressors would get paint jobs - fancy ones.    I’m sure that the company brain-stormed like crazy in the months ahead of the big events. What they settled on was both fun for the employees and unusual enough to get attention from those involved in the cooling-side of projects requiring compressor technology.

Employees at the eight Emerson plants that manufactured Copeland Scroll units around the world would have a hand in decorating the compressors, along with local artists. Each facility would try to capture the essence of its local community.

They designed. They researched. They drew. They painted. They assessed. They touched up. They cleaned brushes. And someone was taking pictures. Emerson posted dozens of the images to the Copeland Scroll compressor Facebook page, all showing employees and artists in the midst of the creative spark. The shortened link is http://tinyurl.com/8jpod2u.

Explore the art gallery and you might see someone you know at one of the plants, which are in Sidney, Ohio; Lebanon, Mo.; Natchitoches, La.; Suzhou, China; Rayong, Thailand; Cookstown, Ireland; Reynosa, Mexico and Welkenraedt, Belgium. If you like what you see, you can, well, “like” your favorite images.

Also, if you travel to trade shows, you could get a first-hand look at the compressors-as-canvas. Emerson is taking them on the road, displaying them at multiple trade shows through at least January, 2013, when AHR Expo is in Dallas.