Javelin Throw

June 30th, 2010 | No Comments

Paper straw races! Here is an exercise that will bring out the “kid at heart” from your meeting attendees. I think almost everyone at one point in time has played with their paper straw wrappers at a restaurant, fighting the urge to shoot the wrapper at the person seated across the table.
Divide the group into [...]

Green Thumb in the City

June 28th, 2010 | No Comments

If you have a green thumb, a window and Do-It-Yourself ethic, you too, can be a farmer, even in your downtown apartment building. Summer is here, and for urban dwellers with no access to soil, hydroponic gardening is a way to grow fresh veggies indoors.
 The Window Farms project promotes the production of hydroponic food gardens [...]

Billboard Sea

June 24th, 2010 | No Comments

“Maybe it’s about mapping or tracing the ghost of cities past. It’s the pulling off of a layer and finding another underneath. It’s the reference and the details that point to people saying, ‘We exist; we were here.’”
- Mark Bradford
We are bombarded by advertisements everyday; everywhere you look an ad is reaching out for your [...]

Creative Mastermind

June 21st, 2010 | No Comments

Here is a project to bring out the “creative mastermind” within your next meeting’s attendees. In order to complete this project, team members will need to be innovative, creative, and able to think fast on their feet. It’s a great jump start for getting problem solving ideas floating around the room, as well as group [...]

Cubicle Makeover Contest

June 16th, 2010 | No Comments

Catalyst Ranch recently held a Cubicle Makeover Contest in honor of Administrative Assistant Day. We asked admins to send in photos of their boring cubicles. We were inundated with entries and it was one of the hardest decisions we’ve made in a long time to pick just one winner. Inevitably, you want to help everyone! [...]

Vibrant World of Color

June 14th, 2010 | No Comments

“Grey is out. Gloom is gone. It’s time to live our lives in colour.”- Project Let’s Colour
As those of you who have been to Catalyst Ranch know, we’re all about color and brightening up the spirit. We’ve seen how it inspires all the corporate and non-profit groups who hold their meetings here. We also know [...]

Funky Candy Inspired Design

June 11th, 2010 | No Comments

For all you candy junkies out there, here is a designer that takes a candy craze to the next level.  Seriously, how crazy would you go if you got a pair of shoes with REAL candy!?

 
Here’s a little text from the designer:
“A shoe collection branded Lolice is the graduation work of product designer Belma Arnautović [...]

Interview with Kursty Groves, author of “I Wish I Worked There! A Look Inside the Most Creative Spaces in Business”

June 8th, 2010 | No Comments

 Kursty Groves
 
Title of Book: I Wish I Worked There! A Look Inside the Most Creative Spaces in Business
 
What are some of the main themes of your book?
 

A behind the scenes look at how some of the world’s most famous brands nurture and support a creative culture.
Surprising finds and inspiring insights around how these companies make [...]

Real Life in Still Life?

June 4th, 2010 | No Comments

The boundary between painting and the reality is magically blurred by Meade’s brilliant live painting.
Alexa Meade uses a Trompe-L’Oeil painting technique which compresses three-dimensional space into a two-dimensional plane. Pretty wild idea, she paints directly onto her subjects making them appear to be part of her art installations! Her work is a fusion of installation, [...]

Kookiest Inventions

June 2nd, 2010 | No Comments

Almost all of us have at one time or another had a crazy idea for a new product. Forbes.com has compiled a list for the 15 Kookiest Inventions:
“Even in a lackluster economy, patent lawyers keep busy. Between 1996 and 2008, the annual number of patent filings jumped 130%, to 485,000. But what some consider innovation [...]