Catalyst Ranch’s
Creative Juice Blog
No small business can survive ten years (especially in this economy) without the ardent love and support of its clients and evangelists. As we celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary this November, we knew that the way we needed to start the celebration was to reward our most supportive fans: What inspired us to start this [...]
Continuing with our series Local Feature (which celebrates Chicago-based filmmakers), we are proud to present the premiere of Episode 6 of hit geek-webseries Platoon of Power Squadron on October 26. The Platoon of Power Squadron, or PoPS, is about four strangers in their twenties who all ended up renting rooms in the same apartment. They've all been out [...]
We're very excited to host the Serious Games Workshop with Robert Becker of Becker Multimedia. In a previous blog post, we shared some benefits of gamification. We thought our readers would like to get to know the man who will be leading the Serious Games Workshop here at the Ranch on 10/23: Catalyst Ranch: What makes Becker Multimedia [...]
Gamification has been a trending buzz word in the creative and innovation world for the past few years. Simply put, it is the use of game mechanics and game design techniques in non-game contexts. Gamification has become most prevalent in current day through digital platforms such as Foursquare and Klout. Some will dismiss the current [...]
Over the past few years, I have had the great pleasure of working with Jamil Khoury, artistic director of Silk Road Rising. Not only is he a wonderful artist to collaborate with, he is both amiable and inspiring. As an artist, he is constantly asking provocative questions and fostering stimulating conversations through his work. We are proud to [...]
Social Media Week is coming back to Chicago for a second year and we're very excited to be part of it again on September 25th. Last year, we hosted a lively and informative panel about how the different generational groups use social media differently. Within that panel, we found the inspiration for our event this year. [...]
It's really easy to have your blinders up when you're focused on a project. When struggling for an idea, sometimes it's best to take a breath, and be open to possibility. That's what happened for our Gala Gal Lauren Smith as she was creating the September page for our yearly holiday calendar gift. Since it's inception, [...]
Our film series LOCAL FEATURE debuted with The Interrupters last week and the event was a smashing success! Attendees arrived early to munch on some delicious snacks, including the scrumptious cupcakes provided by GiGi's Bake Shop. After a warm welcome from our ever-friendly Ranch Staff, Gala Gal Lauren Smith kicked off the event by talking about the [...]
If anyone can attest to the joys (and challenges) of being a creative entrepreneur, it’d be our owner Eva Niewiadomski! In a recent interview with Womenetics, she said: “I worked at Quaker Oats for 15 years. My last year there was post the Pepsi merger with Quaker Oats. As is typical with mergers, the environment is stressful as the organizations try to meld together two disparate cultures. It was just not a good fit anymore for either of us. I took the severance package and decided to take this once in a lifetime opportunity and start my own business.”
Chicago is a wonderful city with a flourishing arts scene. With so many aspiring filmmakers to pass through our ranks and having collaborated with established filmmakers on other projects, we were inspired this past spring to help celebrate them. Local Feature came from that inspiration. We're very excited to launch this new film series that celebrates [...]