Catalyst Ranch’s
Creative Juice Blog
With the holidays in full swing, I’m reminded of an uplifting team-building activity I once devised for my peers in an arts nonprofit organization for our company retreat. It’s rich in reflection and connection, and while its themes are naturally holiday-related, it’s relevant any time of year. What I cooked up can be easily recreated [...]
Now, we’re not officially sponsored by Lego, but it’s no surprise we’re big fans. Legos are so classic that they’re synonymous with childhood, and yet they are a symbol of imagination and creativity at every age. Today happens to be World Play Day, so dubbed by Lego as “a day dedicated to celebrating [...]
Try as you might to hold onto the summer, here comes autumn! And it's looking you straight in the eye, barreling at you with no sign of slowing. And from this angle, you can see the whole '23/'24 fiscal year trailing close behind, laid out before you clear as day. That is, you can if [...]
At Catalyst Ranch, our Ranch Hands are available to lead your team in a short "Energizer." This low-stakes, high-delight activity is a reliable way to get folks' heads in the game, and at any point in the day. Our collection of Energizers involve varying levels of introspection, competition and physicality, so there's always something that [...]
Any meeting is more enticing if you know someone’s bringing donuts. Fact. And that’s only the bare minimum application of the fact we all know: Food makes a gathering better. Food (and drink, if we're lucky!) accomplishes a lot: Food adds value for folks to physically arrive; Food gives you energy to keep up [...]
It’s no surprise we at Catalyst Ranch relish the announcement of Pantone’s Color of the Year. Vibrant color is, after all, a foundational design element for our spaces. This year, however, the Color of the Year hits a little different. Pantone has declared 2023 the year of ‘Viva Magenta,’ and since magenta is [...]
At Catalyst Ranch, Chicago’s creative meeting venue, our meeting rooms are equipped with all kinds of supplies to ensure the success of your meeting. One important staple is simply a pen cup on every table. You won’t just find your everyday black and blue ink pens in these colorful cups; they are stocked with [...]
At Catalyst Ranch we celebrate and encourage creativity. From the overall aesthetics of bright colors and retro décor, we set out to create an environment that supports thinking differently.We've shared some of the background on our approach in previous blogs looking at the concepts of freshness and playfulness as cited in the book, Sticky Wisdom. [...]
In our previous Creative Juice Blog post, we explored a few mega-hit pieces of pop culture and how they reference works from our past. After mind mapping the nostalgia behind those works, we're left marveling at the creative process that goes on in writers’ rooms, or between collaborating music producers and other artists. Surely there’s [...]
In recent weeks, American (and global!) pop culture has seen the debuts of several Big Things. It’s no surprise, after all, as the summer season is prime time for savoring high-profile music releases, movies, and other media. And an element present in many current hits is nostalgia, that evergreen trend in pop culture. [...]
