TONIGHT

Thursday, August 26, 4 to 7:30pm

Cocktail and social hours
Avogadro’s Number
605 S. Mason St., Back Patio, Fort Collins

Join us and the marketing pros of Northern Colorado at Avo’s for our monthly marketing/design/media social hour. This informal social networking event is held the fourth Thursday of each month.

The networking group is open to the public - so tell your friends. See you at Avo’s to mix and mingle with all your favorite designers, marketers and media pros.

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Follow us on Twitter: @RefreshNoCo

Creative Register is a different kind of business directory. Fort Collins-based,they’re a comprehensive directory for creative professionals in the Northern Colorado/Southern Wyoming Region. Their goal is to provide one place where businesses and individuals seeking a creative pro can easily find help right in their own neighborhood.

If you know of a local creative firm, individual or organization that’s not listed on our site, please let them know here.

To apply for a listing, you must live/work in Northern CO or Southern WY. Basic listings are free, enhanced listings get addons like gallery images and featured listing status. Get listed today!

Creative Register is supported in large part by their advertisers, so please support them. If you’d like to become an advertiser, please click here.

FREE! Wednesday, June 23rd
Social Hour: 5:00pm
Program: 6:00pm

Harper Point Photography
226 Pine Street
Fort Collins, CO 80524

How digital photography has
changed the way we design.

It’s ALL in the image - from what we put on Facebook to the right photo for an ad. But budgets are tight and timelines are even tighter. This month at Refresh NoCo Harperpoint Photography will show us their ways. The Mini Photo Class will cover how images have impacted social media, photos you can take in house and what photos are best left to a professional. You walk away with some of their skills to DIY next time.

• Social Media and its relationship to photography. (aka iPhone Photography and Social Media)
• Types of photos you should do and shouldn’t do in house (direct from the pros)
• A mini DYI photo class for all of you wanna be photographers (we get it, sometimes you really do have to shoot it yourself, so let’s make it look good).

Please RSVP to join the party!

Grab your camera and join us at this month’s upcoming Refresh NoCo Creativity Mind Jam.

Grab your Brown Bag Lunch and join your marketing, design, media and web friends for an informative yet entertaining lunch learning session:

Creative Contracting:
The Who, What, Why, Where, How, How Much
& How Often of Negotiating Agreements.

Of course creative businesses need to be, well, creative - but they also need to be businesses. Ultimately, service businesses come down to one thing - agreement. Most of us HATE having the discussions that lead to real agreements. We hope everything will just sale along smoothly without any miscommunication or conflict. And, things usually do - until they don’t. Eventually, everyone has a situation where they wish they would have documented the agreement up front to avoid the pain of figuring things out when the relationship is strained.

That’s where this session comes in. In one hour you’ll understand the who, what, where, when, why, how, how much, and how often of creative contracts. What are the must-haves? How can you create an agreement process that enhances your professional credibility?

How can you turn the process of creative contracting
into a competitive advantage for your firm?

Join the group Thursday, May 20th when our favorite graphic-designer-turned-lawyer, Kevin Houchin, will guide us through the ins and outs of creating win-win agreements. Yes, contracts are usually boring, but Kevin always finds a way to present legal knowledge in a practical, dare we say “lively” manner.  And heck, how often do you get a hour with a lawyer for free?

Luscious Nectar
253 Linden St., Upstairs, Fort Collins

Our new location has worked out nicely - and we’ll be meeting at Luscious Nectar for our monthly marketing/design/media social hour. Join us for our informal (but tons of fun) networking event the fourth Thursday of each month. See you at Luscious Nectar to mix and mingle with all your favorite designers, marketers and media pros.

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Follow us on Twitter: @RefreshNoCo

5pm Social Hour, 6pm Presentation
Catalyst Coffee, 3501 South Shields St. Fort Collins

Refresh NoCo is very proud to present Bryan Simpson, Media Relations Director at New Belgium Brewing Company; United Way’s Pam Davis, Vice President, Marketing and Communications and Dawn Putney, fairy godmother of Art Lab Fort Collins for a discussion of: How Marketing Will Save the World.

In the 21st century the best marketing ideas and design tactics will be used to share causes, win hearts, change minds…and…oh yes…sell product and make money.

The new marketing approach advocated by marketing researcher/author John Grant and others is one of active customer engagement. It is a model that has companies working together with consumers to create ideas, communities, events and lifestyles that are both sustainable and profitable.

It is a post-Ogilvy model that focuses on changing the conspicuous consumption based brand image marketing that dominated the later half of the last century.

As a professional in the marketing and design industry you owe it to yourself, your clients and your planet to become familiar with this cutting-edge model that has been around for at least ten years but is just now coming into the mainstream.

Please join Refresh NoCo on Thursday, April 8th at Catalyst Coffee for this engaging discussion. Social hour starts at 5:00pm and the panel begins at 6:00pm.

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Save the Date:
Designer Drinks Monthly Networking and Cocktail Hour

Thursday, April 22nd :: 4 to 7pm

Luscious Nectar, 252 Linden Street
Fort Collins, CO

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Thursday, January 28th, 4 to 7:30pm
Coopersmith’s Poolside, 5 Old Town Square, Fort Collins

We’re back from the holiday hiatus! Join us as we get back on track with our monthly, informal (but tons of fun) creativity cocktail hour. Grab your favorite designer, copywriter, ad man and/or woman, and marketing guru and join the fun. See you at Coops Poolside from 4 to 7pm.

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Designer Drinks After Party

CSU School of the Arts: Opening Reception
Daumier, Yoes, and Ceramics Exhibitions
Date: Thursday, January 28, 2010
Time: 7 - 9 p.m.
Location: Hoffert Gallery, University Art Museum
Ticket Price: FREE UCA Art Museum

After you’ve had your fill of Designer Drinks, Linny Frickman and the team at the UCA Art Museum has invited us all to join them for an opening reception for the spring 2010 University Art Museum exhibitions. Featured guest is Amy Yoes.

Location - Art Lab
239 Linden Street, Fort Collins, CO

Linny Frickman, Founding director and chief curator of the new University Art Museum at Coloradoan State University presents:

The Fundred Dollar Bill Project

Last spring the opening of the new University Art Museum was marked by a lecture from visiting artist Mel Chin. Chin, an artist and activist, spoke about his new project called OPERATION PAYDIRT/FUNDRED which supports implementing a solution to lead-related health issues challenging post-disaster New Orleans. Chin was selected as the keynote speaker because of his life-long commitment to visual arts as a catalyst for social justice and environmental activism, alongside his conviction that artists should be politically engaged, responsible citizens.

Director of the University Art Museum, Linny Frickman, will present Chin’s project, place it in the context of his environmental work, and invite everyone to participate in the interactive FUNDRED project.

Shortly following the devastating storm, Chin was asked to visit New Orleans. His earlier project, Revival Field, a landmark in environmental art, had pioneered methods of removing toxins from Superfund Sites. Initially at a loss as to what an artist could do to address the enormity of the disaster, Chin continued his explorations, discovering a problem that plagued New Orleans before the storm had even hit; New Orleans is one of the most lead polluted cities in the United States, exposing thousands of children to lead poisoning with devastating results ranging from disease and learning disabilities to behavioral problems linked to violent crime. The opportunity to rebuild after Katrina also offered the opportunity to address this environmental scourge.

Chin devised the The FUNDRED DOLLAR BILL PROJECT, an innovative artwork made of millions of drawings from around the country. In Fort Collins, Rocky Mountain High School is taking the lead to contribute to this project. This creative collective action is intended to support OPERATION PAYDIRT, an extraordinary art/science project uniting three million participants with educators, scientists, health care professionals, designers, urban planners, engineers and artists. Together they are working to make safe the lead polluted soil of New Orleans…..Once FUNDRED reaches its goal of 3 million artworks, a specially retrofitted armored truck, running on straight vegetable oil, will be deployed across the nation to pick up the 7,000 lbs. of FUNDRED DOLLAR drawings. FUNDRED guards driving the armored truck will deliver the art currency to Washington D.C., where we will request from Congress an “even exchange” of 300,000,000 FUNDRED DOLLARS for $300,000,000 in funds and services to support the implementation of OPERATION PAYDIRT’S solution to lead-related health and quality-of-life issues still challenging post-disaster New Orleans.” Chin’s project is ingenious because it combines public awareness, education, and creative activity with a sound scientific protocol and plan. Already a proven leader in pioneering creative solutions, Chin invites us all to collaborate on this important endeavor.

While Chin was in Fort Collins for the opening of the University Art Museum he met with over 1500 students at Rocky Mountain High School, Boltz Middle School, and Bennett and Tavelli Elementary Schools. Students created their own FUNDRED DOLLAR bills and Rocky Mountain High School became an official pick-up site for the FUNDRED truck.

Linny Frickman is the founding director and chief curator of the new University Art Museum at Colorado State University. Prior to this she was the director of the Clara Hatton Gallery in the Department of Art. She has taught art history at Colorado State since 1987 with an emphasis in modern and contemporary art practice. Frickman began her museum career at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Menil Collection. At CSU she has organized and curated multiple art historical and contemporary exhibitions and has directed the Critic and Artist Residency Series.

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NEW Location: The Tap Room @ Catalyst Coffee
3501 S Shields, Fort Collins, CO

Patrick Hunt, Senior Copywriter at Burns Marketing presents:

Marketing for the Audience Age.

Stop what you’re doing. Because it’s not about you, anymore. It’s about them. Your customers. It’s their era. Their voice is more powerful than yours. Their influence is far more profound. How can you join their conversations and inspire people to become believers in your brand? How can you overcome your fear of handing control of your story over to them? And most importantly, how do you resist your urge to interrupt them with another message they’ll ignore? Let’s find out. Together.

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Copyright - Copywrong.

RESCHEDULED (thanks to our October snow storm):
NEW DATE: Thursday, November 19th,
5pm social hour, 6pm presentation

NEW LOCATION - Art Lab
239 Linden St., Fort Collins, CO (next to Cozzola’s Pizza)

The number one bit of legal knowledge every creative professional should understand is copyright, because sooner or later you’re going to have an issue that touches on the overlap between law and creativity.

This session will give you an overview on copyright issues such as ownership, fair-use, registration, duration, transfer, infringement and other specific issues related directly to protecting architectural works.

Kevin Houchin

You’ll learn from someone who isn’t just talking theory, but has successfully implemented these strategies in his own creative businesses. Kevin E. Houchin, Esq. has a BFA in Graphic Design from Iowa State and spent 12 years as a designer, art director, creative director and brand consultant before becoming an attorney and expert in the legal issues and faced by creative businesses. He’s a frequent contributor to publications serving the needs of creative businesses, the author of two books on legal ethics, and the author of the forthcoming book The Secrets of Creative Business (Fall 2009 - Morgan James Publishing).

Want to know more? Drop Kevin a line - he’d love to dish… kevin.houchin@houchinlaw.com