Brewery targets state’s snubbed artists
Colorado artists don’t get any respect. So says Steve “Stray Dog” Charalambous, marketing manager for Denver-based Flying Dog Brewery. He finds that local advertising agencies often ignore Colorado artists and illustrators in favor of New York or L.A. types.
“As a company heavily invested in the arts and based here, we don’t like that,” he said.
So Flying Dog is holding a contest that is open only to Colorado artists. Winners will find their art on the labels of the new Wild Dog beer.
Judges will be looking for “raw, spontaneous, creative energy” in the art, similar to – but not imitating – the work of official Flying Dog artist Ralph Steadman. The deadline is July 22. Details are at .
Big employee raises not in the forecast
Workers shouldn’t get their hopes up for big raises this year or next. According to a survey of more than 500 employers by The Conference Board, salary budgets will have a median increase of 3.5 percent this year and next. It’s the third consecutive year that employers have kept salary increases below 4 percent.
“The recovery from the economic downturn appears to be leveling off, and U.S. companies are paying close attention to cost control,” says Charles Peck, compensation specialist at The Conference Board.
The board projects a 3.1 percent rise in inflation for 2005, which is below the average 2005 salary budget of 3.5 percent. But next year’s projection of 4 percent inflation would eat the 3.5 percent forecasted pay gain.
Bicycles equipped for sweat and games
Kevin Lamar toed the line for the Buffalo Bills, helped launch the BowFlex exercise machine and served as president of Nautilus and Schwinn.
Now he and his wife, Christine, through their Boulder- based company, Lamar Health, Fitness and Sports, are touting video games as the latest way to enjoy exercise on a stationary bike. “You make people move in the games by pedaling,” Christine Lamar said.
Moms can soup up their kids’ bikes with game boxes to help them burn off baby fat. “Mom can say, ‘You are allowed to play the game, but you better be exercising too,”‘ Christine Lamar said.
The Lamars will launch their combined bike/game box products in August at the Health and Fitness Conference in Denver.
TV show makes over trailer-park denizens
If you need proof that we’ve reached the saturation point for television decorating programs, consider this: MTV has ordered 10 episodes of “Trailer Fabulous,” a parody of the home-makeover genre.
Each week, the crew will visit a different mobile home community and make over one of the residents – personally and residentially. The series is set to premiere this summer.
