O2 on the river
We at O2 love to spend time outdoors. We’ve written about our hiking, camping, and even skiing adventures on here previously. We’re avid fishermen as well, and enjoy every chance we get to get out on the water.
We’ve even had the pleasure of writing about fly-fishing here in Colorado’s Favorite Playground (don’t worry, it still sucks). When members of the O2 team were invited to join an early-season float trip on the upper Colorado over a recent weekend, we jumped at the opportunity.
The warm spring weather was just enough to melt the ice off the river and provide the flowing water sufficient to float. More than sufficient, actually – the river was running rather high and fast, with a stained muddy color unusual for this time of year.
While the river was fast, the fishing was slow. Unfortunate, but not surprising (after all, if you caught fish every time you went fishing, they’d call it catching instead, right?)
No less, the trip was still thoroughly enjoyable. The early spring weather was splendid; the scenery, spectacular. High country cliffs and canyons carved by the Colorado; rolling hills strewn with sagebrush; grassy meadows crawling with wildlife…heck, why write about it? They say a picture tells a thousand words, so we’ll just let some photos tell the story for us:
Oh yeah, and like we said – WILDLIFE! We ran into a group of bighorns:
Floated by under the watchful eye of an eagle:
And saw herd after countless herd of deer:
All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed a fabulous first float of the season. Here’s to hoping it won’t be the last. (And here’s to hoping we’ll catch some more fish next time!)
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O2 on the slopes
In case it hasn’t already been blatantly obvious – we at O2 are ski bums at heart. When we’re not hard at work in the office during the winter months, you can probably find us out on the slopes.
We’re excited that the Winter Park Resort has already opened. We’ll be enjoying many a weekend up there from now until April. In fact, we even had the privilege of getting out for a few runs on opening day!
We think Winter Park’s “Season of Seven Terrains” is a pretty nifty promotional campaign. For the record – Jaryd loves the Eagle Wind, Brad and Eric are all about Mary Jane, and Philip likes the good ol’ Winter Park side. We’re excited about the new Cirque Sled Pass as well – we’re looking forward to exploring some of the resort’s far-reaching terrain!
We’re also excited about skiing Granby Ranch this year. We’ve always enjoyed the less crowded, more laid-back feel of this smaller resort. Plus, we love to get out there on Friday and Saturday nights for Granby Ranch’s night skiing – always a good time!
We like to get out and ski together, whenever we get the chance. Eric and Jaryd are snowboarders. Brad likes to ski. Philip…well, as far as we can tell, Philip mostly just likes to start the après-ski as early as possible.
You’ll find us all over the mountain, especially on a powder day, though we each have our own unique styles. Eric enjoys shredding the rails in the freestyle parks. Philip is a groomer kind of guy. Jaryd likes exploring the trees. And Brad recently decided that only skiing forwards is only skiing at half his potential, so he is currently learning how to “switch” ski (which is just a fancy term for skiing backwards). So if you see a goofball in red ski pants bombing down the slopes backwards, there’s a good chance it’s him.
We love skiing for a whole boatload of reasons. It’s a good workout, and a fun way to spend time outdoors in Colorado’s Favorite Playground. We like to strike up conversations with new friends on the lifts. And, being the right-brained creative types that we are, we even try to gain inspiration from everything about the ski experience – from the sparkle of fresh snowflakes, to the rugged mountainous terrains, to the colorful jackets and ski apparel around the resorts.
So if you ever see us out and about, stop and say hi! Ski a few runs with us! Meet up with us for a little après-ski! Just don’t you dare tell Brad he’s doing it backwards.
Mary Jane photo credit: Winter Park Facebook
Night Ski photo credit: granbyranch.com
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Late season in the backcountry
Part of the fun of living in Colorado’s Favorite Playground is the ever-present opportunity for adventure, as illustrated by an impulse we had a couple weeks ago:
“Shoot, did summer really come and go already? What about all the fun adventures we planned but never got around to, like that backcountry camping trip?”
“Yeah, shoot! …you think it’s too crazy to still try and do it?”
We had a destination in mind – a particularly pretty little high alpine lake, tucked away right at treeline along the Continental Divide.
It’s only a few miles as the bird flies from Winter Park, but actually getting up there is a whole ‘nother story. The drive there is up an unnervingly narrow forest road, complete with switchbacks, blind corners, loose rocks, and rutted-out potholes as big as a Mary Jane mogul – and that’s just to get to the trailhead!
The hike itself is its own challenge, requiring a steep traverse across the open tundra. No small feat, especially with a weekend’s worth of camping supplies strapped to your back.
Still a couple days until the weekend, we weighed our options. The trip would be just the adventure we had been jonesing for, though we’d inevitably encounter chilly late-season weather, especially if things got wet or snowy.
“…but…but…we never got in a good backcountry camping trip!”
“You’re right…do we still have time? I mean, it IS late September in the high country…”
“This weekend is supposed to be nice weather, perhaps the last nice weekend of the year. I say we go for it. We should be fine. Just remember to bring your long johns.”
So that was that. We packed up the SUV, shifted into 4-wheel-drive, and began our ascent.
(After all, what good is a sense of adventure without a little feeling of the unknown? If you knew exactly how an adventure was going to pan out, what’s the point of even going?)
The drive up, though quite bumpy, was no less lovely, with brilliant groves of golden aspens accenting the mountainside. The hike in actually wasn’t that bad either, but at that point maybe we were just too excited to notice the weight of our backpacks.
Next, time to find a campsite. A backcountry campsite is pretty much the same as any other campsite – flat spot for the tents, trees for cover, plenty of firewood – it just happens to be at an elevation over 11,000 feet.
We set up camp, get settled in, and take a moment to appreciate the landscape. This. Place. Is. GORGEOUS! Sheer granite cliffs, scraggly green conifers, shrubs and willows in the peak of their autumn color. The lake is crystal clear and as smooth as glass, but for the occasional breeze or the dimple of a rising trout. Should we have brought our fly rods? Man, we shoulda brought our fly rods.
Alas, it’s getting late. The sun slowly slips behind the mountains, treating us to a remarkable Rocky Mountain sunset.
Time to get the fire roaring. If it ever got cold that night, we never really noticed. Maybe it was the fire, or the wool socks and extra layers of fleece, or the high-tech sleeping bags, or maybe just the Southern Comfort, but we never felt too chilly.
We woke up to cool, soupy weather that looked like it could turn to full-blown rain or snow at any moment. Time to get back down! We pack up and begin our descent.
On the hike back, we hear a commotion in the bushes right along the trail. A bull moose pops out right in front of us and sprints away across the tundra. Whoa! How does such a large animal move so fast? Especially at this elevation, with the air so thin! We can barely hike ten feet without losing our breath!
Needless to say, if we got a photo of the moose, you would have seen it by now. It ran off so quick we didn’t really have time to get the camera out. Besides, we weren’t really thinking to snap a pic at the time. We were just thankful it ran away from us instead of toward us.
Despite the damp dirt road slowly turning to mud, we manage to get down from the divide safe and sound. We decide to welcome ourselves back to civilization by stopping by our favorite local burger joint. As we’re eating, that swampy sky finally opens up, and rain showers down on the Fraser Valley. The rain eventually turned to snow later that evening.
Thankful to Mother Nature for affording us one last night to camp, and having quenched our thirst for adventure, we congratulate ourselves for finally managing to squeeze in that backcountry camping trip.
Colorado’s Favorite Playground, indeed.
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The “Leaving Planet Earth” Sticker Campaign
At O2 Creative, we have a lot of hometown pride. We consider it a privilege to live and work in the Fraser Valley, with its beautiful mountain landscapes, endless activities, and quirky bohemian charm.
We thought the town’s iconic “Leaving Planet Earth” city limits sign was such a fun way to express the unique Fraser lifestyle. In many ways, this town really is “out of this world.”
We were a little bummed when the Leaving Planet Earth signs were recently removed from the city limits signage. (Whyyy!?) We wanted our town’s extraterrestrial reputation to live on either way, so we designed these fun stickers to keep the sign alive.
Perhaps you’ve seen them around by now. The big green stickers are popping up more and more on car bumpers, snowboards, guitar cases, and all the other fun places stickers get stuck.
We wanted to get a little more out of this particular campaign, though. We wanted the stickers to do more than simply represent our community. We hope to give something back to the community as well.
That’s why we’re taking a unique direction with this campaign. We’re offering the stickers for just $3 bucks a piece. Or, simply bring non-perishable food items into the O2 office (you know, canned goods – soups, tuna, peanut butter – stuff like that). For every food item you bring in, we’ll give you a sticker for it!
All the proceeds we can raise and all the food we can collect will be going to our friends at the Mountain Family Center in Hot Sulphur Springs. This nonprofit organization provides food and help to Grand County residents. Their services are invaluable to our communities, and they could always use more support themselves, which is why we hope to help them with our sticker campaign.
In fact, if you’re already closer to the Hot Sulphur Springs-side of the county, you can simply stop by the Mountain Family Center to support them. They even have some of our Leaving Planet Earth stickers, so if you make any donations or canned food contributions directly to them, you’ll still get hooked up with a sweet sticker! While supplies last!
We like to have fun with our campaigns. We also like to help out a good cause in our community. So if you want to score a super cool sticker that represents our hometown, while also supporting and strengthening our community, stop by O2 Creative today.
We’re located in downtown Fraser at 345 Zerex Street, in our new (to us) office on the corner of Eisenhower and Highway 40. If you pay us a visit, we’d be happy to hook you up. Or, if you’re out of the area, we can mail you stickers as well. Simply send us a check made out to O2 Creative, as well as a self-addressed and stamped envelope, to:
O2 Creative
PO Box 1349
Winter Park, CO 80482
You can also contact us by phone at 970-726-8021, or email us at [email protected]
You can do it to support the Mountain Family Center, and all the folks in Grand County who depend on them. Or you can do it just for the stickers. Either way, just “doo eet!”
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The New Office!
Yes, we have moved! After spending most of the long weekend packing and unpacking, we are finally settling into the new space. Our location is now 345 Zerex Street, on the corner of Highway 40 and Eisenhower in Fraser. Last Tuesday was the first day we were officially open for business in the new location. To celebrate the new office’s grand opening, we felt a toast was in order, so we enjoyed morning mimosas toasted in oh-so-classy red party cups.
When we began our search for a new office we wanted a better location, more space, and more features. So far, we’ve gotten all that and more.
Our new office affords us a location with even more exposure. We’ve been in downtown Fraser for a while now, but now we’re even that much more downtown. We have a sweet new sign on the awning over our front door, displaying big and bright over Eisenhower. A second sign is also in the works, soon to be displaying right along the highway for all to admire.
The new space also actually has more space. The old cabin office had its charms, but this place feels like it’s at least twice as big. Between the wide room, lots of windows, and more actual square footage, we now have more space to stretch – both our legs, and our ideas.
With our new office comes new everything – new furniture, new decorations, a new coat of bright green paint on the walls, even a new bed for the pups.
Our new space has new features as well. We have a large conference table for important meetings and brainstorm sessions.
We also have a lounge area in the corner, complete with a big cushy couch, for those times when we want a meeting to be a little more comfy.
Indeed, we found our better location, bigger space, and new features. It’s even starting to feel like the office we wanted all along, though we’re still putting some finishing touches on the place. Even though there’s still a little unpacking and decorating to do, the office is just beginning to have that familiar, broken-in sort of feel.
So, now that we’re just getting settled in, we’re pretty sure the only thing our new location is missing is…you! Most importantly, we wanted our new office to be a space we could share. We wanted somewhere for us to sit down and comfortably collaborate with clients and share stories with friends. So seriously – stop by and say hello! (mimosas optional).
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Goodbye, little cabin office…
This is a transitional time in O2 Creative. For those who haven’t heard, we’re moving! This is the last week in our quaint little cabin office. Since 2009 we have operated at 208 Eisenhower, right in downtown Fraser, just a stone’s throw from the train tracks.
This cabin has been more than just an office. It’s been a haven for creativity. It’s been a meeting venue for clients and friends. And it’s been a place for the pugs to snooze, play, and…well, mostly snooze. It’s also been cool to say we work in a cabin, which adds to the mystique of working and living in the mountains.
This location has served us well, but alas, the time to move has come. O2 as a company has been growing – more clients, more projects, more employees. With all that growing also came the need for more office space as well.
So where will we be moving? Right down the street, actually. The address will be 345 Zerex Street, or more commonly referred to as “that red building on 40 on the corner across from the gas station.” Our front door will still be on the Eisenhower side of the road, so we’ll still be able to hear each and every train that comes through town, but hopefully it won’t be quite as crazy loud as it has been in the cabin.
This is the point in the blog where we’d usually have a photo – in this case, a cool pic of the new office. However, the new place is still getting some finishing touches. We still have a little painting and cleaning. We still need to furnish the space. And we still need to hang our sweet new O2 signs on the signpost and awning. It’s just not very photogenic quite yet. So please wait for a pic of the new place until we’re a little more settled in.
But until then, at least check out our sweet new signs. They’ll be hanging big and bright right over our office in the middle of downtown Fraser…soon!
We’ll have more space with all-new furnishings, including a lounge-conference area. What better way to do business than while seated comfortably on an overstuffed couch?
But for the time being, we have lots of packing and moving on our agenda, on top of an already busy work schedule. We hope to be all unpacked and settled in by next week. Until then, please look forward to seeing us in our new location, because we sure are looking forward to it.
Just remember – we’ll still be the same O2 Creative either way. We’ll still be located in downtown Fraser, just now even more downtown. We’ll still offer the coolest designs and the cleverest campaigns. And we’ll still have an office full of playful puppies ready to greet anyone who comes in.
So we’d like to invite you to visit our new office. Feel free to stop by and check out the new space, have a sit on our couch, give the pugs a pet. Just please give us a little time to unpack.
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Livin’ the Pug Life
At O2 Creative, we’re animal lovers. Anyone who has ever visited us in the O2 office quickly realizes one thing – the dogs are in charge here. Wylie, Sophie, and Thumbelina roam throughout our office, setting the professional tone for the workday. From early Monday until late Friday, the pups are in the office, regardless of rain, wind, snow, sleet, sickness, or even a bad hair day.
The morning usually begins by responding to lots of important emails.
They eagerly await the arrival of clients, business contacts, and FedEx deliveries. Well, they’re mostly just eager for the FedEx guy, because he gives them treats.
They stay so busy, there’s no time at all to get out of the office. Well…okay, maybe there’s just enough time for a nice walk…
But they can’t walk for too long. Gotta get back to the office – they have to sit in on lots of important meetings.
The pooch’s greatest professional strength would have to be their teamwork abilities. They put their heads together to tackle some of the biggest group projects…like napping (which is coincidentally another professional strength of theirs).
At this point, perhaps you’re thinking all this puppy in the office business is silly – that it’s not actually hard work, it’s just the proverbial piece of cake…
But, we assure you, these pups all take their jobs very seriously. It’s all stone-faced business as usual. Does Wylie look like he’s joking around?
To meet these pups in person, stop by and say hello at the O2 Creative office. You can also follow Pugs and Buggs on Facebook.
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O2 on the Longboard
The Fraser Valley is for boarders.
Obviously, in the winter, there are multitudes of snowboarders up here, sure. (Skiers, too!) But summertime boarding in the valley usually refers to another increasingly popular sport, and one of O2 Creative’s favorite pastimes: longboarding.
Longboards are similar to skateboards, but only slightly so. For one thing, longboards tend to be…well, longer. This longer design means they’re better suited for coasting long distances. Different wheel and truck designs also allow longboards to turn more easily. Besides that, there’s almost no end to all the shapes and sizes in which longboards are offered.
Longboarding is more akin to surfing than skateboarding. Longboarding was actually invented by surfers, and the sport has even been described as “surfing on concrete.” We think this is a reasonable description, although it may not entirely do the sport justice. The high-speed thrill of cruising effortlessly through the area’s forests, meadows, and parks – it’s just tough to put all that excitement into words.
Grand County is quite the venue for longboarding as well. The county boasts plenty of paved paths perfect for a good longboard cruise, the most popular of which being the Fraser River Trail. This trail meanders along the river at a gradual, steady downhill slope, which is perfect for maintaining speed on a longboard for miles at a time.
In fact, the Fraser River Trail’s change in elevation allows boarders to roll without stopping from the Winter Park Resort all the way down into Fraser…and right up to O2 Creative’s office!
When we’re not hard at work in the office, we’re often on our longboards speeding down one of the area’s many great trails. We’re forever grateful that Colorado’s Favorite Playground affords us so many longboarding opportunities, and also thankful that many of our clients dig the longboards, too.
So if you happen to cruise on by our office one day, feel free to stop and say what’s up to a few of the fellow longboarders in town.
Shout out to our friends at the Fraser Longboard Alliance. Check them out on Facebook for sweet videos, photos, and other cool longboarding info.
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O2 Culture – an introduction
At O2 Creative, we’re all about the most innovative ideas in marketing and design. We take our jobs very seriously, and strive for professional excellence. We work hard.
With that said – we play hard, too. We get to work and live in Grand County, Colorado, and it is an absolute privilege to call Colorado’s Favorite Playground our home. We are afforded so many amazing adventures – hiking, biking, fishing, camping, rafting, and long boarding, just to name a few. We try to take advantage of, and draw creative inspiration from, all the unique opportunities that Grand County has to offer.
We’d like to announce an expansion of the creative direction for our blog. We’ll still write posts offering our own unique insight on important marketing and design topics, but we’d also like to occasionally share stories about our own personal interests, giving our readers a taste of what we call “O2 Culture.”
To start things off, we’d like to share one cool element of O2 personality – we’re avid fly fishermen. As anglers, enthusiasts, and ambassadors of Grand County, we want to share a little known fact:
Grand County fly-fishing sucks.
Don’t come here expecting to catch lots of beautiful wild trout. Any rumors you might have heard just aren’t true.
We don’t have many meandering miles of secluded mountain streams, full of fat feisty cutthroats and brook trout. These fish are not outrageously fun to catch on a 3-weight rod, so don’t even bother.
Nor do we have countless alpine lakes hidden away in the higher reaches of the county, along the Continental Divide and in Rocky Mountain National Park. These lakes are not full of eager trout ready to chomp down the flies of the few anglers who are crazy enough to brave the rugged terrain.
We don’t even have a big river, like the Colorado – biggest in the American Southwest. Fly fishermen have no chance of landing dozens of brown trout all on dry flies in a single afternoon, nor does anyone ever hook into the Colorado’s elusive trophy-size rainbows. Those are all entirely…well, fish stories. Don’t be fooled.
Even if there were any fish to catch, it’s not like the scenery alone make the trip worthwhile. The lakes and streams and meadows and snow-capped peaks are not, in fact, breathtakingly gorgeous in their own right. So don’t come here expecting awesome Rocky Mountain landscapes, because this area couldn’t possibly impress anyone. Not you. not even your dog.
So, yeah, you heard it here. Don’t show up to the awesome trout waters in Colorado’s Favorite Playground expecting to have an epic day of fly-fishing. It couldn’t possibly actually happen. Just keep fishing somewhere else.