STARTING OVER: Hyperform Design Co-op

DENVER - Inside the Jehn Center in Olde Town Arvada you will find architects, engineers and a four legged friend named Ripley.

"He is the King of the building," owner Joe Jehn said.

It is an open minded workplace where creative visions are taking place.

"We designed the building specifically for this," Jehn said.

It is home to several tenants, one of which just moved in.

"We really didn't know what we were building at first," Eric Anderson said.

What they did know was that the economy was tanking and architectural firms were sinking fast.

"You would see your friends released and you felt like there was doom in your profession," Anderson said.

A profession that was hit hard by the recession several months before Wall Street even started feeling the effects. For Anderson and Tim Geisler, finding work in design and architecture became next to impossible.

"There were a bunch of us that were laid off all together," Geisler said.

But instead of riding it out, Geisler took action. He pooled all his resources, contacts, and even friends to create a non profit organization designed specifically for design.

"It was much easier to come together with a group of friends and collegues and think about the future in a positive way," Geisler said.

That is when Hyperform Design Co-op came to life. It acts much like an architectural firm, with more than 50 members across the nation and the world.

So you can look an owner in the eye no matter how big or small of a project and say yes, we can do that," Geisler said.

It is more of a think tank than a money maker. Members collaborate on competitions and come up with designs for future work.

"It's a risk in some sense because it's not what people are used to hearing about," Anderson said.

The co-op meets weekly on Thursday afternoons at the Jehn Center, 5690 Webster Street in Olde Town Arvada. This is an open forum in which members can bring to the table design work for critique, and make use of available human resources on a contract basis.

For more information on how to start your own business click on the following web sites:

Denver Metro Small Business Development Center   

SBA - Small Business Administration   

 
The Denver Office of Economic Development: Business Assistance Center  

 
SCORE - Counselors to America's Small Business