Finding a Creative Home Article Written By John Foley Featured in Create Magazine

November 1, 2006

By John Foley

I'm staying in Minneapolis.

Chasing creativity is like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. While reaching the top of the creative mountain is a worthwhile goal, it's a fleeting one. The marketplace is very fickle. Many creatives spend their entire careers chasing the latest "hot shop" looking to build their book. Before you pack your suitcase it might make sense to step back and consider working in the close-knit, creative community where you can make lasting friendships. What's special about living here is when you're up against another agency in a new business pitch everyone fights like hell to get the business. However, once the account has been awarded, you know you can count on your friends in the ad community, regardless of who won or lost.

The people who work in this market are generous, talented and smart. The creative work continues to be very strong. The agencies in this market range from large to small. You could work at Fallon, Campbell Mithun, Carmichael Lynch, and Martin Williams or choose a more specialized boutique such as my agency LEVEL. Regardless of agency size, this is a market that prides itself on doing smart, strategic creative work. With the corporate headquarters of Best Buy, Target, General Mills, 3M, Cargill, Medtronic, Hormel, Schwan's, Andersen Windows, Arctic Cat, Polaris and Marvin Windows there is plenty of work to support a vibrant advertising market.

The best-kept secret about Minneapolis is the creative community extends way beyond advertising. It offers a terrific opportunity to meet and work with designers, actors, architects, writers and musicians. We have the new Guthrie Theater, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Arts and vibrant music and theater scene. Newsweek recently dubbed Minneapolis "Design City".

In addition to the arts scene, Minneapolis is blessed with five lakes within the city, a nationally renowned park system and you're only two hours away from the North Woods for fishing, hiking, kayaking and cross-country skiing. If spectator sports are your thing, we have major league football, baseball, basketball and hockey. No doubt it's cold in the winter and you're halfway from either coast, but you're with true friends. Thanks to global warming even the weather's not so bad. It's hard to find a better place to build a great career and still have a balanced life.

Before I begin sounding like the local Chamber of Commerce, I must admit we are sorely lacking the diversity within the local advertising community that you would find in Chicago, New York or L.A. We also live with the constant threat of spontaneous road construction. snow days and West Nile disease. And, in the spirit of full disclosure, Homeland Security has listed Mall of America is a potential target for Al Qaeda.

So if you can tolerate unseasonably cold winters, soft-spoken people and the infamous Midwestern work ethic, Minneapolis is a great place to start a career, run a business, raise a family and build lasting friendships.

Or, if you're "from here", you would say Minneapolis is a "pretty good place."