Bailey Lauerman
Communication Arts
A Nebraska ad agency thrives nationally.
By Tiffany Meyers
“People are amazing, aren’t they?” says Carter Weitz, who is standing before a Joseph Stella painting at the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska. “They’re all so different.”
Few places could make that statement more palpably clear than the rooms of this modestly sized museum–whose walls bring together works by Georgia O’Keefe, Theodore Robinson and Max Weber, among other strange bedfellows. Weitz, President of Creative Services at Nebraska’s Bailey Lauerman, is talking about the eclectic collection, not his agency.
But his fascination with people’s infinite diversity has everything to do with his leadership style. He’s structured the firm’s creative approach around his belief that true innovation emerges only when different minds–each with its own set of experiences and references–coalesce around a problem.
”All innovation, including fine art, is evolutionary,” says Weitz. “One idea causes a mental adjustment and triggers another. We take that into account in the way we solve problems…
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The complete article, published in CA’s 2008 Jan/Feb Issue, is available to subscribers. Visit Communication Arts.
