go to school in Minneapolis

Miami Ad School Minneapolis is downtown in the warehouse district. The restored buildings now house galleries, offices, design studios and cafes. The school is in a newly renovated space that’s about a five- minute walk to Carmichael Lynch and a seven-minute walk to Fallon. The closest light rail stop is less than an minute away. The giant city library is the same distance. The skyway system, which protects you from cold weather, is four minutes, if you walk briskly. You can almost spit to the nearest Super-Target store. Just as close, the Mississippi River with a pathway that follows the riverside for miles. Everything you need, bookstores as well as a quiet, beautiful place to read the books is only footsteps away. When you get a spare moment (and you won’t get many) enjoy this city, which is more European than most American cities. Everybody is blond and blue-eyed with ancestors from Scandinavia or Germany. They eat Lutefisk (fish Jello) They say “ja, ja”, “you betcha” and sound like the actors in the movie Fargo or a lot like Sarah Palin.

But there is a special quality of creativity in this city. The museums are extraordinary for a city of its size. Theatre is also awesome. There is excellent design everywhere. Maybe it’s the Scandinavian cultural roots or  the snowy winters that keep the blood flowing in the brain. Whatever it is, it works. You’ll do great work "and a lot of it" when you’re in Minneapolis.

Your teachers will make sure of that. They’re tough and expect total commitment from the students. You’re in for a lot of long nights and a lot of rugged criticism. If your teachers are also a little cocky, it’s because they’re working in a city that in the 80’s changed advertising in the U.S.A., proving that great advertising doesn’t have to come from New York or the West Coast.  Since then, Minneapolis has taken home far more than it’s share of Lions, Clios, and Pencils. The school’s teachers come from the leading agencies in the city and those companies also hire our graduates. Art Direction, Copywriting, Design, and Planning graduates have been hired all over the city at: BBDO, Fallon, Colle + McVoy, Carmichael Lynch, Campbell Mithune, Best Buy, and Periscope.

You can follow Miami Ad School Minneapolis' Twitter feed here.

Minneapolis may be at the top part of the USA, but “face2face” keeps you in the middle of everything. The school’s video presence system connects Minneapolis to all the full-time locations in the Miami Ad School network. You could be a copywriting student in Minneapolis taking an Ad Concepts with an instructor in New York while you are teamed with an art direction student in Hamburg. You’re doing this in real-time all on high-def TV screens. This is the future for sure. It’s the way the most innovative ad agencies are working today and the way everyone will work tomorrow. You’ll be ahead of any student graduating from any other school in the use of this technology. In fact ad agencies are consulting with Miami Ad School to learn how we’re doing it. 

That’s also true about a lot of the other technology you’ll learn in this school. We’re far ahead of most schools in digital education. Ad Age magazine says our school is one of a select few that “gets it”. (in digital) You’ll quickly learn that the old formula of doing tv commercials and prints ads doesn’t apply in the advertising and design world you’ll be joining.  You’ll have a problem to solve and you’ll find the appropriate media to use to do the job. Chances are it will have an on-line component. You’ll also quickly learn that you will have to become an engineer of Pop Culture. Whatever trend or media is driving or thriving somewhere in the world is meat for your pop culture Whopper.

Programs taught in Minneapolis:

• Art Direction
• Copywriting