Come to Salt Lake City, Mozcation!

Let me tell you a few reasons why Mozcation should come to Salt Lake City:

• Salt Lake City houses some very large Search Marketing companies: BlueGlass, Adobe (Omniture), SEO.com, MWI, 97th Floor.
• Utah is a hotbed of smart people. With two world class universities (Univ. of Utah and Brigham Young Univ.) within a short distance of each other, the SLC area is full of many technology/marketing geniuses. Because of a lower cost of living in Utah, many large technology companies have moved offices and even headquarters to Utah: Microsoft, HP, Adobe, Mozy, Ancestry.com, Overstock.com.
• Salt Lake City is the home of the urban outdoorsmen (and women). Because SLC is so close to the mountains it attracts people who seek a culturally diverse, urban home, coupled with the freedom of enjoying the outdoors. Activities within 30 minutes of downtown SLC include rock climbing, mountain biking, fishing, hiking, etc. I'm under the impression that many of you SEOMozzers love the dual lifestyle.
• SEOMoz's SEO tools (there, I gave you a decent link) are loved by the SEO community in Utah.

The Core Beliefs of an Ad Agency

We believe that art is the secret weapon of great business. It is what makes the deaf suddenly hear, what make the blind see. Notice, however that we are interested in making art that serves capitalism. We like keeping score. We like to win. We like the clarity of it. In the end, art combined with business is bigger art. Business combined with art is bigger business.

This was some copy I found on Goodby Silverstein & Partners' Website (not a very usability friendly website, I might add).

I like what they're saying here but I'm not so sure about the equation, "art + business = bigger art." Perhaps if the meaning of "bigger" is defined as "more accessible," I can see how business advertising can achieve this. I would assume that more of the world's population has seen the corporate artwork of Coca Cola and Disney than of Da Vinci's "Last Supper." However, if bigger is supposed to mean better, or more inspiring, well, then they are way off base.

The last sentence just makes me happy. I went into advertising because I love art and design, but I still wanted to make a decent living (not that one can't make a great living working purely as an artist, but I believe it's much more difficult to do so). Can you imagine a world in which business lacked art? It would be like living in a Communist community where all the architecture is stale and synonymous. Thank goodness for capitalism and that it rewards the artistic.

What did you think about the quote, "art combined with business is bigger art"?