Hasta La Creative!

Longtime Chicago agency fixture and creative executive Jim Schmidt died this week after a battle with cancer. He was 58.

Mr. Schmidt is perhaps best known professionally as co-founder and creative director of Omnicom’s Downtown Partners, an offshoot of DDB Chicago founded in 2004. Downtown Partners, run by Mr. Schmidt, Joe Stuart and Katy Baxter, for years handled broadcast advertising for Walgreens, and was more recently known for its work for the Illinois Lottery and the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau.

The shop also handled work for Chicago’s Lyric Opera and was the lead agency for the Chicago 2016 Olympic Games bid. He also co-wrote and co-directed a documentary on the Olympics bid that ran on PBS and NBC.

Continue reading at AdAge.com