Designer gets creative with office concept
Stan Howe photo The Creative Spce at 89 Dunlop St. East is the brainchild of Chad Ballantyne. The business brings creative professionals together under one roof.
Necessity may be the mother of invention – but creativity certainly adds to the mix.
And for one Barrie designer, necessity forced him to look for an out-of-Barrie solution. Along with a partner, Rhubarb Media’s Chad Ballantyne rented much of first floor of what once was the Chamber of Commerce building at 89 Dunlop St. E., beside Memorial Square. The partner left for another job opportunitiy – leaving Ballantyne with 1,300 square feet in space.
Ballantyne expanded from creating virtual spaces into creating real estate spaces. He launched The Creative Space, an office where media professionals, artists, graphic designers, writers and the like can rent space.
“It’s easy access. There’s no real barrier to setting up your own business. Typically, you have to find space, then get Internet and phone. We find people have iPhones or Blackberries. We provide everything else – the high-speed and the power to run their computers – and also the community,” he said.
“We relate, collaborate and create. We collaborate on projects and try to grow our companies together.”
Starting on the ground floor, The Creative Space already has 10 members – some who are there full-time, many part-time. Ballantyne envisions one day filling the entire three-storey building with creative professionals, and adding wet and dry studios and other specialized spaces.
Although The Creative Space may be the first of its kind in Barrie, it’s part of a worldwide trend.
“There are well over 300 co-work spaces throughout the world. In Canada, there are a handful,” said Ballantyne. “We are really on the brink of something exciting, something really cool, not only in Canada, but in Barrie.”
One World Brand Management’s Lori Dillon sees an array of benefits for her marketing firm.
“Whether you’re looking for creativity, professionalism and different ideas, you can find them in any market in the world. The clustering we do gives us the ability to work together and bounce ideas off one another. That’s how you foster exceptional work,” she said.
“This gives me the professional, creative environment, but lifestyle flexibility.”
Barrie is home to more than 20,000 creative-industry professionals, noted arts strategic management consultant William Moore – and many of those work for small companies, with four employees or fewer. The Creative Space, he noted, brings them together to collaborate and build something even better.
Dillon added she values that interaction, as well as the role she and others can play in downtown revitalization.
“And from where the city’s going to developing downtown, the creative arts and cultural sector, this certainly fits with that long-term strategic direction,” Dillon added.
Downtown Barrie BIA executive director Craig Stevens said The Creative Space is a perfect fit in downtown, which is already home to architects and marketing professionals.
“This fits with what we want downtown to be, and it will be a catalyst for future creative growth,” he said.
“We’ve had a brainstorming session for Memorial Square, and (one day) it will be the meeting spot, the creative and social gathering place for the downtown, the nucleus for the area. Having a creative facility beside that is ideal.”