Brooklyn Park-Based Star Exhibits Celebrates 25 Years
This past winter, Super Bowl LII made Minnesota the center of the sports universe. Big events filled up an exciting week. Events featured big displays from corporate sponsors. If you happened to make your way to downtown Minneapolis for the Super Bowl Live festivities, you may have seen the Doritos outdoor display on Nicollet Mall.
“We did a lot of activations with the Super Bowl,” said Mark Johnson, CEO and founder of Brooklyn Park-based Star Exhibits and Environments.
His company was behind that Doritos display.
“We’re about 40 percent over last year’s first quarter because of the Super Bowl and a few things,” Johnson said.
Star Exhibits Portfolio Extends Beyond Super Bowl
However, the Super Bowl is just a small part of this company’s vast portfolio, which dates back to 1993.
“When we started this company 25 years ago, we really wanted to be something different,” Johnson said.
Johnson describes his company as being an extension of his clients’ marketing department. Star Exhibits and Environments produces displays and other visuals for clients. All of the work is done at the company’s new 200,000 square-foot campus in Brooklyn Park.
“Yeah we do have a full production facility here,” Johnson said. “So we’ve got carpenters that are actually on facility building the properties as we go.”
But before the carpenters even get to the point of building the displays, Johnson and his staff spend time generating ideas with their clients.
“In many cases it’s a brainstorming session that includes the customer, our designer and even our carpenters are involved with it, and how we’re going to create it,” Johnson said.
Star Exhibits and Environments holds these brainstorming sessions in conference rooms that are quintessentially Minnesota. You have the ‘Purple Rain’ room for Prince; the ‘Schultz’ room, in honor of Charles Schultz and the Peanuts gang; the ‘Dylan’ room for Bob Dylan; and the ‘Oz’ room, in honor of Judy Garland.
“Which is a place where we actually get to showcase our big presentations, and then we have the big theatrical reveal where it goes, ‘ta-da,’” Johnson said.
That big reveal is an important moment for Star’s clients — a moment that Johnson is happy to be providing in Brooklyn Park.
“We really do appreciate what the city and the community has done to support us,” Johnson said.
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