It's a

place that Alice would love, but impressive enough to

entertain clients from some of the biggest media buyers.

The bright

colors and bleached woods of McRae Communications are

just part of the story of majority partner Joe Snowden's

rise to a shining star in the marketing and public

relations world. The decade-old company has recently been

chosen to represent the Atlanta area in a worldwide

consortium of communications firms.

As Snowden

walks through the chic offices of the former Offers

department store across the street from the Fayette

County Courthouse, he speaks with a gentle and confident

voice as he talks about how he created a media giant in

Fayetteville.

After

graduating from Fayette County High School, Snowden

studied advertising at Florida State University. He was

graduated in 1989, moved back home and decided to start

his own communications company, choosing his middle name,

McRae, as the company name.

He started

pounding the pavement to find clients. Most of his

clients when he started were in middle Georgia and north

Florida, so Snowden spent many nights on the road trying

to build his business.

"I

didn't have enough money to pay for hotel rooms, so I

slept on a lot of friends' floors," he said.

Snowden

would take any type of communications job he could find

to help build the business.

Then an

idea struck him that became the backbone of his company.

"I

suddenly thought, `Why do firms do only one kind of work,

such as only advertising or only public relations?'"

he said.

Snowden

eventually started offering a full service shop that does

everything communications related, including web page

design.

His web

experience started in 1995, when he was doing some

internal sales support work for MCI. The company told him

that it was going to shift much of its work inside and

was getting interested in getting a presence on the

Internet.

"We

had to learn web development in 90 days. That necessity

led us to an epiphany of integrating all these

mediums," he said.

McRae was

one of the first companies to focus on combining

everything under one roof.

"We

were so small that nobody cared what we did," he

said.

But clients

started noticing the variety of services that McRae

offered, and his staff started to grow.

Today, the

company employs 20 communications professionals hired

from throughout the region and offers one-stop shopping

for everything communication related.

McRae does

work for a variety of companies including Pathway

Communities, Fayette Community Hospital and American

Express. Although he declines to release his billings,

Snowden said that his is a medium sized firm in relation

to his downtown Atlanta competitors.

And what

about the perception that you have to have an Atlanta

address to be successful in the business?

"People

from New York and San Francisco are not phased about our

location. They actually like it, because it's convenient

to the airport," he said.

But when he

does work for Atlanta clients, Snowden still detects a

whiff of condescension from people who believe all the

creative juices exist north of Interstate 20.

"They

often ask if we've got computers down here."

The company

has purchased the building next door and is slowly

working on integrating that 2,000-sq. ft. space into its

existing 5,000 square feet. By the end of 2001, Snowden

expects to be at 30 employees.

He loves

bright colors and believes it's a way to enhance the

creativity of his staff.

"I

took a Disney brochure into a paint store and said, `This

is what I want,'" he said.

What he got

is definitely on the cutting edge. The conference room

sits under a huge skylight that was a part of the old

department store. The round, blond wood table is

surrounded by armless chairs, covered with royal blue

fabric. It almost seems the knights from "The Sword

and the Stone" are ready to walk through the door,

but Snowden said environment is a key part of having

happy employees.

Walking

through the funky office, Snowden and minority partner

Mary Chris Douglas' dream appears to have come true.

Instead of dialing Atlanta, clients just have to walk

down the street to find one of the most comprehensive

communication companies in the region.

The

Worldcom Public Relations Group, the largest

international network of independent public relations

firms, recently selected McRae Communications for

membership in its organization. McRae will represent the

Atlanta area in the organization's Americas Region.

The

Worldcom network comprises 91 partner firms and 114

offices in 34 countries on six continents.

Traditionally,

the organization chooses one market leader in each major

city to serve as a "partner" in the

organization. Partners are, and remain, independently

owned and operated organizations.

"Worldcom

agencies have partnered to create some of the very best

promotional campaigns, from dot com rollouts to the

recent relaunch of the California Raisins campaign,"

said Snowden.

"We're

proud to be included among the world's most respected

communications companies," said Snowden.

His

interior may be Disney-esque, but when it comes to

communications material, he's no Goofy.

Rather,

he's the Cheshire Cat who knows what he's got and plays

to its strength.