Creativity Squared: Sara Jean on Redefining Creative Boundaries

Sara Jean is a social creative at Minneapolis-based advertising and branding agency MONO, where she spearheads a hybrid creative role focusing on social work, public relations, and experiential creative idea strategy. Sara’s expertise has led her to work on many blue-chip client accounts, such as Jack Link’s, Subaru, Walmart, Target, Bumble, and American Red Cross. In her free time, Sara and her husband enjoy renovating their new home.

Person

As someone in a hybrid role and new to a defined creative role, I admit that finding my place in creativity has been tricky. I’ve learned to embrace this and understand that just because I don’t fit in traditional creative boundaries doesn’t mean that I’m any less creative. I express my creativity in various ways that come to life in different phases, and I like to embrace the organic flow of these different phases. Sometimes this means focusing on myself and spending time acrylic painting or exploring new creative outlets — often turning into side hustles. Recently, I created a small business, The Jean Shop MPLS, where I make fully customised hand-painted denim jackets. Other times, my creative phases mean focusing on others and using my talent to help them. For example, I recently helped my husband develop a brand identity for his small video business. I also just created a logo for a family friend working with a food shelf. Expressing my creativity like this brings me joy and a sense of artistic purpose.

Product

Landing a good creative idea is such an exciting process. It’s hard to describe what it’s like when a good idea is in the room, but you can feel it — everyone gets a certain energy. Sometimes, the idea is immediate and obvious. Other times, it might be a little harder to decipher, or it appears as a not-so-good idea that just needs a few tweaks, and suddenly it’s the best idea in the bunch. It’s important not to get too attached to your ideas and be open to recognising when another idea is better than your own. Through mentorship, I’ve learned what it looks like to step back and support other ideas that will carry through stronger and earn more success for a brand. Essentially the key to identifying a good idea is asking relevant questions like, “What can spark a conversation – who does it impact, and how can we solve it?” Criteria like this speak for themselves when deciding what a great idea is. 

Process

If there’s anything I’ve learned over the last few years, it’s that a piece of work is never truly ‘done.’ There are always revisions that can be made or aspects to build on – especially within social media. Social platforms are constantly evolving and moving faster, so new and innovative ways to bring ideas to life in this space are consistently created. Take TikTok, for example – it’s always changing and producing new cultural trends and consumer habits. This speed is a bit of a double-edged sword. It’s amazing because there’s always fresh creative fodder to inspire ideas, but it also makes it incredibly difficult to plan from an advertising POV. You need to move quickly if you’re going to capitalize on a trend; otherwise, you risk coming across as out of touch.

Press

Along the way, I’ve had a few amazing mentors that helped me understand hybrid talent has a strong place in advertising and that it can be clearly defined. I’ve now had two defined titles at MONO that are new to the agency and fall within the ‘hybrid’ category. My mentors have helped make space to blossom and lean into my hybrid capabilities. I think it’s an excellent time for companies to embrace hybrid talent and learn how to flex people’s strengths. We’re beyond a time of rigid roles, and most people, especially in our industry, are not one-size-fits-all. Giving people a chance to work in a way that allows them to showcase their best skills, even if it’s beyond their traditional role, can evolve into a beautiful and mutually beneficial outcome for the creative and the agency.