Supporting and Nurturing Creativity with Molly Jamison

Molly Jamison is an executive creative director currently at Arts & Letters Creative Co. in Richmond, Virginia where she leads work across ESPN, Tito’s, and Function Health.

Before A&L, she was a creative director at FIG in New York, where she worked on Ketel One. Molly started her career as both an art Director and writer at Barton F. Graf 9000, later moving on to Droga5, and Wieden+Kennedy NY.

She’s made award-winning work for everything from Little Caesars pizza, to Delta airlines, to Quilted Northern toilet paper. She lives in Richmond with her husband and two sons. If you need her, you’ll probably find her at the local library.

Below, Molly reflects on starting her career as an art director and copywriter, her work for Quilted Northern toilet paper, and helping her children find their creative sparks.

Person

I like being a creative that can do a lot of different things and a lot of different tones. I was both an art director and a copywriter earlier in my career. I’ve done more comedic work, more serious or heartfelt work, and even just stuff that leans more dialogue or VO versus super visual.

Creativity to me is both innate and honed. There’s usually something there to begin with, but it won’t go anywhere without a lot of hours of practice.

There is truly something to learn from every project. That perspective helps me keep going when things get challenging or annoying or repetitive at all. It always helps!

And on a personal level, I love showing my kids how I’m creative and hoping it inspires them to be creative in their own lives however they want!

My son drew this of me working and honestly, it’s accurate.

Product

I think in our industry you have to judge the creativity in how it solves the problem it was meant to solve. That can be a lot of different things, but generally, I’m trying to see if this is doing it in a way I haven’t seen before, or in a way that feels exciting or memorable.

I also give extra points when I can tell the brief or brand was a little harder to figure out than others. Like if it’s not inherently cool or interesting or if they’ve had amazing work in the past and now you have to follow it up. All of those things require even more creativity, and I love to see it!

For example, for Quilted Northern toilet paper, we did a series of ads all about how the best toilet paper is one you never even think about at all (because it worked and that’s really all you want from a toilet paper).

To tell this, we used a series of objects in the bathroom that have to live and remember that room all the time, unlike the people who use Quilted Northern who leave and never think of it again. It wasn’t a traditional campaign for the category and we even got Bennett Miller to direct the spots.

For ESPN at Arts & Letters, working on a brand I’ve always admired, it’s exciting to find new ways to bring to life their iconic properties and campaigns.

Process

I find the blank page start actually refreshing. Clear your browser. Open a doc or slides that is intentionally pared back and simple and just clear those first thoughts as quickly as possible. Then, you look at some full pages and you start to relax.

For me, that’s how I get to ideas. I also just go quantity. I cull it down, of course, but if I’m writing headlines, I write a lot more than what is needed. Sometimes people only see the selects and think that’s all that’s happening. But it’s not! And it shouldn’t be

Here’s an example of a concepting doc I use. Simple is best! And just fill it up!

On the quantity front, I think it’s important to just keep the ideas flowing, so I have a few tricks I use to just keep myself writing things. It’s pretty lo-fi, but just using a random word list and seeing if you can force an idea out of each word. Most are duds, but occasionally you get somewhere you otherwise wouldn’t!

And if you’re truly stuck, go for a five minute walk. Or longer. Probably just depends on when your next check-in is.

Press

I came out of Brandcenter as an art director, but then worked at Barton F. Graf 9000 where my partner Eric Dennis, was also an art director. We quickly realised to succeed we needed to learn how to write. So we dove in and wrote a lot. It takes time to get better. And in the case of scripts, it takes a whole lot of them before you’re writing any that even somewhat work. The same is true of design, art direction, all of it. Your first idea might be it, but it also might not! Don’t get too proud to keep pushing yourself for more.

My first job as a creative at Barton F. Graf 9000, alongside my partner Eric Dennis, and fellow creatives Matty Smith and Joey Ianno.

Beyond there, working at Droga5, Wieden+Kennedy NY, FIG and now Arts & Letters, I have learned a ton in how to craft my work, how to write differently, and as a creative director, how to manage teams and build trust with clients. And the best part about all of those places is getting to see what my co-workers are doing and making on a daily basis.

In making or breaking a creative project, I think there’s a balance in pressure and feeling supported as a creative. Too much of one or the other doesn’t totally work. But together, I make the best work (and I think others do too) when they know they are responsible and accountable but also surrounded by people ready to help and improve their work.