How Creative Rock Stars Thrive on Creative Friction - With Jason Sperling

SEASON 2 | EPISODE #12
A real creative rock star leans into creative friction.
Decorated creative director and author Jason Sperling wasn’t always receiving awards for his amazing work. He used the built-in friction of the creative process to thrive, and now he leads his teams at Reality Labs at Meta through the same growing pains he dealt with.
In this episode of Real Creative Leadership, Jason shares how harder times paved his path to creative rockstardom - and how you can use your own creative friction to spark growth.
Watch this episode to discover:
- One key way to provide a safe work environment for your creative team
- How to deal with self-criticism, and why it’s important
- Insights from Jason’s book, “Creative Directions: Mastering the Transition from Talent to Leader”
Mentioned in this show:
► Jason Sperling - / mrjasonsperling
► Reality Labs - tech. ar-vr/
► “Creative Directions: Mastering the Transition from Talent to Leader” by Jason Sperling - www.amazon.com/Creative-Direc...
► ‘Mac vs. PC’ campaign - www.mrjasonsperling.com/apple-...
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Real Creative Leadership Website - stoke.cc/3CqkhVJ
The Stoke Group Website - stoke.cc/3crup5O

[@ThisDesignLife]

Looking forward to watching this one

[@createbmx63]

This fell a little flat for me. Pay was underemphasized, lack of career growth options was not acknowledged, the desire for influence was hardly mentioned, and the accidental or intentional ageism of the industry was completely ignored.
Pay: How do you expect a designer to remain in the craft and also make more money? Become senior? Okay, but how many places even have "senior" roles. And what about after that? I guarantee that the ACD and CD make way more money and have more influence over ideas and direction.
Growth: If a designer stays in the craft, how does their career grow? Skills? Great. Experience? Of course. Competence? Obviously. But what do they receive for that? How is their VALUE to the agency or company compensated? By a constant turnover of new designers that work for way less.
Influence: Imagine the most badass, competent designer possible. Now, how do they get their ideas and directions implemented when there are ACDs and CDs standing in the way? Ever consider that people just want those roles to see their ideas come to life?
Ageism: Would an agency ever hire a 50yr old designer for 120k/yr? NO. Seriously, how do you expect a designer to stay in the craft and make more money and have more influence? Maybe it's possible if they stay in the same company forever by possibly getting an annual raise. You certainly couldn't move from agency to agency or company to company because there is constantly a new crop of designers that will work for less. As one gets older in our industry, the only option becomes to climb up the ladder of existing structure. Lateral moves dry up the older one gets.
Other than ACD, CD, ECD, etc. there are basically ZERO pathways for a designer to get older, get better, gain influence, and also make more money while staying in the craft/execution side of things. The problem is not creatives wanting more. The problem is not hierarchies. The problem is the way our hierarchies are organized.