What does it mean to “do great work”? In most professions, great work meets certain consistent criteria. Maybe it’s timely, accurate, comprehensive, or cost effective. But in creative professions, “great work” isn’t a box to be checked; it’s a standard to be upheld.
“We’ve always been about the work, finding the best solutions for creative problems,” says one such creative professional, Jamie Ezra Mark. “We could come up with hundreds of ‘correct’ answers. But the best ones are more than correct—they’re memorable. They stand out. That’s what we want our work to do.”
Jamie is the owner and creative director of Em Agency, a branding firm specializing in identity development, campaign messaging, and a healthy dose of publication design (some of which you are reading right now). The company first opened its doors in February 2019, but its story truly begins long before that. “My old partners didn’t value the work,” he says. “There’s already a ton of mediocre, forgettable work out there. If we can’t do work that really resonates and will be remembered, then in our minds, we’re just adding to the pile.”
So, he walked away from a comfortable, eight-year partnership—and five of his best people followed him. Together, the six formulated a new business concept: a creative agency led by creatives. “The inmates are running the asylum,” he laughs.
The Em team spent those early days developing their creative voice. Any agency could throw around words like “high quality” and “award-winning.” To draw the kind of clients they wanted, clients who trust the creative process, they knew they had to focus on attitude and ambition. “We wanted to be fun to work with,” Jamie says. “That part is often underestimated. If we could do great work and make it fun for the client along the way, then we figured we’d do OK.”
Five years later, Em has grown to more than a dozen “embassadors”—designers, illustrators, writers, photographers, developers, all passionate about the work. “This isn’t a ‘me’ thing. Em doesn’t work with just me,” Jamie says. “On paper, yes, they’re ‘employees.’ In reality, they’re my collaborators.”
“As a creative, your headspace is your workspace. If it’s taken up with worrying about forms and finances, it’s hard to do your best work.”
TRUSTING THE PROCESS
“Creative director” and “business owner” are two titles not often held by the same person. This is because most creatives won’t touch administrative work with a 10-foot pole. “Creatives have no business managing finances,” Jamie says with a laugh. “We avoid even talking about it. Spreadsheets, cash flow forecasts, P&Ls, ratios, statistics, data. Math. Nothing makes our eyes glaze over faster.”
And yet, financially speaking, Em Agency is a startup success story. Year one saw growth of 7.69%. Years two and year three both increased by 34%. And even though last year was lower, just 20%, the company also pivoted toward more growth, hiring and expanding its capabilities.
His secret to financial success? “I let Go Figure handle it. All of it.”
“Creatives live and work in the abstract,” says Rachel Siegel. “As a creative, your headspace is your workspace. If it’s taken up with worrying about forms and finances, it’s hard to do your best work. And that’s where we come in and connect those things.”
Connecting those things means that Go Figure functions as Em Agency’s CFO, handling everything relating to cash flow, business planning, and taxation issues along with bookkeeping. “We help shape major investment and financing decisions, and help him understand the big picture when he needs to,” Rachel says.
Jamie adds: “The way I see it, a good client is one who trusts you to do your job. I don’t walk into an accountant’s office and tell them how to do taxes. Why would I want an accountant to come in and tell me how to design? I practice what I preach when it comes to the numbers: Trust the experts to do great work.”
