He worked for the world’s largest brands

Jason Murray (@jason_swet) spent 8 years as an art director in the traditional advertising industry. During that tenure, he spearheaded campaigns for Coca-Cola, LuluLemon, Brooks Running, and more. 

Jason has now turned that expertise into a personal brand, pursuing content creation full-time and founding his own newsletter and education company, Modern Art Direction. 

He spent nearly a decade inside brands so you wouldn’t have to. Now, Jason gives you the insights that turn your ideas into culture-defining projects.

Taste has always been framed as exclusive, but it’s really a starting point that you build on. What matters is how you apply it, and Jason shows you exactly how.

But here’s the distinction that reframes the dynamic between traditional brands and creators:

Jason isn’t just trying out content creation. It was always the goal from the moment he started. 

Jason made tons of personal content in his early twenties. Then he decided to go down the traditional advertising path as an art director for mainstream brands. He built his perspective and skills by working with the world’s biggest companies. And now both experiences have made him a better creator.

The traditional creative path and online creator route have always been framed as separate. But for Jason, both paths converged, and neither could have existed without the other.

That’s the exact message Jason Murray hopes to spread.

The creator economy’s conventional framing is like a new frontier. New rules, new hacks, new everything. Jason’s work argues the exact opposite, and that’s what’s truly innovative.

For instance, in a piece where he breaks down creator hooks, he showcases scenes from Breaking Bad and The Dark Knight, two of the most influential modern works in TV and film. 

The argument is that the guiding principles behind both are the same. Strategies from your favorite movies, shows, and art can be applied to your personal content.

“You just have to be willing to go outside your lane.”

Jason breaks down the elements behind art staples like The Dark Knight to help you understand why something works, not simply that it works. 

In doing so, he’s disproving the misconception that most aspiring creators face: taste isn’t innate magic like so many make it out to be. It’s a skill that can be honed through taking on many different perspectives.

If you’re a creator, you stay one-dimensional by solely living inside the creator economy. And if you’re a filmmaker or mainstream art director, you lose out on taste by disregarding creator ideas. 

In Jason’s words, “The goal isn’t to acquire refined taste, it’s to build comprehensive taste. Taste built from everything: film, advertising, art, the creator feeds.”

In a world that constantly shifts from one trend to another, @jason_swet proved that taste is timeless.

The creators who build off their taste in the newest mediums are the creators that’ll thrive even when the medium changes.

So stop living off trends. Build a perspective that’s always evolving, and no one can take it from you.