Meg Vazquez-Pastrana, Head of Creative for Shutterstock, speaks about building a thriving creative team and why nothing’s more important than finding your people.
One year into her role as Head of Creative for Shutterstock, Meg Vazquez-Pastrana manages a busy team of 14 people—video editors, designers, writers, project managers, and more—as they serve the daily and long-term creative needs of stakeholders across the company.
“My job as Head of Creative is essentially an air traffic controller who loves design,” Vazquez-Pastrana jokes, but her light-hearted comment is based in an undeniable truth— her job requires high levels of collaboration, coordination, and creativity to ensure her team’s efforts take off and land successfully.
Born and raised in Chicago, Vazquez-Pastrana studied Graphic Design and Illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore. Fresh out of college, she found herself in Washington DC, working full time on design for the Democratic National Committee, while doing gig posters on the side for touring bands like Bloc Party and Sleigh Bells.
After one more politics-related design job with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign in New York, Vazquez-Pastrana moved over to GQ magazine as their Digital Art Director before taking on the role of Creative Director at Splice.
We spoke with Vazquez-Pastrana to learn how she ensures her people are moving, all together, toward greater things, how she ended up at Shutterstock, and what it takes to build a thriving creative team.
Images by Meg Vasquez-Pastrana.
Shutterstock: What made you want to join the Shutterstock team?
Meg Vazquez-Pastrana: As a creative, I’ve always loved the idea of working for brands that champion creators and the creative process. That, coupled with Shutterstock holding a place near and dear to my heart, made me want to join the team.
SSTK: Some people may not have a good grasp of “Head of Creative.” Can you sum up for us what you do? What does your job title cover?
Vazquez-Pastrana: My job as Head of Creative is essentially an air traffic controller who loves design—I’m kidding! But really, a lot of my job is meeting with stakeholders throughout the company to understand what their needs and goals are, how our brand foundations are either supporting them or lacking, and then taking that information back to my team and helping prioritize what we’re working on, when we’re working on it, and what we might need to push forward.
At the team level, I’m working incredibly close with my leadership team, overseeing creative operations, design, video, and copywriting to audit our work and think strategically about how we want to improve.
SSTK: There are 14 people on your team working in different creative arenas. How do you balance that and maintain seamless collaboration?
Vazquez-Pastrana: Collaboration is incredibly important, especially for a team this size. Last year, we started to introduce something we call “agile working groups.” That sounds very fancy but, really, it’s just a way for us to structure collaborative groups so we can keep an eye on each person’s bandwidth and give everyone space to be creative without being too overwhelmed with workload.
Every project might not require heavy work from each of those team members, but it creates a great rhythm for consistent collaboration, communication, and gives everyone a chance to lead and have their voice heard.
SSTK: So, how do you maintain a sense of life and creativity in your team? How do you keep things fresh and thriving?
Vazquez-Pastrana: I encourage the team to look outside of our brand, industry, and even design for inspiration. One of the designers on my team created a separate team room in Slack for creative inspiration where she’ll often drop in prompts that get the team thinking outside of the box.
We also find time to do the occasional Organized Fun™ event outside of work. One of my favorite events was a hacker-themed escape room that was great for team building.
SSTK: What’s the biggest challenge facing you/your team at the moment, and how do you plan to overcome it?
Vazquez-Pastrana: The industry is always changing and has been changing rapidly over the last year or so. That means that my team has a lot to analyze and process—as it relates to their workflow—as we try to keep pace with the world at large.
SSTK: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned along the way?
Vazquez-Pastrana: The most important lesson I’ve learned along the way is to LISTEN and to ask questions! I think of my role as a creative lead as almost being an investigator. That holds true whether it’s working with stakeholders internally or listening to your audience.
It’s something I always ask my team to do—put yourself in someone else’s shoes: How might this resonate with them? What are they looking for? What are those deeper questions we can ask that will make our end result more powerful?
Photos by Meg Vasquez-Pastrana.
SSTK: If I’m a new entrepreneur, and I’m about to build a creative team, what advice do you have for me regarding hiring and vetting people? How do I know I’m choosing the right people?
Vazquez-Pastrana: My rule of thumb when hiring is to ask myself, “Do I think I’ll enjoy working with this person?” Obviously, I’m doing portfolio reviews and looking at resumes, but I do think it ultimately comes down to chemistry.
Will this person be the partner I want to turn to with an idea and receive a “yes, and” from? Do I think this person will bring a different viewpoint to the work? What life experiences brought them here?
I think diversity in all senses is so important when building a team—if everyone has the same background, the work just won’t hit its possible potential. It’s going to be boring!
One other thing I love about hiring is finding out if the candidate or team member has other hobbies, skills, or interests outside the job description. Those moments have been some of the most rewarding for creative output.
A designer with secret illustration skills? A writer who loves film photography? You never know what those interests will bring to the table creatively.
SSTK: What defines a good team player for you?
Vazquez-Pastrana: I love problem solvers—if something is tough or frustrating, can we work through it together? As you can expect, things don’t always go smoothly. Sometimes, it can be frustrating.
I look to my team to take a deep breath and start to think about possible solutions or ways forward.
Shutterstock Brand Studio solving problems . . . creatively. Meg Vasquez-Pastrana featured far right, gesturing forward.
SSTK: What are some important things that people in the creative department often miss?
Vazquez-Pastrana: Something one of my old managers (and mentor!) used to say to our team at the time was that the creative team should be “fun and easy to work with,” and that has really stuck with me.
I don’t take that to mean that the team always has to say yes to things outright. Anyone who has worked on a creative team knows that the workload can be very demanding.
BUT, I do think that by making our stakeholders our collaborative partners—building an actual relationship with them—ultimately makes everything so, so, so, so much better. It gives the creative team a louder voice at the table, it builds trust, and it makes space for the work to be FUN.
SSTK: During your time with Shutterstock, which project are you most proud of, so far?
Vazquez-Pastrana: Our brand campaign: “If it’s in your head, it’s on Shutterstock.” We produced the ad internally, and I’m just so proud of the work this team can do.
SSTK: From your perspective, what makes stock imagery, footage, and music so important?
Vazquez-Pastrana: A creative ALWAYS needs their toolkit. In my opinion, what we offer are avenues to lower that barrier to entry, to bridge the gap between idea and execution.
I think about my own creative process, and what I’m able to do is exponentially larger with stock imagery, footage, and music than it would be without it.
SSTK: What’s your favorite thing about working in the creative asset space and for Shutterstock, in general?
Vazquez-Pastrana: Creating is FUN. There is so much joy in brainstorming and creating—the trial and error that comes along with trying to bring an idea to life. I feel really grateful (and excited!) to be right in the middle of it all.
License this cover image background via MURRIRA. Illustration of Meg Vasquez-Pastrana by Nicole Schenck.
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