In March 2020, as shelter in place orders were popping up like food trucks in 2008, no one couldn't have predicted the magnitude of what would come next--for our health, country, or economy. But we did feel the immediate, and very real, impact of so many brands and organizations putting the brakes on all of the work they'd planned for 2020, leading to layoffs at unthinkable rates.

Working in a creative-driven industry, we knew that some of the first jobs to be lost wouldn't be the ones that were talked about on the news, or even counted in traditional unemployment numbers: when budgets are tight, freelancers are often on the front lines of the aftermath.

Because freelancing is so much a part of the agency world ecosystem, we heard from friends and colleagues all over the country about the gigs that fell through, the contracts that were canceled, and the challenges they were facing to find any kind of meaningful income. And although we knew we couldn't hire all of them at Media Cause, we wanted to find a way to help.

So we did what we do best: combine our creative and marketing chops to give these amazing freelancers access to our networks, and a way to showcase their skills to new audiences. The result was our Freelancer Feature, an Instagram series highlighting ready-to-work creative talent who were open, willing, and able to jump into a variety of projects, from design to SEO, copywriting to photography.

Freelancer Feature

We imagined all of the freelancers and their graphics acting as a great portfolio for anyone looking for creative help, but still work well as a collection.

To thread that needle, we created collages that combine the headshots of the freelancers with samples of their work. We were careful to allow their work to inspire the shape of the collage, more deeply showcasing the unique creatives themselves. We chose mid-century modern colors and retro fonts to complement the more free-flowing graphics and to act as consistent threads to tie the campaign together. The resulting aesthetic is engaging, with tons of personality, but not overwhelming when viewed as a collection as compiled below.