Creativity Squared: Diving in Head First Once Inspired with Nethmie Hetti

Nethmie is a senior art director who has bridged together a diverse range of skills by working in advertising, start ups, and building her own creative projects. She started her career in Toronto at Bensimon Byrne, then Havas, followed by Diamond, and shifted to the Montreal agency scene by joining LG2, and Cossette a few years later. She has worked on clients ranging from fashion (Top Shop, American Apparel, Doyle), to sports and recreation (CCM, Sea-Doo, Bombardier), tourism (Bonjour Quebec, Tourism Montreal), banks (TD Bank, Scotia) and dairy brands (Liberte, Agropur) to name a few. Prior to joining Sid Lee, Nethmie established the first creative team at a Montreal-based bitcoin startup, Shakepay. When she’s not working in advertising, you can find her drawing on toilet paper, and interviewing elders.

Person 

The creative within me has a life of its own. Once I got into advertising, I started exercising my creative muscles, and overtime started to feel, and witness the speed and quality of my ideas improve. I think a lot of creatives can relate to the fact that once you’ve nurtured that creative side of your mind, your subconscious constantly starts thinking and spitting out new ideas, both on and off-brief, even when you just want your brain to be quiet. 

A few years ago, I read a concept in Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert which I truly resonated with. It was that creative people are conduits who channel ideas with a higher potential to bring them to life. The more you create, the more ideas you receive, as you make that neural pathway stronger. The reason why I resonate with this concept so much is because time and time again, I produce work that I can’t understand where the idea came from, or how I actually made it. 

That’s probably where my personal brand of being an experimental creative comes into play. Anyone that knows me knows I’m always up to something radically different from year to year, to the point where my family and friends have running jokes about how they can’t keep up with my mind or my lifestyle. It’s because to me, being creative runs into all facets of life - it’s my career, it’s my lifestyle, it’s my hobby and it’s my way into spirituality.

I dive in head first when I get inspired, with a sense of naivety and childishness sometimes, and that applies to all facets of life. The more you overthink an idea, the more the magic of it disappears, so I just go ahead and do it. I believe its so important to keep that childish playfulness within us, so that you can still as a fully grown, mature adult, answer client briefs, and also have the ability to tap into little you, to come up with the weird, wacky and wonderful ideas that allows your soul to dream. And when you find that balance between the two, it cultivates the best environment for great ideas to thrive. 

Product 

Personally, I recognise a great piece of creative as something that makes me wish I did it myself, because that is a genuine reflection of my appreciation in revealing a perfect execution. When you see work that inspires, there’s always a little fire under your ass that propels you to be a better creative. Some see that as healthy competition, and I see it as an collective evolution towards producing better and better ideas both inside and outside of the ad industry. 

I think our design game in the industry, especially at Sid Lee, is absolutely killing it right now. To me, there was a lull for a while in advertising work coming out as a whole, where I was feeling uninspired from what was being produced. So I left advertising for a bit, and hopped into a Series A Bitcoin startup in hopes of awakening the inspiration inside me again - but I’m happy to return with a lens of new appreciation to the ever-evolving ad world. 

Process 

I believe that we have seasons in how our minds generate ideas, especially as creative women. There’s a Spanish folklore called La Llorona that talks about a weeping woman that sits by a river that ebbs and flows to the reflection of her inner experience. When her mind is in a good place, the water is clear, and flows beautifully. When she’s not taking care of herself, or if she’s burnt out, the river gets muddy, and runs dry altogether. I guess that’s also known as creative block - which all creatives experience. My workaround to keep that flow going is to maximise developing work when you’re at your peak, and really allow your mind and body to rest before you hit that ceiling. 

For me, travelling is incredibly intertwined with this flow. I need to experience places that give me energy, talk with new people, discover delicious food, and then after all the adventures are over, I love coming back to a quiet space for months on end, where I can take the external stimuli, let it incubate, and make something of it.

My travels have inspired me to answer agency briefs, create music videos, cover a 37-foot roll of toilet paper with European cityscapes, brand and host my own retreats and start a storytelling content series. The funny thing is, once you actually bring to life certain ideas that have been eating at you day and night, they never come back, and there are other ideas that keep haunting you to create more, as if the work’s not finished yet. So it’s important to listen to that voice. 

Another way I listen to my creative voice is through meditations. I’m a spiritual person in my personal life, and grew up with buddhist philosophies (which tend to hugely contradict with values you find in the advertising industry) but I’ve consciously brought my two most dominant traits of creativity and spirituality together, and I’d say they make a good partnership. 

That’s also where the power of collaboration comes into play - with other people. I’ve been incredibly lucky to work with incredibly talented creatives that elevate projects to another level. Creative partnerships make ideas richer, your partners call you out on your bullshit if 

you’re stuck on something unnecessary for too long, and above all, collaboration elevates the game for everyone. 

Press 

There’s no one-size-fits-all way to be a good creative. I think the strongest creative environment is a place that brings together diverse minds, with different upbringings, different values, mindsets and different lifestyles. Different perspectives bring wildly different ideas to the table. 

Cultivating good creatives also comes from encouraging people to develop their own passion projects outside of advertising briefs. That’s where you get to explore your own ideas without obstacles, and I love the fact that Sid Lee really values and supports this aspect for creatives. I’ve invested time, money, and a lot of energy into my passion projects over the past 10 years, and in all honesty, I don’t think my career would’ve panned out the way it has without my passion projects being a reflection of my potential, and showcasing what I can create. Each project I curated, led me to different career opportunities, and collaborations which I’m extremely grateful for. They’ve made me develop interchangeable skills that I wouldn’t necessarily find in being an art director because I had to wear so many different hats through each project, by having to become a producer, interview host, content creator, editor, illustrator, retreat leader, hosting meditations and yoga classes, and being a part time college instructor. 

Personally, the biggest driving force that propels me to produce great work is knowing that it will lead me to discover parts of myself, work with incredibly talented people, mentor others in the process and unlock skills that maybe I never thought I could have.