Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Mote.
Hi Sara, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Where I am now is the culmination of many years of experimentation and discovery, driven by a lifelong appreciation for art, aesthetics and design.
In my early 20s, I started launching side businesses while working as a luxury fashion buyer. At night I set up my studio for still-life product photography and began signing clients for custom web design and development projects. The side projects quickly picked up speed and I quit my day job to co-found my agency — Mote.
Initially, everything was in-house — design, development, photography, copywriting, and marketing. I have always been deeply motivated by helping others achieve their goals, and I was invigorated by the level of control in creative direction. I reveled in the big picture thinking and strategic minutia of designing strong digital presences, over time that became the focus of our services and the business grew beyond my wildest dreams.
My day-to-day looks a little different now than it did back then, but eight years and countless launches later, I’m still so inspired by this work.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Choosing an entrepreneurial path — especially one that’s artistic or creative — means embracing a process of continual change. Bumps in the road are given in this kind of work, but they can point you to important pivots that need to be made in support of your growth. Ultimately I feel privileged to walk a path where I am constantly facing new challenges because they’re the very best teachers.
A challenge that I’ve been in conversation about with my team since the beginning has to do with capacity and our scale of operations. How many collaborators and clients can we take on while still maintaining true to our core values and the integrity of our work? It’s a perpetual balancing act between the expansion of the business and protection of our creative process. It seems counterintuitive when you’re just starting out, but learning to say “no” to projects that aren’t in alignment can be one of the biggest keys to growth.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The specialty of my company is e-commerce, which has a very specific set of design challenges and imperatives. The digital experience must be highly immersive and help a brand tell its story — and because it’s a transactional platform, function must always come first.
My process is a study in reduction, but I’m not just a minimalist for minimalism’s sake. The digital age is wonderful but highly overstimulating. My goal is to lower the cognitive load of a site so that the digital experience feels intuitive, engaging, and efficient. I rely on instinct and data in equal parts for this. There’s an extraordinary amount of consideration put into how someone is going to interact and connect with what we are building — ultimately it’s about the brand and product, and the website is the vehicle.
A project’s success is what matters most to me, and what defines that success changes from project to project based on the unique needs and goals of every client. At times this requires me to walk the line of sculpting a vision on behalf of a client while setting aside my own ego as a designer. At the end of the day, it’s more important that a project feels authentic to the brand than a fit for our agency’s portfolio.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
I operate almost exclusively in the digital sphere, and the most important lesson I’ve learned is to pull back and consider the human element. The science of doing this work is in the data, but the art is in expressing the individuality of the brands in a way that speaks to their customers.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mote.agency
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/s.a.mote
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/mote.agency
Image Credits
Portrait — sara-mote-01.jpg — Akemi Look Portrait — sara-mote-02.jpg — Akemi Look Exterior Shot — sara-mote-03.jpg — Case Fleher Floral + KLUR — sara-mote-04.jpg — Sara Mote
