Creative Director Patricia Chareka (Image: submitted)
JCK Media & Design is looking forward to opening its doors in Uptown Saint John, even while its staff have already been hard at work throughout June.
Located in Brunswick Square, its nine-person team is split mainly across New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with satellite offices in Toronto and San Francisco.
“I think the biggest attraction is the fact that working with us doesn’t mean you get one product,” said Creative Director Patricia Chareka. “Your website, your videography, your social media, we’re able to do it all; we provide you a one stop shop for all your needs.”
The company offers services from co-working spaces, copywriting and website design and development.
JCK Media and Design at Brunswick Square (Image: Elizabeth MacLeod)
“We all love what we do, its reflective in our work so people appreciate that because we go above and beyond,” Chareka explained. “Because everyone used to have nine-to-fives, the majority of us anyway, we’ve all transitioned to being creatives to pursue our personal passions and I think that’s really reflected in the work.”
Chareka self-taught and honed her media design, development and videography skills while working as a creative executive assistant in Halifax and saw there was an audience for media and design services after shooting and editing her boss’s wedding.
She transitioned as a freelance digital media specialist in 2016 and began to pursue the idea of working with other creatives.
“I am always a fan of collaboration versus competition and I also believe that other creatives are able to help supplement skills that sometimes you may lack, and then you also have peers to help you review your work and to help you get better,” she said. “I thought that it would be great to include some other people as well.”
She added that Andrew Johnson and Greg Knudson, the “J” and “K” of JCK Media & Design, supported her pursuit of starting a business.
JCK Media and Design interior (Image: submitted)
JCK Media’s past projects include CAA, Lexus, Toyota, a project with Olympian boxer Mandy Bujold in addition to assisting on some Netflix productions while locally are at work on a project with the Saint John Community Load Fund.
The agency was originally supposed to open in March but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It instead had a soft opening on June 1, with the agency open by appointment and the team still working from home.
It was important to Chareka to open the main office here in Atlantic Canada. “I thought that I could help fill a gap in which we can provide top tier services, but for a cost that was reasonable, especially for a place like Saint John,” she said.
JCK Media operates as a social enterprise, developed from Chareka’s passion for design and desire to do more than collect a paycheck at the end of the day, encouraging businesses she says to succeed prioritizing people over profit first.
“For me the idea has always just been there were so many people that helped me and so many people who encouraged me with all of my crazy ambitious ideas that I really want to be able to give back,” she said. “I think it gives us a competitive edge.”
JCK Media and Design interior (Image: submitted)
Like many small businesses, JCK Media felt the strain of COVID-19 but it motivated them to want to help even more because they could empathize as a fellow small business what situations other businesses were going through. In response, the agency is holding an online contest for people in New Brunswick to win $1000 in services and a $1000 cash prize.
“There’s a lot of people who’ve been struggling because of COVID, so we’re really hoping to push the contest because we want to be able to help in any way that we can,” said Chareka.
The contest deadline is July 15 and people can enter the contest by liking JCK Media’s Facebook page and comment on how one intends to use the funds.
The agency plans to provide financial assistance for those wishing to pursue post-secondary education and is in a partnership with Coverdale Centre for Women. Chareka had filmed the video for the centre’s submission for ICS Creative Agency’s Thanks To You contest, giving away more than $35,000 in free services and wanted to continue their relationship.
“I thought to myself, this is great that we have something like this and now that I had been made aware to it and all the awesome and wonderful people that work there that I definitely wanted to maintain communication with them,” she said.
Being able to do provide creative services to Saint John while also giving back to the community is the best of both worlds. “I think first and foremost is I like the idea of being able to do what I love on a consistent basis, while also making a positive social impact along the way,” she said.
