To reach the summit of a lifelong dream is hardly a negligible feat. For most of us, entire years (if not decades) are filled with our inventions of an idealized future—the career or lifestyle just ample enough to merit the metaphorical exhale of sitting back to say, “I did it.” What we don’t tend to ponder, is what happens next. After all, once we’ve done all we planned for, there’s still life to be lived.

Five years ago, Jesse Rose and Jesse Rogg found themselves in a situation not dissimilar to this one. Thriving worldwide DJ and Grammy-nominated producer respectively, the two creatives were living big, working with household names and as they made and shared work that met the model of a lifelong goal. “We both got the things out of our careers that we felt were our dreams,” explains Rose. Now, it was time for something bigger.

It started with a simple observation, one that didn’t require looking far. Of all the artists in the world selling out shows and breaking records, a surprising amount lacked something essential. “We realized that [while] there were a few artists in the world that had a great creative team, most people were on their own,” says Rose. “And that it would be amazing to set up an agency in music that would facilitate every A-List artist being able to have a creative team around them.”

Just like that, the Original Creative Agency was born, the world’s first agency representing top-tier Creative Directors on a global scale. At first, it was all about music. The artists they worked with hardly ever had a creative team hand-picked just for them, and with a growing reputation came an increasingly impressive roster. Now, with an index of 50 creative directors globally—as well as an in-house studio—OCA represents almost 90% of the top 1% of music artists. 

It wasn’t long before the Jesses realized their company had a role to play outside of their industry. Fashion, film, brands, and technology were all areas that could benefit from the same representation, and it was a challenge the two were willing to tackle. “A real creative director will have empathy for the person or brand they’re working with,” says Rose. “The people that I work with aren’t working at a marketing company, they’re architects. They’re building something from the ideas of a creative”.

To date, OCA has backed a slew of industry-standouts, from Imogene’s creative direction on the visuals for Charli XCX’s critically acclaimed project Crash to Mike Carson’s Kendrick Lamar shows. With recent portfolio additions, signee Humberto Leon and film studio A24, it’s been quite the cultural landscape the company’s managed to cover. But with only five years behind them, the growing empire has hardly seen the last of its spotlight. It’s a journey of creation no one knows better than the two behind the wheel, so it won’t come as a surprise when it’s all uphill from here.

Learn more about OCA here!