A world of her own design
OPX Studio’s CEO Frances Jackson was late getting into the world of design, attending a school that “didn’t think art was a relevant subject.” During college, one student actually tried to advise the board to not allow her on the graphic design course.
Now she tells me about navigating her way through the design industry in those early days and where she thinks design and branding sit within present-day culture.
For most people, Elephant and Castle in London isn’t considered life-changing. However, it is home to The London College of Printing and this is a place that proved to alter the direction of Frances’s life. “It was, and still is, a famous school in terms of its credentials around typography and graphics and design”, she explains to me. The graphics and design element wasn’t on her radar, however, until she had already started her Journalism course there. “The intention was to do two years but I was beginning to notice other people doing graphic design. I didn’t even know that was a thing that existed and you could do.”
A new world had opened up in front of her and not wanting to ignore it, she approached the people running the graphic design course. “They told me to go and create a portfolio and if it was any good they would let me join. I went away and, for three months, all I did was draw.”
And then came a discouraging student. The interview board consisted of those running the course and final year graphic design students, one of which tried to advise the senior members of the board to look elsewhere, obviously believing this was a world graphically designed for them but not a previously aspiring Journalist. However, the advice was ignored and Frances got in. “I was on a four-year graphic design course. During that time I really learnt what the industry was about…before I had no idea.”
One condition with the course was to work for a year in industry, during which time she worked with different studios, “primarily quite large ones”. Her mark was made and she was offered a job to take up once she’d finished her final year and degree. “I went straight into a design studio called Coley Porter Bell — a big corporate branding agency.”
The world soon fell victim to take-overs from very large communication agencies, and a PR company in buying mode made Coley Porter Bell it’s next purchase. Surely this had some impact on the way design agencies were beginning to operate? “The bigger the agency became, the more layers there were so there wasn’t that immediate relationship you got with a client. I was beginning to struggle with this structure…it created lots of politics and it sometimes meant creativity suffered as a result”.
A sixth-month stint in Italy to start something new became three years working for a couple of much smaller-scale design agencies where the focus was re-applied to the craft of design without corporate distraction.
London and famous type designer Erik Spiekerman’s ‘Meta Design’ followed. “At that time they were tiny — there was eight. I went to work as a senior designer and while I was there, the student who had said I should never do graphic design was running the London agency!”. This time Frances was treated as an equal and later she would become Creative Director.
While at Meta Design, a breakthrough occurred as she began to realise how design and brand could work together to be “a business changer”, re-shaping business “in how it’s perceived but also in terms of how employees perceive it as well. We could use design and creativity as a tool for engagement.”
Engagement itself seems in short supply nowadays. We’re about three new iPhones away from running out of it completely. Everything is memes and shareable videos, everyone wants instant content all the time. I wondered whether this presents a challenge for designers when it comes to engaging an audience with a dwindling attention span?
“I actually think for designers it’s a bit of a gift. It’s only a matter of seconds that people will stay on a page, therefore it places lots of importance on the language that says I recognise you and understand you and I’m going to give you what you want and provide the visual that will engage you.”
But with this societal issue of distraction, are people still going to be investing their precious, shrinking attention into brands? “I think brand loyalty is definitely on the wane. People are very quick to move and align with something else.” Because there’s always another option? “Exactly. We align with brands whose values we trust. The consumer is now much more prepared to say that doesn’t work for me, I’ll just move on to this next brand.”
But we can’t remove brands because whether we like it or not, we need them. “The challenge comes with mega-brands. I think it’s impossible to get away from them, even if they don’t fulfil your values like brands are meant to these days. But sometimes it’s just impossible to function without engaging with them.”
In terms of her own design and branding-agency, Frances wanted to ensure OPX was always transparent in terms of how it spoke to its audience. “My challenge was to place us in a position where the client is coming to us with their aspirations, and also their problems. It’s important they feel like they can tell us what their challenges are, then its a question of us being problem solvers…I’m really interested in the art of communication, specifically visual communication.”
It is clear that Frances knows where she wants her company to sit in the design world. What is also clear is that London is still the place that attracts designers. There’s a strong creative industry here and it feels like a melting pot of talent. It’s become a place that Frances has clearly learnt to value over the years.
OPX’s studio is based in Hoxton, in the east corner of the capital, embedded in arguably the heart of one of the most creative postcodes in the city. There’s only one problem…it’s not Elephant and Castle, but then again, Frances Jackson was never a journalist.
Frances Jackson is CEO of OPX
Interview by Henry King, Copywriter
Article first published on OPX Medium