how to inject frankie creativity into your small biz’s branding

In case you missed it, we’ve got a very exciting new project here in frankie land – studio frankie! A one-stop-shop that brings creative projects to life, studio frankie is all about creating engaging content and campaigns for brands we believe in. Think of it like all the cool stuff we’re doing over at frankie magazine, except for your brand. To take a peek behind the curtain, we picked content director Emily Naismith’s brain about all things creative branding.Tell us about studio frankie and your role within it. I’m the content director of studio frankie. Basically, that means I come up with ideas for our clients and then make them happen! I work closely with a bunch of frankie writers, photographers, illustrators and other creatives to bring our projects to life.

How is studio frankie different to what readers will find on the frankie blog or in the magazine? It’s similar in that it’s the same frankie aesthetic and vibe, but the work we do is mainly focused on creating content for the client themselves, as opposed to the frankie audience. Sometimes what we create also appears in frankie magazine or on our website, which was the case for some fashion shoots we’ve done in the past with Uniqlo. How collaborative is the process between studio frankie and the brands you work with? It’s pretty collaborative in that we ask for a very clear brief at the start so we can deliver what our clients want without too much back and forth. When I write up ideas, I try to make them as clear as possible in how the brand will be used and integrated so everyone is on the same page. 

frankie has such a distinctive voice and style. How does that inform the assortment of brands studio frankie works with? It’s very easy to work with brands that have a similar ethos to frankie – a lot of our clients do, which is why they’re drawn to us in the first place. But, having said this, it’s always fun to take a brand that you may not think of as frankie-related and make content that feels like it makes sense within the pages of frankie. I’m thinking about a dog food brand we worked with a while back – probably not something you’d usually come across in the pages of the mag, but we did a really fun crafty fashion shoot where we showed people how to make a DIY snuffle mat, which makes the process of eating food more engaging for dogs (like they’re foraging in the wild)! studio frankie has worked with a bunch of rad brands like Marimekko and Uniqlo. Do you only work with big brands? No, we also work with smaller brands in lots of ways! If bringing to life a product shoot for your website or helping design a street poster is something you’re interested in, we would love to help out. 

Who are some of the creatives that you get to work with in the studio frankie network? There are so many, but in particular I love working with Phoebe Powell, one of our frankie photographers. She’s been shooting editorial photos for the mag for ages, so when we have a bigger studio frankie brief, she totally gets it straight away. She has even been the star of one of our branded content campaigns herself. What have been some of your favourite campaigns to bring to life and why? My favourite was the first big shoot we did for Uniqlo which promoted a JW Anderson collab. The photos appeared in the Uniqlo LifeWear magazine, website and in-store globally. The photoshoot was at the colourful bathing boxes in Brighton and we thought of lots of fun and kooky Wes Anderson-esque poses. The only thing was, the day of the shoot saw the beach whipped into an apocalyptic frenzy with gale force winds and gross foam all over the sand. When we got there, we had to postpone the shoot to another day. Thankfully, our wonderful photographer Bri Hammond and the rest of the creative team restructured a few things to reshoot when it was calmer a few days later and the shots turned out perfectly – so colourful and whimsical. I’m proud of all the work we create, but I was particularly proud of that big shoot!

Take a gander at some of the ripper campaigns studio frankie has brought to life this-a-way. Keen to get started on your next creative project? Pop over here to find out more.

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