The world’s most valuable companies aren’t just known, they’re understood. They make decisions easier, align what they say with what they do, and remove hesitation at the moments where it matters most.
What sits behind that isn’t design as veneer, but as a system of thinking and doing that connects identity to behaviour, and ambition to what actually gets built. That’s where I work.
I define and shape strategies, identities and products for complex environments where the cost of confusion is high. For over three decades I've built global teams and shaped brands, products and strategy across health, technology, automotive and consumer sectors, leading programs of work that have transformed businesses and enriched the lives of millions.
Each project was built to equip leadership teams with clarity, capability and the tools to create long-term brand value, commercial advantage and cultural relevance.
“James is one of the greatest creative minds I have had the privilege to work with. He does not feel limited by medium and his creative storytelling is equally compelling in print, digital, video or as a physical installation. His attention to the smallest detail is inspiring and I respect that in him enormously.”
KELLY BENNETT
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, NETFLIX
“For over a decade at Apple, I oversaw the design and development of some truly iconic pieces of software. In all that time, and in all my time since, I’ve not come across anyone else with the raw talent, and the ability to focus it, that James possesses."
PETER NELSON
FORMER DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING, APPLE
AKQA
I co-founded AKQA at 21 and spent two decades building it into a global design and technology company with over 4,000 people across 14 studios. In 2012, WPP acquired a majority stake for $540m.
Our work defined how brands operate in a digital world. From the earliest days of the internet to connected products and global platforms, we created experiences and services that set the standard for how digital was conceived and executed. Working with the world's most ambitious organisations, our work ranged from industry-defining consumer platforms to entirely new service models, built for audiences of millions across every major market.
We designed our culture on the values of innovation, service, quality and thought, and on hiring the most talented, diverse people we could find, giving them a clear vision and the autonomy to pursue it. Many went on to lead studios, companies and disciplines of their own. That is the legacy I'm most proud of. AKQA created, in every way imaginable.
NATIVE
As CCO of Native I led multidisciplinary teams of engineers, materials scientists, industrial designers and researchers across some of the most demanding briefs in consumer electronics, automotive and healthcare. From redefining HP's OMEN gaming platform to conceiving Ford's autonomous vehicle future, we delivered brand, experience, industrial design and communications as a single integrated act, not separate workstreams.
Our work had to function perfectly, first-time and at scale in the real world. From prototyping through to production, we were trusted by the world's leading brands to turn ambition into reality by making things that actually worked, not just looked like they might.
Projects ranged from high-performance consumer electronics to next-generation automotive and critical healthcare platforms. The work centred on designing systems that support real decisions, where usability directly affects outcomes and people rely on them to do the right thing, quickly and with confidence.
ABBOTT
For the past three years I've been embedded at executive level inside Abbott, leading a program of work that spans the entire organisation across cardiovascular, nutrition, diagnostics, diabetes care, neuromodulation and consumer health.
It is the most complex and far-reaching engagement of my career, and in many ways the fullest expression of everything I've spent three decades learning to do. Brand system, behavioural frameworks, physical and digital product development, built not just to make Abbott more recognisable, but to make it more useful to every person who encounters it.
A clinician reaching for a device, a patient managing a chronic condition, a consumer making a health decision. These are the moments this work is designed to serve. It ties together products, services and experiences to make Abbott greater than the sum of its parts, giving its audiences the certainty that they've made the right decision. Consistently. With complete confidence. And at a global scale.
RESEARCH & VENTURES
Working with MIT, UBC and Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, across AI-driven precision nutrition platforms, next-generation biological threat response, and machine-vision skin anomaly detection. Designing what health systems should be, by giving people genuine control of their wellbeing, and making that accessible to more people in more places.
KNOWLEDGE SHARING
As a speaker on the subjects of leadership, creativity within business and the principals of holistic design, I am honoured to have been invited to talk to the world’s most forward-thinking organisations and educators. As a visiting professor my aim is to bring real-world experiences, insights and radically different perspectives to the students, and faculty alike, so they are inspired and enabled to more clearly define and accelerate their careers.
