Fabien
Pons

Strategic & Creative Director · Cultural Coherence · London

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I work at the intersection of cultural intelligence and creative leadership.

I help organisations understand what has shifted — in culture, in their audience, in themselves — before deciding what to say or build.

My work is most useful at moments of rupture: repositioning, structural change, loss of relevance. I read what organisations aren't measuring yet. I translate that into creative direction, narrative, and systems that hold.

Experience across Europe, the US, and the UK. Global FMCG, beauty, tech, and consumer brands.

Practitioner
  • Campaign & content direction
  • Brand systems & narrative development
  • Creative team leadership & mentoring
  • Cross-market deployment
  • Founder & senior stakeholder collaboration
Thinker
  • Cultural diagnosis & upstream strategy
  • Identity coherence — leadership, culture, expression
  • Competitive intelligence through creative exploration
  • Structural repositioning
  • Strategic narrative for leadership audiences

The challenge was not acquisition.
It was relevance.

Tinder was widely used — but its cultural perception among Gen Z was eroding. I led the strategic and creative direction of an upstream exploration — no brief, no optimisation targets. A small group of young creatives explored how dating was actually lived.

What emerged: dating had stopped being about finding someone. It had become a process of self-discovery.

Two years later, Match Group's CEO repositioned the brand around identity and emotional connection — the exact territory the creative exploration had mapped.

Creative exploration as competitive intelligence — the shift seen before strategy named it.

See Case Study →
What Makes Us Human 2023 — Present
Strategic & Creative Director

I advise founders and leaders on cultural positioning, brand meaning, and organisational coherence. My work moves creativity upstream — before the brief, before the strategy — to reveal what an organisation truly stands for and build from there.

87seconds, Paris 2020 — 2023
Deputy General Manager & Executive Creative Director

Transformed a production studio into a recognised multidisciplinary creative agency. Secured major accounts including Adobe US, Grand Frais, Mondelēz, Filorga, L'Oréal, and Legrand. Built and retained the agency's first long-term retainer client producing 500+ assets annually while maintaining creative coherence.

Publicis Conseil, Paris 2017 — 2020
Global Creative Director — L'Oréal Garnier

Led global brand systems across skincare, haircare, and colour. ~15 international campaigns per year across 130+ markets. Integrated digital-first thinking into large-scale ATL, retail, and content ecosystems while preserving global brand consistency.

Estée Lauder — Becca Cosmetics, New York 2016 — 2017
Global Creative Director

360 creative direction across product, packaging, campaigns, retail, PR, and experiential. Built the in-house creative department. Positioned Becca as the "expert of light." Supported expansion across Sephora US and Ulta US.

Code and Theory, New York 2013 — 2016
Associate Creative Director — Maybelline

Redefined Maybelline's social brand around New York culture, diversity, and individuality. Celebrity campaigns balanced with community-driven storytelling.

Jam (Engine Group), London 2010 — 2013
Senior Art Director

Pioneer of social-first and YouTube content strategies for Samsung, Microsoft, and Sky. Helped position brands as cultural sponsors rather than traditional advertisers.

BETC (Havas), Paris 2005 — 2010
Senior Art Director

Digital and integrated advertising for RATP, La Poste, EDF, Banque Populaire. Built and scaled a creative team specialising in digital and integrated communication.

Clockwise, Paris 2000 — 2005
Co-founder & Art Director

Co-founded a branding and design studio for premium and luxury brands: Cartier, Lancôme, Kérastase, Chaumet, Helena Rubinstein.

Master's in Art Direction & Digital Design École Multimédia, Paris
Bachelor's in Psychology University of Nice

What Makes Us Human
A public platform on Cultural Coherence
and the structural role of creativity in organisations.

whatmakesushuman.co →