Franc James
Results pending
Project Overview
Franc James is a premium British fashion brand reimagining the silk tie for a new generation. Founded by Frankie Foster — horseracing presenter, content creator, and style enthusiast — the brand has woven itself into the fabric of the racing world through its products and storytelling. To prepare Franc James for its next phase of growth, we helped lay the foundations: an insight-led brand strategy, a complete brand identity built upon it, and a full overhaul of the Shopify store.
Brand Strategy
For decades, the silk tie has been the preserve of heritage houses, serving an older, wealthier, more formal customer. Our job was to find Franc James a distinctive position within this crowded, tradition-bound category.
After analysing the brand's touchpoints, from social content to customer reviews, three themes emerged: horseracing, Britishness, and — most uniquely — ambition. Frankie's audience isn't the old guard, but a new breed of doers: content creators, entrepreneurs, sportsmen, who work hard all week and celebrate in style at the weekend.
We positioned Franc James as their brand: attainably premium, unmistakably British, and free of the pretence of traditional labels. A tie for people going places.
Brand Identity
With the strategy in place, we built the identity from the wordmark up: a refined, minimal mark in keeping with the premium fashion space, but with a quiet individuality of its own. Alongside it sits a dedicated logo for the FJ 100 collection: a mark that evolves each year, with the vintage stamped into its lower section, lending a commemorative quality to each limited run.
Around these sit the wider brand elements: a serif-and-sans typographic pairing, a palette anchored by Turf Green with accents from Post Red to Cheltenham Gold, imagery guidelines built around ambitious people on the move, elevated social settings, and British craftsmanship.
Website Redesign
The final step was to bring the new brand to life online. We migrated the store to a new Shopify theme, adapting it in line with the refreshed guidelines — from typography and palette through to tone of voice. Product imagery was reshot across the board, covering both product and lifestyle photography, while the collections were reorganised and clarified, giving the FJ 100 and Studio ranges distinct, easy-to-navigate homes.
Impact
The new site launched recently, so meaningful performance data is still accumulating. With the brand foundations, identity, and store now in place, Franc James is well positioned for its next phase of growth. Results to follow.
