Cultural Coherence · Strategic & Creative Direction

Fabien
Pons

Creative Director building a framework for human-first organisations.
20 years across Beauty, Lifestyle, FMCG, and Tech — globally.
Helping brands reconnect with people and society through cultural intelligence.
London · Paris · Available globally

Emailsofabwork@gmail.com
Phone+44 7585 366 217
Frameworkwhatmakesushuman.co
Portfoliofabienpons.com
LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/fabienpons
Fabien Pons
Who I Am

I am a Creative Director who built a framework
because he realised creativity had been put
in the wrong place in organisations.

Twenty years directing global brands — L'Oréal, Estée Lauder, Tinder, Adobe — taught me one thing above all: the organisations that lose relevance don't fail because of bad campaigns. They fail because what they say they are and what people actually experience has quietly stopped matching.

That gap has a name: Cultural Coherence. And closing it requires creativity to operate upstream — before the brief, before the strategy, before anyone decides what to say.

What Makes Us Human is the framework I built around that conviction. It is a diagnostic and strategic method that helps organisations reconnect with people and society — by reading what has shifted before it becomes a problem, and aligning identity, strategy, and expression around what is genuinely true.

This is why I am moving out of advertising. Not away from creativity — deeper into it. Toward the work that matters most: helping organisations become coherent before they try to communicate.

What I Do
01

Cultural Diagnosis

I read the gap between what an organisation says it stands for and what people actually experience. Before the brief. Before the strategy. I name what is not being measured yet.

02

Strategic Creative Direction

I direct the creative process as a strategic act — upstream exploration that reveals identity, territory, and the truth an organisation can credibly own.

03

Organisational Coherence

I align what an organisation stands for internally, what it expresses publicly, and what the people around it actually feel. When those three things align, relevance becomes a consequence.

The project that built the framework

Tinder is the reason
What Makes Us Human exists.

This project is where everything changed. It is the direct origin of the WMUH framework — the moment Cultural Coherence stopped being an intuition and became a method. Tinder was widely used but culturally eroding among Gen Z — not because of bad advertising, but because the brand had stopped listening to what dating had actually become for people.

I led an upstream creative exploration with no brief, no KPIs, no campaign targets. A small team of young creatives investigated how dating was actually lived. What surfaced: it had shifted from finding someone to discovering yourself. The brand had not moved with it.

Two years later, Match Group's CEO repositioned Tinder around identity and emotional connection — the exact territory the exploration had already mapped. Before strategy named it.

This is how I want to work with every brand that believes people matter more than metrics. Read the culture first. Then build.

Read the full case study →
Seeing what others don't measure yet
What Makes Us Human — The Framework

A framework built to name
what organisations cannot measure.

What they say they stand for, how they operate internally, and what people actually experience — these three things have quietly drifted apart in most organisations. The gap is invisible on a dashboard. But people feel it immediately.

WMUH is a diagnostic and strategic framework that works upstream — before the brief, before the campaign. It asks: Who are you really? What has shifted in the culture around you? Does what you express still reflect what you truly are?

Reveal

The organisation's real identity — not the stated version.

Interpret

The cultural environment — what has shifted before it becomes obvious.

Align

Identity, strategy, and expression — so relevance becomes a consequence.

Explore the full framework →
Experience
2023 — PresentLondon / Paris

Creative & Strategic Director

What Makes Us Human · Cultural Coherence Practice

Independent practice advising founders and senior leaders on cultural coherence. Developed the WMUH Framework: a structured diagnostic for organisations at moments of rupture. Work upstream of brief and strategy. Author of public thought leadership on Cultural Coherence and the structural role of creativity.

2020 — 2023Paris

Deputy General Manager & Executive Creative Director

87seconds

Transformed a production studio into a strategic creative agency. Creative and strategic direction across Adobe US, L'Oréal, Mondelēz, Filorga. Built and retained the agency's first long-term retainer with Grand Frais — France's leading new-generation fresh food retailer, 400 stores — producing 500+ assets/year with maintained creative coherence.

2017 — 2020Paris

Global Creative Director — L'Oréal Garnier

Publicis Conseil

Led global brand identity and creative systems across skincare, haircare, and colour — 130+ markets, ~15 international campaigns/year. Worked directly with senior L'Oréal leadership on strategic positioning and long-term cultural relevance.

2016 — 2017New York

Global Creative Director

Estée Lauder — Becca Cosmetics

Built the in-house creative department from scratch. 360 creative direction across product, packaging, campaigns, retail, PR, and experiential. Defined 'the expert of light' as core brand positioning. Led expansion into Sephora US and Ulta US.

2013 — 2016New York

Associate Creative Director — Maybelline

Code and Theory

Repositioned Maybelline's identity around authenticity, diversity, and New York culture — an early model for what brand coherence with a new generation looks like.

2010 — 2013London

Senior Art Director

Jam (Engine Group)

Pioneered the brand-as-cultural-sponsor model for Samsung, Microsoft, Sky.

2005 — 2010Paris

Senior Art Director

BETC (Havas)

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

2000 — 2005Paris

Co-founder & Art Director

Clockwise

Co-founded strategic branding studio for Cartier, Lancôme, Kérastase, Chaumet, Helena Rubinstein.

Fabien Pons Paris · London · New York

In a world where machines can produce everything,
the only real advantage left is understanding
what makes us human.

Above and below the surface
How to Work With Me
In-house role

Chief Creative Officer or Strategic Creative Director

Inside a brand that wants creativity upstream — not as a production function but as a diagnostic and strategic one. I bring 20 years of global brand direction and the Cultural Coherence framework to build from the inside.

Advisory & partnership

Cultural & Creative Strategic Adviser

Working alongside leadership at moments of rupture — repositioning, structural change, loss of cultural relevance. I run the upstream diagnostic, define the territory, and direct the creative expression that follows.

Sector focus

Human-first brands & organisations

Beauty, culture, tech, FMCG, lifestyle — any organisation where the relationship with people is the product. Where coherence between identity, culture, and expression is the real differentiator.

Geography

London · Paris · Global

Based between London and Paris. Native French speaker, fluent English. Career built across Paris, London, and New York. Available for international client work and travel.

Let's have
a real conversation.

Not about my CV. About the problem you're trying to solve — and whether Cultural Coherence is the missing piece.

sofabwork@gmail.com Read the framework → LinkedIn →