Simon Dixon: Being brave in the creative industry

Simon creates disruptive digital-first brand experiences, by exploring the intersection of creativity, design and technology overlap. This approach has now expanded into content and storytelling. Although Simon is driven by a genuine desire to deliver outstanding work, he has received many awards over the years, including BDA Gold, Beazley Designs of the Year – Design Museum, Clios – Gold, Creativepool Annual – Branding People’s Choice, Promax Award and Transform Award Grand Prix.

The Barbican Theatre was again sold out, with a broad mix of creatives from different disciplines and all levels of experience. Most importantly, many students attended. PDF believes strongly in nurturing young talent, and attracting important speakers like Simon is vital for inspiring the next generation of designers. This is why PDF is also launching a Student of the Year, details of which will be announced soon.

Everyone was captivated by Simon’s presentation. Despite his immense success, Simon has never forgotten his Yorkshire roots. He came across as engaging, enthusiastic, relatable and human. It was only when Simon casually discussed projects like rebranding the streaming platform Hulu that you were reminded of his creative prowess.

Simon started with an introduction to DixonBaxi, and discussed his partnership with Aporva. Both founders have different but complementary skills, which encouraged a collaborative approach from the beginning. In the early days, when they had no employees, one would work on a design, save it and send it to the other for them to develop further.

The studio name reflects the founders’ belief that collaboration creates something greater than its constituent parts. It’s not ‘Dixon & Baxi’ or ‘Dixon + Baxi’, but DixonBaxi. The combination of Simon and Aporva has developed a third entity, which is dedicated to developing brilliant designs for brands.

Forming great partnerships is pivotal to PDF. Without our generous sponsors Eat Work Art (EWA) and GF Smith, we wouldn’t be able to curate these events and invite great speakers. Since 2009, EWA has revitalised disused buildings into flexible workspaces for independent creative communities to grow. For over 135 years, GF Smith has enabled the design community to bring creativity to life with one of the oldest materials.

After several years, DixonBaxi had a solid reputation and a full client list, but for Simon busy didn’t mean success. Although the studio produced good work, Simon didn’t think they were working at their best. As a consequence, Simon and Aporva developed a manifesto for everything they believed, including who they were and what they did.

Simon said: “You can’t wait until you’re successful to have values.”

DixonBaxi was relaunched with a new focus, but this involved saying goodbye to many clients. Turning down work is always a huge risk and many of Simon’s loved ones (and bank manager) thought his decision unwise. Now, with the benefit of much documented success, we can say confidently that the gamble paid off, but this was not foreseeable at the time. The studio initially had no work for six months, which is every creatives’ worst nightmare.

Slowly they won new projects and their approach, developed around their core beliefs, delivered unbelievable results. DixonBaxi grew steadily from being a respected studio to a global industry leader in delivering transformative creative. On average, two billion people interact with designs DixonBaxi originated.

People, design and money (in that order) is the agency’s ethos. Of course a studio must be profitable and help clients to increase market share, but for Simon this is the result of great work and never the driving force. Instead, Simon believes that brilliant design improves people’s lives. By serving people’s needs, they will form close meaningful relationships with brands, which then leads to financial success. You also can’t achieve great designs, without hard work, experimentation and fearlessness.

The people aspect of the agency applies to how they approach projects. Often studios complete one phase, before ‘passing the baton’ onto a different team or to the client for the next phase. DixonBaxi takes the opposite approach. At the start of a project a team is assigned, and everybody then works on all aspects until the work is complete. The studio also breaks down the barrier between agency and client. Instead, the client is considered an active part of the team, helping to discover and develop the best solutions.

Design for Simon is a physical process. Although DixonBaxi embraces digital technology, Simon believes a more analog approach fosters better design. All ideas are handwritten, drawn or printed then stuck on the agency walls for everyone to see. In other words, the team is literally immersed in their creativity.

Starting a project without relying on computers, forces people to properly develop ideas. Digital technology makes finding information easy and AI can quickly create good content, but this shouldn’t be confused with creativity. Good design should be something new and meet specific needs. This requires designers to really consider the people they’re trying to help. Once solutions are identified, then digital technology can be utilised to dramatically enhance and deploy creative concepts.

The impact of DixonBaxi is exemplified through their work with AC Milan. The iconic Italian football team has an illustrious 120 year-old history, and has produced some of the greatest talent and moments in the game. Despite their prestige, AC Milan needed to expand its fanbase so it could continue competing against other internationally recognised teams.

Inspired by this incredible past but focused on future glory, DixonBaxi designed an AC Milan brand for a new, diverse generation. Simon explained how they transformed AC Milan from a football team into a lifestyle brand. The manifesto ‘Milan to Many’ became the driving spirit, with the brand rippling beyond their stadium, across the city, country and the rest of the world.

The new identity was built upon Milan’s core values of teamwork, excellence, passion and elegance. This fuelled the wider design language, which took cues from fashion, lifestyle and Italian culture. The brand became more than the game – it was a way of life.

The updated brand is adaptable and relevant, and can be applied in countless imaginative ways. From bus wraps to fashion-wear that goes beyond a football shirt, the brand feels like it belongs to everyone, but always Milan.

Sometimes great design involves recognising already established great design. For this reason, the logo (a beloved symbol full of heritage) was left untouched, except for a slight colour update so it works better on digital platforms.

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