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Studio Frank is a strategic and creative practice that studies brand origins to reengineer their future—modernizing brand value by clarifying purpose and building identity systems designed to endure, compound value, and shift culture through relaveance.

To be frank is to be honest and open.

Honest about the past. Open to the future.

That is our practice.

At Studio Frank, we study the origins of brands. By interrogating purpose and reason to exist, we surface what has been obscured to reveal opportunity—and craft those discoveries into renewed, modernized frameworks of identity, narrative, concept, and design.

Because brands are not static things. They are living systems—able to erode, reform, and accumulate meaning over time. To remain relevant, they must be continually reexamined, recalibrated, and reimagined.

Our work is both architectural and cultural: building structures that modernize brand value while disrupting industries and strategically shifting culture.

  • Studio Frank wasn’t conceived as an agency. It emerged from building brands in the real world—as co-founders, and alongside founders—operating inside companies and under real commercial pressure. That work has spanned organizations including Apple, AG, Legacy Mototor Club, BLDWN, The New York Times, Coldplay, P&G, The New Yorker, and TikTok, among others.

    Over the past two decades, that practice has taken shape across fashion, technology, media, entertainment, consumer goods, music, and sport—supporting brand creation, repositioning, global launches, and moments of cultural definition. The throughline has been consistent: studying what a brand was built on, clarifying what still holds value, and rebuilding systems capable of carrying it forward.

    That approach culminated in the creation of Frank August, an award-winning American whiskey brand founded to address a gap where heritage and modernity had yet to coexist. From naming and philosophy to identity, bottle design, and product architecture, Frank August was rebuilt as a living system rather than a nostalgic artifact—earning national distribution and top global recognition within its first three years.

    Studio Frank is the consolidation of that body of work: a focused practice designed to help brands navigate moments of inflection with clarity and discipline. Led by Johnathan Crocker and Thompson Harrell, the studio brings deep experience operating inside brands and building founder-led ventures—applying the same rigor used to build and scale companies to the work of modernizing brand systems. The goal is not reinvention for its own sake, but progress rooted in truth—preserving what matters, clarifying what’s essential, and building what’s next.

    • Brand Positioning → Category opportunity, cultural tension, strategic white space, future relevance.

    • Brand Foundations → Manifesto, vision, mission, purpose, decision-making alignment.

    • Brand Identity Systems → Typography, color, form, motion, rules, scalable design systems.

    • Brand Architecture → Brand hierarchy, naming systems, portfolio logic, extensions.

    • Modernizing Brand Systems → Heritage translation, legacy recalibration, contemporary brand logic.

    • Cultural Strategy → Cultural role, partnerships, platforms, earned relevance.

    • Value Creation → New positions, platforms, IP, brand-owned institutions, long-horizon growth.

    • Launch & Chapter Moments → New brand, new era, new product, or a reintroduction to the world.

    • Advisory / Partner-level involvement

    • Project-based (repositioning, identity systems, launches)

    • Retained creative leadership

  • Let’s talk at the inflection point. We typically engage when clarity is required—new chapter, new market, new identity, new cultural posture.

    Johnathan Crocker

    • jcrocker@studio-frank.co

    • Los Angeles

    Thompson Harrell

    • tharrell@studio-frank.co

    • New York