A brand is a set of signals. Repeat them well and they become shortcuts in the mind; live them and they become a culture. I design for what the brand sets in motion, not just what it says.
Meter is the design office of MJ Jackson, independent creative director. More than twenty-five years in branding, packaging and advertising, across sport, automotive, travel, property and luxury, from start-ups to global names.
I start with the why before the what, finding an original idea in an unseen truth, then make it simple, distinctive and consistent wherever it appears.
I’ve always been a hands-on designer. I put small, strong teams around each project, bring in the right specialists and stay in the work, from the first workshop to the finished film.
Running a studio since 2014 taught me what a brief costs, what a client needs to hear, and how to protect the work from both.
Capabilities
Brand strategy and positioning
Identity and design systems
Digital and web direction
Campaign concepts
Art direction of film and motion
Building and leading design teams
Previously
Conductor
Co-founder, creative director
2014–2026
Pelotan
Advisory board, investor
2025–
Freelance
SAS, Small Back Room, Bandstand
2013–2014
Ideas Factory, Formula One, PI Global, Hunts, Oxford Illustrators
Illustrator to design director
1995–2013
Select clients
Formula 1, UK Sport, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Canyon, Campagnolo, Saucony, Find a Race, Rouleur, Le Col
Elsewhere
Poetry of sorts as The Stile Council, lazy jazz-influenced pop as Cheapskate, and host of the quiz But Is It Jazz? A lifelong runner and cyclist, and an ex-semi-pro footballer of little merit.
B-sides
Cheapskate
Lazy jazz-influenced pop, recorded to tape in a homemade studio. Rhodes, outboard and videos cut from found footage.
But Is It Jazz?
A new quiz for the jazz curious. Season one is out now, season two in the can.
The Stile Council
Poetry of sorts, established recently. Reader’s stile submissions welcome. We aim to return all original photographs.
mj@thisismeter.com
@this.is.meter
Wales and London
