Aaron Skipper and Ayo Fagbemi of Explorers Club
Ayo Fagbemi and Aaron Skipper discuss brave strategy, playful design and building culture-shaping brands with intention, clarity and heart.
In under two years, Explorers Club
has grown from a fresh creative idea into a global studio shaping culture for brands including Atlantic Records, Coca‑Cola, Nike, Instacart and Universal Music.
Behind it are Ayo Fagbemi and Aaron Skipper: the duo who bring strategy and design into perfect balance. Speaking at a session for The Studio, Creative Boom’s own private network, the pair opened up about their journey so far, the lessons learned along the way, and what it really takes to build a creative company with purpose and staying power.
“We met working on Nike at Wieden+Kennedy,” Ayo explained. “That mix of strategy and design between us just clicked. Eventually, we realised that partnership was worth building a whole studio around.”
Learning through partnership
Explorers Club now works between London and Los Angeles. Its growth, both fast and focused, has been rooted in a shared belief that every brand has “a kind of secret genius waiting to be uncovered”. As Ayo puts it, “It’s not about inventing something new. It’s about discovering what’s already there and bringing it to life; visually, verbally, experientially.”
Aaron and Ayo describe their studio’s foundation as an ongoing exchange. “The title of this talk could easily be: ‘What a designer taught me about strategy, and what a strategist taught me about design,'” explained Aaron.
That spirit of collaboration runs through everything they do, both within the team and in how they work with clients. “For us,” Ayo added, “strategy is a commitment to making brave work. Our job is to help clients be distinctive and disruptive, but still true to themselves.”
Music to Movements
That belief came to life early on with Atlantic Records UK, a project Ayo calls “our real launchpad”. The label had been questioning its role in a rapidly changing music world where artists increasingly go independent. Explorers Club reframed its purpose around a new idea: ‘Music to Movements.’ “We asked, how do you take one track out of the 160,000 uploaded to Spotify every day and turn it into culture?” Ayo said. “That became the rallying cry.”
Their brand concept introduced a dynamic identity; one that’s “never still”, constantly in motion, from shifting logo animations to a living system spanning social, physical and digital experiences. The team even marked the rebrand by giving employees notebooks and reusable bottles to symbolise the fresh start.
This work didn’t just look good on case studies; it actually shifted perceptions inside the label. “The most exciting part,” Ayo revealed, “was hearing later that Ed Sheeran re‑signed with Atlantic; in part because the label had found a new confidence through that work.”
Play and community
Play, the pair argue, is central to meaningful creativity. “Design should connect both head and heart,” said Aaron. “That intersection is where the best ideas happen.” And so last year, Explorers Club published their first book, Play Is the Highest Form of Research; borrowing Einstein’s line as a manifesto for keeping curiosity alive. They gathered responses from clients, collaborators and friends across the industry, asking how each keeps playing in their creative lives, then turned those reflections into a visually rich publication.
Every spread paired a quote with a bespoke piece of design. The cover, playfully blank, was hand‑spray‑painted at the studio so no two copies were alike. When launched at London’s Barbican, the book became a collaborative event: readers made their own covers and rearranged letters to spell new words.
Community sits at the heart of all this. Explorers Club began life above a London café‑bar, where they put on game nights for a mix of designers, artists and musicians. “It levelled the field,” Aaron said. “Everyone just showed up as people.” That sense of togetherness now informs how they design for brands. “Culture isn’t something you tap into,” Ayo noted. “It’s something you build with others.”
Deep work, fast moves
Another hallmark of Explorers Club’s approach is combining depth with speed. “Strategy is the deep work that allows for fast work,” Ayo said. “You do the thinking first, then you can move instinctively.”
He shared insights from their project with Instacart, creating Fizz, a Gen Z‑focused app for spontaneous snacking and drinks runs. “Once we understood the audience, we realised the chat interface—something we all use every day—could be the beating heart of the brand,” Ayo explained. “It even reshaped how we spoke to the client. We adopted the same language and energy in Slack. That made the collaboration faster, more human.”
That human connection, he added, kept projects enjoyable even at high speed. “Sometimes we’d be messaging clients with typos and in‑jokes. It sounds small, but it builds trust. One of our clients from that project, Fidji Simo, is now CEO of Applications at OpenAI, so the work clearly made an impression.”
From structure to movement
Then came Coca‑Cola. Partnering with Universal Music Group, the drinks giant was launching a new label: Real Thing Records. “It was all about structure,” Aaron explained. “Strategy gave the foundation; design made it live.”
The visual system revolved around a simple cube inspired by the front of a Coca‑Cola can. This shape became a responsive space, shifting and morphing in real time to the rhythm. Each song shaped the motion differently; generative design as brand expression. “It was coded to behave uniquely for every artist,” Aaron said. “It needed that sense of presence, legacy and artistry. We wanted the fans to see themselves in it, not just the brand.”
The launch at London’s KOKO music venue captured the energy of a live crowd, feeding footage straight into the identity system. “Nothing feels more authentic than fans in motion,” Aaron noted. “That’s how you bridge brand and culture.”
Designing for audiences
Throughout their work, Ayo and Aaron repeatedly returned to a central idea. Don’t create for your industry; create for your audience. “It’s easy to make work that lands well on LinkedIn,” Ayo said, “but harder to make something people actually care about outside our bubble.”
Their recent holiday campaign for Instacart put this into practice, designing hundreds of assets that ranged from out‑of‑home placements to tiny digital banners.
“Whether it’s a billboard or a banner ad,” Ayo explained, “the craft and care should be the same. The audience doesn’t experience a hierarchy. They just see the story.” For him, good design is democratic: “You meet people where they are, and that’s what makes it powerful.”
Simplicity, clarity and culture
Closing the session, Aaron turned to one of their latest collaborations: Fred Again’s 10‑week global tour, pairing weekly single releases with live shows. “We wanted it to feel tactile and human; no phones, just presence,” he recalled. “The whole idea revolved around flags: big, analogue symbols updated every week with a new city’s name.”
This minimal system turned spectators into storytellers. Fans began documenting the flags themselves, posting images from each venue. “That’s when you know you’ve hit something real,” said Aaron. “When the audience does the storytelling for you.”
Even the workflow reflected that stripped‑back energy. “The entire project ran on WhatsApp,” Aaron laughed. “We probably don’t even have the team’s emails. But it meant decisions happened fast. Everyone moved as one.” That tight‑knit collaboration, Ayo added, mirrors the ethos at the heart of Explorers Club. “We like to feel like an extension of every team we work with. That’s when the best ideas happen.”
Lessons for growth
Asked to reflect on their rapid rise, both founders returned to where they started: synergy and sincerity. Strategy gives direction; design gives form. Together, they create clarity that cuts through the noise of modern culture.
“Everything moves so fast,” said Aaron. “The attention span is tiny. But if your message is clear and brave, it finds its place.” Ayo agreed: “Bravery, play, partnership and clarity,” he stressed. “Those are the threads that run through everything we do.”
Explorers Club may still be young. But its story, and the lessons within it, already serve as a reminder to any creative studio. When you build with intention, you don’t just stay relevant; you help shape what’s next.