Jon Daniel

Independent Creative Director

Independent creative director, designer, activist, Design Week columnist and Design Week Awards judge Jon Daniel died in 2017 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018.

Through his Four Corners column, Daniel set out to spotlight the work of designers from the African diaspora, bringing Design Week readers stories of emerging, established and pioneering designers.

He was a perennial networker and a dogged hard worker, with an enviable contact book. He knew so many people. His appetite was driven by a genuine desire to share designer’s stories, as well as his broad love of design and creativity.
For the column he reached Emory Douglas, the art director of US revolutionary organisation The Black Panthers, which sprang up during the civil rights movement in the 1960s and many other greats.

After starting his own consultancy, the Headland Creative Company in 1988, Jon took a series of art director roles with London ad agencies including Collett Dickenson Pearce and latterly Leo Burnett, where he left as board art director in 2004.

In 2012 he struck out as an independent, which gave rise to a hugely prolific period including many social projects. You may have seen the Afro Supa Hero exhibition, built around Jon’s personal comic collection, at the V&A Museum of Childhood.

Jon was highly politicised and engaged in pro-bono work to increase the black vote around various UK elections. In particular he worked with Simon Woolley, the director and founder of Operation Black Vote, who says Jon “helped put black participation on the political map”.