Equator Design’s New Global MD
Global packaging strategy and design agency, Equator, has appointed Rachel Johnson as the company’s Global MD. She has responsibility for all the company’s studios worldwide, including Chicago, Cincinnati, Manchester, Nottingham, Sydney as well as new locations due to join the network in 2023, along with a remit of delivering ambitious growth plans.
Equator is part of SGK, a global packaging and brand experience group with 1500 clients worldwide and multidisciplinary expertise across all forms of marketing strategy and implementation. Johnson takes on the role of MD at Equator with an 18-year track record under her belt. Having begun her career at SGK-owned cross-media production agency, Schawk in 2004, she has risen through the ranks to become commercial vice president of SGK in 2020, before taking the reins at Equator.
“Equator is a force within SGK,” explains Johnson. “The company has never lost the passion and purpose of an entrepreneurial, owner-managed business, with its innovative under-one-roof business model and collaborative approach to delivering insight-centered, category-defining, commercially savvy design. Those qualities have driven growth as Equator’s studio network has expanded around the world. The company’s track record in the retail sector brings a strength to SGK that opens the door to collaboration, knowledge sharing and growth, and this is a very exciting time for me to join a company that has achieved so much and has so much potential to continue pushing boundaries.”
Johnson spent more than a decade at SGK creative agency, Anthem Worldwide, with responsibility across client service, strategy and managing the creative team. At Equator, she will leverage her FMCG experience to build on the company’s portfolio of national brand work, while continuing to play to the company’s strengths in own brand packaging.
