‘Driftime is an impact first creative partner. We are a creative agency whose mission is to empower progressive brands working towards social and environmental impact,’ says Taiyo. ‘We do that through our knowledge and expertise of design and aim to do that in accessible ways so that resources can be freed up for vital on-the-ground work as opposed to spent on things like design, which can in most cases be very expensive and quite exclusive.’
Taiyo and his wife Sara set up Driftime in 2016 after careers with big design agencies. ‘We fell out of love with the corporate environment and realised we wanted design to have more responsibility in the world,’ says Taiyo. ‘But as our reputation grew, so did our prices. And we realised that people who needed that level of resource could no longer afford us. It felt like a bit of a disservice, particularly when people working for social and environmental causes need support because it has largely been stripped away,’ he continues.
Driftime set its mind to making design more affordable to those organisations. ‘We did it through repeatability and predictable outcomes. And we’ve done it long enough now that we have a good degree of confidence in the results. We know what needs to be done and we can do it in a very efficient way.’
The company has provided digital design and storytelling for an organisation supporting women and children in conflict zones, which led the organisation securing a partnership with the UN.
It has also developed a brand and campaign for Art Not Evidence, which seeks to exclude creative content, particularly rap videos, from use in court. ‘Those music videos were used as evidence to put young black men in prison, simply because they were in the background rapping on a music video, and that was being used to say, you’re part of a gang,’ explains Taiyo. The website launch sparked significant press attention, which led to support from the music industry and a host of barristers, lawyers and MPs.
‘Our plan is to maintain the position we’ve always held, which is to be the fairy godmother to their Cinderella,’ says Taiyo. ‘The story isn’t about us. We’re not the protagonists. We’re just helping them on their journey.’
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