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RACHEL GOGEL
EP.89
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Rachel Gogel
Growth through an outsider's perspective
In Episode #89, Ross is joined by Rachel Gogel, Independent Design Executive and Educator.
Rachel’s work is informed by her experiences both in-house and agency side. Since founding her solo consultancy in 2020, she's worked as a fractional creative leader, embedding with organisations at an executive level on a part-time basis.
Rachel has partnered with global companies such as Airbnb and Dropbox, and women-founded ventures like Chicken & Egg Films and Anew. Before going independent, she built multidisciplinary teams at GQ, The New York Times, Facebook, and Godfrey Dadich Partners. The through-line? Rachel specialises in inflection points, steering strategic change at the intersection of brand, culture, and technology.
Ross and Rachel discuss why fractional leadership works, how an outsider’s perspective inspires creativity, and why making flexible employment decisions supports growth and financial fruitfulness.
Highlights
We believe that a brand should be an asset. It should be something that actually generates equity and revenue for the people who own it. But at the same time, I think we live with all of these exploding AI tools and freelancers and the ability for people to create their own stuff. You're seeing these two different kinds of companies emerging. People who are doing brand in a grassroots way, quick and dirty and just getting it out of the way so they can move on to the thing that they're actually doing. And then there's another pool of people who are interested in actually delving into brand and investing in the different elements of it and scaling up. - Ross
We need to be more transparent about compensation and money. It is still a pretty taboo topic to talk about, in the US for sure, in a lot of different cultures, generally around the world, people don't organically just share how much money they make or what they charge. By sharing, we end up creating accountability and then help each other get paid equitably. I do it with the hope that more people will do it, and then if more people do it, we can help each other get paid more. What happens is, if you end up undervaluing your worth, whether that's as a fractional leader or a designer or any title in the industry, you're setting a precedent for what clients understand that skillset is valued at. - Rachel
It's not just about if you can pay the person, it's whether or not you also have the resources to execute the things. It doesn't help if you come in and tell me that I need this whole design team and these are the roles and this is what they would do, and then I can't actually acquire that talent and put them to work on the things. I think it's also a bit of a mindset piece. Like: “This is something important, and we believe that investing in design and creative culture and building teams and creating the skillset internally is going to add long-term value to the business.”. That's the mindset I think people need to have to engage in something like this. - Ross
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The sweet spot for me, for the fractional roles, has been companies that are a little bit more mature - not necessarily startups or early stage, where they don't understand design or haven't even attempted to try to build a creative team or studio. Usually, I'm inheriting a team that is either broken and needs that next stage - whether they're lacking a creative director or leader and need to be pushed to the next level, or maybe it is the birth of a new in-house creative team. The company itself has tried a bunch of different things before and maybe haven't succeeded. - Rachel
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More about Rachel Gogel
Rachel Gogel is an independent design executive whose work is informed by her experiences both in-house and agency side. Since founding her solo consultancy in 2020, she's worked as a fractional creative leader, embedding with organisations at an executive level on a part-time basis. Rachel has partnered with global companies such as Airbnb and Dropbox, and women-founded ventures like Chicken & Egg Films and Anew. Before going independent, she built multidisciplinary teams at GQ, The New York Times, Facebook, and Godfrey Dadich Partners.
The through-line? Rachel specialises in inflection points, steering strategic change at the intersection of brand, culture, and technology. Named one of Creative Boom’s “20 graphic designers inspiring us the most in 2025”, she has influenced many energising projects for her clients, from launching publications from scratch to scaling brand identity systems.
Beyond her design practice, Rachel is a passionate educator. She's developed curricula for California College of the Arts, School of Visual Arts, and The School of The New York Times. A queer advocate championing marginalised voices, Rachel addresses industry inequities through her mentorship commitments, speaking engagements, published writing, and active involvement in purpose-driven initiatives.
Recognised on Forbes and Inc.’s “30 under 30” lists over a decade ago, she later earned a 2022 Webby nomination for spearheading the Departures magazine rebrand. Rachel's insights have been featured in PRINT, Creative Review, Creative Boom, Fast Company, and Design by Women. After hours, you can find her museum hopping, playing basketball, or plotting her move back to her beloved hometown of Paris (January 2026).
Find Rachel Gogel here:
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