Frances Gordon: content strategist, content designer, marketer and trainer

A focus on clarity, fairness and innovation defines Frances’s approach to her work, whether she’s marketing, writing, designing or training.

Frances started her career in rural South Africa where she worked on educational materials for community development projects. In 1996, she moved into the corporate sphere, where she held tenures at Datatec as communications strategist, and at London-based Siegel & Gale as Senior Content Strategist and Head of Content, Europe and Middle East.

Frances has worked on documents and websites for blue-chip international companies such as Capital International, Barclays, Old Mutual Wealth, NatWest, Vitality, Orbis and NS&I.

In 2005, Frances Gordon co-founded Simplified, an international training and consultancy firm with capabilities in the UK, Australia and South Africa. Its services include communication and content strategy, content design, content audits, plain-language rewrites of financial, legal and other content, and training.

Frances has also held a VP Content Strategy role at Barclaycard UK and served as Head of Content and Brand at fintech, Oradian.

Frances sat on the board of international plain language organisation, PLAIN (Plain Language Association InterNational) in 2010.  She served as part of the IPLWG (International Plain Language Working Group), which comprises international experts working to professionalise the field of plain language and create a new ISO standard for plain language. She was also part of the advisory committee of IC Clear, an EU-funded initiative that developed a post-graduate course in clear communication.

Frances is a regular speaker at diverse conferences and often focuses on the need to build bridges between different areas of an organisation: legal, marketing, communications and IT professionals must work together if content is to be consistently usable and useful across the customer experience.