Franke James, Co-Founder
Franke James, Co-founder, The James Gang, is a creative innovator, artist and writer. She has been profiled on television, radio and in print about the company's new media and game projects, including an in-depth interview on the CTV show “Innovating Tomorrow”.
In 2006 and 2007 Franke won recognition for her environmental visual essays,“A Green Winter: Will Global Warming be Good for Canada?” and “My SUV and Me Say Goodbye”. The essays have been featured in the Toronto Star, the Ottawa Citizen, Treehugger, Worldchanging, and in numerous blogs. “A Green Winter” will be published in an anthology of readings for Canadian university students entitled Perspectives on Contemporary Issues, including authors Stephen Lewis, Ken Dryden, David Suzuki, Margaret Atwood and others. Co-edited by Kim Blank and Stephen Eaton Hume, University of Victoria. (Thomson Publishing, Autumn 2007). For the Green Living Show in April 2007, Franke reinterpreted “A Green Winter” as an animated movie, with music composed by David Gray, Big World Songs.
Franke is the inventor of an ethical dilemma-based card game: Office-Politics®, the game everyone plays. The game launched in 2004 and is now in its third printing. The dilemmas are based on letters submitted to the Office-Politics web site from 2002 to 2007. It has found a special niche in the training market, and won positive reviews from organizations as diverse as Unicef and the US Army. Feedback from players has been excellent and demonstrates that it can be a useful tool in bringing office politics problems into the open. The game is useful for team building, enhancing communication, exercising ehical muscles, raising awareness, and understanding culture and fit. Caryl Stern, Chief Operating Officer, UNICEF used the Office-Politics® Game at an event and provided this feedback, "The presentation went really well! The audience (55 academics) loved the scenarios + had quite a bit to say. What a discussion we had! It was fabulous! We ran a half hour over and they asked to keep going! Thank you so much!”
The 2006 Girl's Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch) by Caitlin Friedman, Kimberly Yorio features an interview with Franke about Office-Politics and the Office-Politics Game.
Franke's fascination with psychology is reflected in the online games and quizzes which she has co-created with James Gang co-founder Bill James. They include The Room [Umbra], The Love Quiz, The Looking Glass, Office-Politics [Online Contest], Whack the Mayor, and 'Whack the PM (2004, 2006). Their joint work has been featured on AOL, USA Today, Yahoo, iVillage.com as well as in many publications, including Rockport Publishing's "The Best Work from the Web."
The James Gang's satirical humour grabbed headlines during the two Canadian Federal Elections in June 2004, and most recently in January 2006. The 'Whack the PM' online game drew more than 33,000 visitors to the site. Roy MacGregor in The Globe and Mail reported:
“The most interesting "poll" to follow this seething country may, in fact, not even be a proper poll at all but a bit of a prank on the Web called Whack the PM. Run by a Toronto visual-arts group called the James Gang, the site has been tracking nothing but public anger -- and has run uncannily close to the shifts in the more legitimate polls.”
The Toronto Star, National Post, CBC Radio, CTV News, Global TV News, CH TV News, CKOM Saskatoon, 610 CKV, QR77 Calgary Today, London Free Press, the McLuhan Foundation blog plus numerous online sources, also covered the 'whacky' story.
Jim Carroll, Futurist, Trends and Innovation author, invited Franke to do the photography and design for the cover of his book: 'What I Learned from Frogs in Texas".
"I must say, I have never worked with a more creative individual in my life -- and you have truly been a remarkable partner in making my What I Learned From Frogs in Texas book a success! Not only did you provide an absolute brilliant book cover and Web site, but you truly helped to shape the essence and soul of the book, particularly when you came up with the subtitle for the book: "Saving Your Skin with Forward-Thinking Innovation." This, more than anything, demonstrated to me that you are much more than a brilliant designer -- you are a brilliant thinker as well!" Jim Carroll
Editorial and Advertising clients have included Resolute Funds Limited, Roots Canada, Umbra, iVillage, Sony Music Canada, Upper Canada College, Stella Artois, Monster, TELUS, Algorithmics, Changepoint, Moveable Type and the Ontario Government among others.
In March 2003, Franke organized and led a Trade Mission to Los Angeles for the Ontario Media Development Corporation. The mission delivered high level networking opportunities for Canadian new media producers to meet with key American executives at major entertainment studios, content aggregators and game companies. The blockbuster list included Universal, the WB Network, Warner Bros, Sega, Disney Online, Film Roman, Yahoo!, Google, Lions Gate, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Creative Artists Agency, William Morris, ICM and Mondo Media.
Franke has presented at events and conferences including Sheridan College, CUTC, NMBA, Flashforward San Francisco, Flashforward New York, and the World Animation Celebration, Hollywood and has acted as a Judge for the Flashforward Film Festival and Marketing Magazine's Digital Awards.
Check out Franke's Global Warming blog at www.frankejames.com
Contact Franke:
- Email: franke@jamesgang.com
- Phone: 416-256-9166