Jay-Ann Lopez

Black Girl Gamers CEO & Founder

Words by Fayola Douglas Brand Editor, Amplify

Jay-Ann Lopez, CEO and founder of Black Girl Gamers, was inspired to start her communitypowered business when she found herself feeling lonely online after struggling to find other Black women who were interested in gaming. Having faced sexism and racism while gaming, Lopez sought out like-minded online comrades on social networks to develop a new community that she could feel part of. Black Girl Gamers has evolved into a multi-platform, female and LGBTQIA+ inclusive online gaming community of over 8,000 Black women that share a passion for gaming. The platform aims to heighten its community’s voices.

Establishing community

Black Girl Gamers started off as a passion project. I was lonely when it came to gaming online. I didn’t have many Black woman friends who played games. When you play games and you’re a woman and Black, you will experience racism, sexism, or a mixture of both. To avoid that, I created a Facebook group and invited some women that I had met on social media to join. As the community grew, the business also grew, becoming a community-powered business that works on consulting, events, talent brokering, content and community workshops. As well as being able to show gaming content and the latest news, we’re also challenging the industry to do better and be better when it comes to representation, diversity and equity and inclusion for women, underrepresented people and marginalised sexualities and orientations.

With the community, we have rules and codes of conduct because you can have bad actors in any community, regardless of race or gender, sexuality, or orientation. Our community values became our brand values and our brand ethos, and that’s how our brand grew. When you’re creating worlds, it is important to build a system so that the world revolves around the essence that you built it on. If you don’t maintain that essence, then it’s not the world you’re creating, it’s the world it’s become. And that’s completely different.

Brand connections

I think brands need to pay attention to the fact that there’s going to be a lot of TV, film, gaming and IP crossover in the next two years. It’s already happening with The Last of Us, The Witcher, Cuphead, Sonic and Super Mario. TV and film is an unexpected area for a business like ours but it actually makes perfect sense.

Recently we worked with Paramount around the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. We sent members of the BGG community to free screenings across the US and all we asked for was a video or photo in return. It created a sense of excitement – some members met up to go together, others were able to take their kids, everyone had a good time.

It’s really important to understand that gamers don’t just want to be in the house by themselves. If you look at E3, the Game Awards, Pax East and Twitch Con, there are loads of events where gamers want to come together, because ultimately, even though there are lots of single-player games, there are lots of community games and gamers like to share their love of gaming with other gamers. Ultimately, gamers like to feel close to publishers, they like to feel special, and they like to feel like they have the in on something. So, you can work with communities and influencers as part of IRL activations that will propel your brand.

Beautiful crossover

Avatar: The Last Airbender is my favourite cartoon of all time. It has elements of Asian culture, but also really great life lessons about balance, right versus wrong, the greater good, and spirituality. Whenever I want to just unwind I’ll just watch it again for the 500th time, I am fully immersed in that world.

I pay attention to a lot of marginalised, independent designers. I love Hanifa, Brandon Blackwood and the magazine and platform Black Fashion Fair. I think fashion is one of the ultimate ways to express yourself. I’ve recently been doing some work with Kurt Geiger and adidas. It’s been nice to show my whole self. What typically happens with gamers is we get put into the gamer box and no one else wants to touch us. I’m showing that gamers can have so many more passions than just playing a game.

The crossover between gaming, beauty and fashion seems to be unexpected, but it’s actually really harmonious. I created and co-produced an event called Gamer Girls Night In, which is an event specifically for women and non-binary people in gaming with fashion and beauty elements. There’s a nail bar, DJs, custom cocktails, gaming areas and career clinics. We had Riot, Twitter, YouTube, NYX Cosmetics, 2K and Ubisoft as sponsors.

I really like taking inspiration from different places and am inspired by other creatives in anything from art and photography to fashion and nail art. Ultimately, what drives me is creating legacy and self-expression – legacy for myself and my community and authenticity, being my best self in this thing we call life. Life’s too short is one of my mottos.

New vanguard of storytellers

In TV, film and games, I think there’s going to be a new vanguard of underrepresented, marginalised individuals who are going to create some fantastic stories. Old gatekeepers are going to have to take a step back and understand that the same gaming franchises and stories that they want to keep telling to generate profit are just not going to do as well. They have to really relinquish some of that power to those who haven’t had it historically and allow them to create new, exciting, innovative stories.

There’s a game coming out called Black Myth: Wukong. It’s the kind of game that we’ll see come to the forefront. That space is often occupied by games like The Last of Us – games with great IPs but typically have a middleaged white man who has lost a daughter or wife, has a gruff look, is very burly and closed-off emotionally. I think those characters are going to fizzle out eventually and different types of protagonists are going to take the stage. I loved The Last of Us, Uncharted and other similar titles, but give me something else – I’m ready.

Explore Jay-Ann Lopez’s world:

Instagram: @jayannlopez_ + @theblackgirlgamers

Online: https://www.theblackgirlgamers.com/

Noah Sacco

You can pick an A24 film out of a line up. Yet no A24 film is the same. Its house style is that there is no house style. It’s this pioneering, against-trend, indie approach to filmmaking that has set it apart in the industry in recent years.

And Noah Sacco, Head of Acquisitions and Production embodies this ethos entirely. A New Jersey native, Sacco has spent the last few years bouncing from New York to LA, acquiring and producing some of the most creative and boundary pushing titles of the last decade.

A true believer in creators and artists (his parents are both artists themselves), Sacco supports and empowers filmmakers to realise their visions in the purest way possible as he and A24 look to create communities and a brand around filmmakers and their films.

Instagram: @A24

From The Weave Project to Chubby Hearts, Anya Hindmarch has been bursting out of her category as a fashion and accessories designer and using her skills to play in the world around her. In 2018, guests were invited to enter a state of relaxation as they were enveloped by a Chubby Cloud beanbag big enough to hold up to 90 people at a time. Returning to Pont Street, the site of her first store, Hindmarch operates from a village of stores. The Village Hall is an evolving space that recently housed The Ice Cream Project, where cult food brands including Heinz Baked Beans and Bird’s Custard were available in ice-cream form. Inspired by her collections, Hindmarch is able to create experiences that capture even the most dormant adult imaginations. Instagram: @anyahindmarch

Actor. Producer. Football Club Owner. Entrepreneur. Marketeer. There are hybrid talents. And there is Ryan Reynolds. The Canadian star has excelled in the art of authentic marketing, using all of his talents and networks to speak to audiences in ways they want to be spoken to. Mastering the art of making product a key character in any narrative or content, Reynolds and his agency Maximum Effort ensure audiences don’t only not mind being marketed to, but are genuinely entertained. Blurring the lines of his own brands with those of his clients, he – like his on screen character Deadpool – constantly breaks the fourth wall of the industry.

Ryan Reynolds

And as co-founder of non-profit Creative Ladder, Reynolds is ensuring the next generation of under represented creatives and communities can get into the industry.

Instagram: @vancityreynolds

How do you open the doors of a cultural megalith to a global and socially savvy audience? In his former role as head of digital communications at The Louvre, Niko Melissano spent more than a decade carefully leading the revered French institution’s social media presence. As an early adopter of Pinterest and with an established presence of close to 5 million followers on Instagram alone, The Louvre has cultivated a virtual audience eager to experience and engage with the collections and spaces of the palace and its gardens. Melissano has spoken of the need to constantly keep a fresh lens when representing the different cultures and civilizations of the world, citing Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s video at The Louvre as being a pivotal moment for younger audiences.

Instagram: @nikomelissano

Frieda Gormley

Founder of House of Hackney.

Forget a wash of magnolia on the walls and a couple of grey throw pillows, for House of Hackney more is more is definitely the way to go. Frieda Gormley founded the interiors brand with her husband Javvy M Royle. Together, the pair wanted to be brave and showcase something on the opposite side of the spectrum to the reserved clean lines seen in Scandi style homes. Their bold, bright colours, mixing prints and clashing patterns provide a much needed break from the ordinary. Born in Hackney, the brand can now be found flourishing in the Cornish countryside. The pair have even unleashed their world on Castle of Trematon in Saltash, Cornwall, turning the rooms into House of Hackney maximalist design creations.

Instagram: @houseofhackney

Comic book creator, illustrator, music video director and songwriter Jamie Hewlett’s career trajectory encompasses everything from stints creating anarchic comic strips through to grappling with character development to create the world of Gorillaz. His creation Tank Girl, originally co-created for Deadline and followed by a film and comic miniseries, focused on the world of a teenage tank-driving punk who dated a mutant kangaroo. Some pretty beguiling characters also dominate Gorillaz, the virtual band Hewlett created with Blur’s Damon Albarn. Accolades include the Design Museum’s Designer of the Year award and Hewlett debuted his first exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in 2015. In his new art book, Phoo Action: Silver Jubilee, Hewlett shares some of his comic strips originally published in The Face, alongside his process art. At the close of 2022, Gorillaz took over New York’s Times Square and London’s Piccadilly Circus for two AR shows, directed by Hewlett and Fx Goby.

Instagram: @hewll