Welcome back to our Curated x Estelle. Series, where we feature our favorite designers, tastemakers, and influencers of all things art and life.
Meet Kira Mackenzie Jackson, the Chief Brand Officer at SET Active. Kira leads all aspects of brand, marketing, scale, and creative strategy at SET Active. With a background in private equity as a growth-stage investor in consumer brands and marketing, contributing to two successful agency exits, Kira has a unique perspective on brand differentiation. In addition to her role at SET, Kira also serves as a board advisor to RX3 Growth Partners, a growth equity firm, and continues to support emerging brands as an angel investor and advisor.
Estelle.: How would you describe your taste—what draws you in, and what makes something feel timeless to you?
Kira: My taste sits at the intersection of restraint and richness. I'm drawn to pieces that reward closer looking - whether it's texture that elicits the illusion of touch, the discovery of new details with each glance, or the layered meaning beneath a simple line. What makes something timeless for me isn't perfection or adherence to a style; instead, it's personal resonance mixed with confident execution. I appreciate things that are quietly complex - structured yet unserious, minimal yet textural, classical yet with an edge. I'm also not precious about "high" vs "low," or adherence to one particular style or medium - timelessness, for me, is about craft.
E.: When you think about building a brand, how do art and creativity come into play in shaping its world?
K: Art isn't decoration for a brand world; it's integral to its core. My attraction to pieces that are structured yet unserious, and offer little worlds within a larger composition, mirrors how I think about strong brands: cohesive from a bird's-eye view, endlessly interesting up close. The dichotomies I love, i.e., Baroque meets modern, bold colors that don't commit to one tone, simple line art with emotional depth, have taught me that brand-building is about holding space for contradictions. A brand can be aspirational and accessible, minimal and maximal, serious about craft but not about itself. I think a lot about how physical spaces make people feel, too, because, at the end of the day, brand is all about feeling something, feeling connection - art and creativity help me map emotional territories, giving a brand permission to occupy multiple moods rather than serve a single, flat note.
E.: How does art influence the way you think about visuals, emotion, and storytelling in your work at SET Active?
K: Visuals are never neutral; they're carriers of story and feeling. I don't just see a piece of art; I see the emotion it conveys. This is precisely how I think about brand elements: every image and every line of copy should earn its place by advancing an emotional narrative. This directly translates to how people experience a brand, especially a brand like SET, where new creative expressions and worlds are being built on a bimonthly basis. Our visuals should have layers and sensory depth. Not everything needs to be said at once, but each asset and consumer touchpoint should build on the last.
E.: When you collect or live with art, what do you look for—what makes a piece feel like you?
K: A piece feels most like me when it holds a contradiction gracefully. I look for pieces that are generous with meaning - they give me something different depending on my mood, the light, and how long I've lived with them. The "something new to discover" quality is crucial; I don't want art that reveals everything immediately. Practically, I'm drawn to texture, personal anchors (my kids, my memories), confident restraint (strong line art, simple compositions, but never boring), and unexpected juxtapositions (baroque + modern, minimal + fantastical). Most importantly, a piece feels like me when it's emotionally honest but aesthetically restrained - meaningful without being sentimental, bold without being loud.
E.: How has your experience with Estelle. shaped the way you think about collecting art or connecting to it in a more personal way?
K: Estelle. solves for the most challenging parts of collecting, in my opinion. When you’re looking to build a thoughtful collection, curation is key. Especially considering I have a non-technical background, it can be hard to find emerging and established artists that fit my aesthetic and goals. And then there’s the investment component to consider - art is notoriously expensive and can be a bit of a black box. Estelle.makes it possible to find curated pieces at a range of price points, which drives my confidence up significantly.
Collect from Kira's Curated edit and learn more about her work.
