The Scoop with Tom Gilbert

Transform catches up with Design Bridge and Partners’ group executive creative director, Tom Gilbert, at Paradigms brand summit. He discusses the benefits of working for a large global agency, how AI is being utilised and the biggest challenge the industry faces.

Transform: You’ve worked at Design Bridge and Partners for over 15 years now, with a particular focus during that time on brand experiences. How have you seen that field evolve?

Tom: As technology, the media landscape and everything else evolve, brand experiences have to change with them. When I first started at Design Bridge and Partners, we were focusing on digital because the digital landscape was changing so quickly. Personally, I was always trying to strike a balance between digital and physical — not getting too carried away with new digital platforms, but instead thinking about things in a holistic way. That still applies today as new technologies continue to emerge, especially with AI. We have to stay aware of the technologies out there and use that awareness to inform our design systems and branding. That allows us to work out how best to interact with them and ensure experiences remain relevant to different audiences. So, we’re constantly monitoring evolving technologies and considering how brands can show up meaningfully within them.

Transform: With offices worldwide, how do you maintain consistency while still allowing for local cultural influence in design?

Tom Gilbert: As an agency of 900 people, sometimes clients and competitors say, “They’re too big,” but I really enjoy working on global brands at scale. If I’m working on a brand that is most prominent in America, I’ll work with our New York studio. If I’m working with HSBC, for instance, we’ll split the work between our UK and Hong Kong studios, which are its two biggest markets. That makes the work much more relevant, because you’ve literally got people in those markets working on the brand — and I think we should be proud of that. We are globally connected and strive to put the work where it makes the most cultural sense, but we also need structures in place to ensure there is consistency and coherence across the brand globally, even if they’re trying to adapt to local audiences.

Transform: How do you lead, inspire and empower the diverse design talent across your global network?

Tom: We've already got a diverse network because we have all these different studios, but even then, if you zoom in on the individual studios, we focus on making sure that the talent within them is as diverse as possible — and not just in the usual sense of gender and background, but also in terms of disciplines within design. We have a variety of different specialist crafts; we're not just a team of graphic designers. We've got motion designers, industrial designers and creative technologists. We try to broaden the diversity of craft and discipline within design because, as I've already mentioned, brands have to show up in lots of different ways. That diversity of disciplines across the network means we can design something physical – like a space, product or electronic device – while also creating digital touchpoints when needed. What I mean by diversity of talent is really about the craft of design.

In terms of inspiration, I attend quite a few global events, like Paradigms, Cannes Lions and South by Southwest, and often create a summary that’s then presented to the network. Every year, I attend these events, sit through the talks, take notes and then put together a wrap-up that's specific to brand design and filtered through the lens of our positioning, which is then shared with all of our studios. At these events, I often sit there wishing the whole team could hear it, because it's so inspiring and relevant. By sharing those moments, I believe we make our work stronger and our company better.

Transform: A big part of your role is to lead the integration of AI into internal processes. How is it being done, and has there been any resistance or scepticism?

Tom: I think everyone should be sceptical, but AI's a journey. You've got to link it to what I was saying about brand experience and keep an eye on all the emerging technologies. You then have to encourage people to engage with it and begin with some level of early adoption. That's what we went through about two years ago, when there was a lot of experimentation. But over the last 18 months, we've brought in more structure and cadence to how we approach it — both internally and in how we advise our clients.

Rather than just seeing it as something interesting to apply to our business, we first think about which tasks within the organisation AI and automation can help with. Then, when it comes to how AI can help define what your brand stands for in that space, you have to ask whether you’re ethically and morally comfortable with doing that. You need to consult key stakeholders before taking a stance on your position around generative AI.

Some good examples include Dove, which took a stance quite early on because it wanted to ensure that, from a Real Beauty perspective, it wasn’t generating people. On the other end of the spectrum, you've got Coca-Cola, Under Armour, Puma and lots of other brands that are leaning into AI. Those brands obviously feel, when it comes to what they stand for, that they're comfortable doing that. There's no right or wrong, but every brand should have a stance.

In 2025, what’s the biggest challenge an ECD at a global design agency faces?

Tom: We've gone through a huge period of growth as a creative industry in a relatively short time. There have been some disruptive moments, but now, with AI, it's probably the most significant disruption, and that’s meant there's a lot of competition. I think the biggest challenge is doing all that without any kind of industry body. In brand design, each agency goes out and settles on its own unique process, and we all undercut each other because there's no real body holding us together. Our industry is exciting because we're transforming, but it's also challenging. The biggest threat is ourselves, as we compete for the same opportunities.

 

This article was taken from Transform magazine Q4, 2025. You can subscribe to the print edition here.