Design Bridge and Partners launches under WPP mantle

24 April 2023 Consulting.us

Design Bridge and Partners, a global design agency owned by advertising conglomerate WPP, has officially launched.

WPP in July 2022 merged Design Bridge – a design agency serving consumer brands such as Diageo, Unilever, and MasterCard – with Superunion, an agency providing corporate branding and brand experience services to firms such as Bank of America, Intel, and NASA. Superunion was itself created in the 2018 combination of WPP brand agencies The Partners, Lambie-Nairn, Addison, VBAT, and Brand Union.

WPP at the time estimated the merged company would officially launch in January 2023.

The move is part of streamlining efforts to reduce operational costs at WPP’s many companies. The London-based company in 2020 merged Grey and AKQA to create 6,000-person agency AKQA Group.

Design Bridge and Partners launches under WPP mantle

The new Design Bridge and Partners company has 850 people across 17 studios in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The merged firm brings together its constituent companies’ complementary capabilities in all aspects of brand strategy and design – including graphic, motion, digital, physical, and communication design.

“It’s absolutely fantastic to be able to bring together two creative powerhouses in design. Marrying the ‘best of both.’ Design Bridge and Partners will be truly formidable, offering greater benefit for our clients through shared expertise and, importantly, many more opportunities for our people to grow,” John Morris, former CEO of Design Bridge and now CEO of Design Bridge and Partners, said in July.

Jim Prior, former CEO of Superunion, is serving as the new company’s chairman. “This is a perfect fusion of creative excellence that will deliver extraordinary results for our clients and our people,” he said. “It is an exciting opportunity for us to take the lead in delivering the true power of design as a force for positive change in the world.”