Creating Brand Desire Through Design with Gregg Heard of Sage

Let's Talk Limbic SparksStrategic Brand Management

Oct 7

Gregg Heard is Vice President of Design at Sage, a leading business and accounting software brand that helps businesses manage everything from people to money.

In this episode of Let's Talk Limbic Sparks, Gregg reveals his approach to strategic brand management rooted in well-designed brand assets and experiences. He shares how strong brand design leads to emotional connections, brand desire and business value. Gregg describes the core design leadership principles that he's applied at companies like Philips, AT&T, 3M and Sage. He shares how you know when brand design is successful, and how design can create a beacon of inspiration and attraction for a company.

Key Takeaways and Soundbites:

“We all know strong brands that are out there - those strong brands that have these great experiences that they create that are largely emotional, they win the hearts and minds of their customer, and they have a competitive advantage in the marketplace.”

“We've all had great brand experiences. When you feel one, you kind of know it. But the thing is those don't happen by accident - they are actively designed. That's a lot of what is behind the strength of strong brands – it's great great design.”

“Brand design can be a powerful tool - a powerful emotional tool and also an inspirational tool. The function of a brand team shouldn't just be about compliance. It should be about inspiration.”

“Strong brand design gives you a beacon of where the company is supposed to go and where the company could be. It creates a gravitational pull to pull the company to a future state.”

“When you're creating successful solutions or making impactful design - whether you're talking about B2C or B2B - you're really trying to connect emotionally - something that connects emotionally and creates desire, desire for that product or desire for that experience, then you know you're probably creating something that's very successful.”

Here are some fun facts about Gregg…

Gregg leads global brand and design teams and drives the requisite scope and scale of work that comes with it at companies including AT&T, 3M, Philips, and most recently Sage.

He spent the first part of his career on the agency side working in the San Francisco for prestigious design consultancies Clement Mok Designs, Studio Archetype (acquired by Sapient) and Sapient.

As a Creative Director at Studio Archetype, and later Sapient, he opened new offices in Atlanta and London. There, he led multi-disciplinary teams who pioneered user-centered design practices to create breakthrough web experiences for UPS, American Cancer Society, Bank of America, Caterpillar, and more.

He then migrated to the client side, joining Philips as Sr. Creative Director, where he was tasked with building the digital design capability and assuming the creative direction and design management of all Philips digital properties.

As VP, Global Brand Design for AT&T, Gregg set the strategic direction for the design of the AT&T brand experience and brand design programs. This included building the iconic and enduring brand identity program with new dimension in the way the brand looks, speaks, sounds and behaves. He was also responsible for building up design competency across the enterprise and unifying a multidisciplinary design community of over 400+ designers.

Throughout his career Gregg finds purpose in mentoring young designers by helping them to simplify the complex and take their creative ideas to a new level. He believes that building their confidence allows them to make the most of their talent allowing them to do the best work of their careers.