Greg Branson

Founder, Design Business Council

Melbourne

Greg’s passion is the research and development of methods that improve design management and design’s role in business.

With Carol Mackay he established Mackay Branson design in 1984. They built the practice up to employ 11 designers with clients in government, insurance, hardware and pharmaceutical sectors. Underpinning this growth was the development of systems and methods that managed the design process. Greg was responsible for new business development using skills developed in marketing agencies in Melbourne and Sydney.

Greg has long been involved in the Australian design community with a two year term as President of the Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA) Victoria and a national councillor for AGDA.

In 2005 he founded the Design Business Council (DBC) to provide design management professional development for designers and design clients.

Greg has developed a series of business tools to help designers manage their business better along with a series of workshops that show designers how to use these tools.

Greg has traveled in Europe, the USA and UK to research the role of design in business. He is a member of the US based Design Management Institute (DMI) an organisation that conducts extensive research into design management, design practice, design strategy, design thinking and design effectiveness.

Greg has drawn on his personal research overseas and the DMI research to develop the Design in Business program for designers, and SMEs who want to use design.

He developed a series of workshops for presentation to SMEs within Melbourne’s South Eastern Business Network. These workshops showed how design management, design strategy and design thinking can aid an SME. They were based on real projects undertaken by Greg.

In 2013 Greg wrote and produced The business of design a book that details the what, why and how of running an Australian design business.

Written entirely from a local perspective, this is the only Australian book to span all the business skills needed to start, manage and grow a design studio.

Greg is currently working on a new book, The design economy, which shows designers and business owners how they can integrate design into all aspects of a business.

Greg is active on a range of curriculum committees, at VCE, TAFE and University level having served five years as Chair of the industry advisory committee for the Communication Design at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University.

He also delivers regular lectures to undergraduate and post graduate design students and academic staff at Australian Universities.