September, 2026.- Tim Perkins spent over 30 years at Design Bridge & Partners, helping grow it from an independent studio into a WPP-owned global agency. What drew him to Brandon, an independent agency of 40 people, was personality. He often thinks about people being radiators or fridges. The best people he has worked with are radiators—they add warmth, make things better, and genuinely care about what they do. Nobody wants to work with a fridge.
In this interview, Perkins discusses Brandon’s “We Go Together” philosophy. Awards have never been what drives him. What he has always wanted is for his clients to succeed—to get the business results, the recognition, the promotion. The only way to do amazing work is with clients who are genuinely part of the team, partners who are willing to back an idea and fight for it inside their own business.
Perkins also reflects on the independent agency advantage. Big, networked agencies sell comfort and reassurance, but that can breed complacency. Being a smaller independent gives them agility. They may be smaller in headcount, but the team comes with varied backgrounds—agency and in-house, close to home and around the world—so collectively they have years of global brand experience.
On pace, strategy, and warmth, Perkins notes that it is all about culture: understanding where you can go fast and where you need to slow down. The ramble, the happy accident, the connecting of ideas—this phase might look like you are not moving very fast, but it is the warm-up before the sprint.
1. From Design Bridge & Partners to Brandon: You spent over 30 years at Design Bridge & Partners, helping grow it from an independent studio into a WPP-owned global agency. What drew you to Brandon, an independent agency of 40 people, and what do you see as the biggest opportunity for its next phase of growth?
What drew me in, honestly, is personality. We often talk about brands having a personality, but so do the people who build them. I often think about people being radiators or fridges. Stay with me. The best people I’ve worked with are radiators. Yes, they add warmth, but they also make things better, and they genuinely care about what they do. Nobody wants to work with a fridge (cold, efficient, but not somewhere you want to hang around). Brandon’s founders Richard and Abi are radiators through and through, and that’s rarer than you’d think in this industry.
As for the opportunity, it’s no secret that the whole industry is shifting. AI is the topic on everyone’s lips, clients included, and the mood swings between excitement and anxiety, often in the same conversation. The real work is in learning how to harness new technology while still building deeper, long-term relationships with clients. That’s easy to say, much harder to do.
For Brandon, growth means building partnerships grounded in trust and understanding. That comes not from chasing the next project or PO, but by doing what’s right for the brand and the brief, and having the confidence to say so.
2. “We Go Together”: You said Brandon’s “We Go Together” philosophy resonated with you. What does that philosophy mean in practice, and why is it particularly relevant to the challenges brands face in 2026?
I love winning an award for something my team has worked on, but awards have never been what drives me. What I’ve always wanted is for my clients to succeed: to get the business results, the recognition, the promotion. You only get to that award-winning work when you have a brilliant client working alongside you. They are just as much a part of that success as we are, and that’s how I see “We Go Together” in practice.
I want to continue doing amazing work that gets recognised, and the only way to do this is with clients who are genuinely part of the team. Partners who are willing to back an idea and fight for it inside their own business because they believe it’s the right thing to do. That’s what resonates with me.
3. The Independent Agency Advantage: Brandon is independent and celebrating 15 years in business. What can an independent agency like Brandon offer global clients like Coca-Cola, Kimberly-Clark, and Kraft Heinz that a large network agency can’t?
It’s a good question, and my answer has a few layers. What does a client actually get from working with us? The energy and talent of the founders themselves. Experienced, senior people who are still driving the work day-to-day rather than passing it down.
You often see brilliant creative thinkers later in their careers who still want to do the work because they love its tangibility, for whom management becomes a blight rather than a natural next step. Managing a large team well is a real skill. It takes time and effort that most people underestimate. Some people can do both brilliantly, but that’s rare, and it’s exactly the kind of talent an independent agency like Brandon is built to make the most of.
Big, networked agencies sell comfort and reassurance, but the trouble with that is it can breed complacency. The moment you feel comfortable is the moment to ask yourself: are we still pushing? Are we striving for better? Is this genuinely the best we can do, and if not, why not? Build that question into how a business runs, and you’ve built a great place to work.
Being a smaller independent gives us ability and agility. We may be smaller in headcount, but the team comes with varied backgrounds – agency and in-house, close to home and all around the world – so collectively we have years and years of global brand experience across every sector you can think of. When it comes to agility, while we face many of the same pressures as the big agencies, we sit closer to the people making decisions, meaning we can move faster and adapt to changes in technology and the market without the layers to cut through first.
Another benefit is the flexibility to scale teams using brilliant freelance talent and experts when the brief demands it, rather than having to maintain a large team during quieter times. If what you need is global infrastructure and access to talent in every market at all times, then we’re likely not the right answer to that brief. But if what you need is genuinely brilliant talent tailored to your brand and brief, then that’s something Brandon is perfectly positioned for.
4. Pace, Strategy, and Warmth: You described Brandon as combining “strategic and creative work at pace” with “warmth and humility.” How do you maintain speed and quality without losing the human touch as the agency grows?
It’s all about culture: understanding where you can go fast, and where you genuinely need to slow down. We’re seeing more work become AI-led, which lets certain tasks happen at real speed, but the human part of the process is just as vital as it’s ever been. The ramble, the happy accident, the connecting of ideas. This phase might look like you’re not moving very fast, but it’s the warm-up before the sprint. Nobody runs 100 metres in ten seconds without two hours of warming up first. That crucial preparation is the part people often don’t see.
A lot of it comes down to decision-making, and that’s something I can bring: asking the right questions at the right moment. The focus has to be on the quality of the work and the thinking behind it. When your culture is built around that, speed stops being about the clock and becomes a byproduct of clarity. That can also mean breaking away from rigid process for process sake, because process can sometimes be a restraint when you already know you’ve got a great idea and it feels right. Ultimately you get to good decisions quickly when the culture is right.
Brandon also embraces an open-door policy. Everyone can have a great idea, and everyone should have an opinion, whatever their level. Junior people often bring the freshest insight, and building a culture that’s genuinely open to their voice and harnessing that different, younger perspective, is incredibly powerful. We’re a broad mix of people designing for a broad audience, so staying open isn’t optional. It’s the whole point.
5. 15 Years of Growth: Brandon started in the attic of its founders’ home and now has 40 people across Manchester and London. What’s the single most important decision the founders made that enabled that growth, and what guidance will you bring as they enter the next phase?
The single biggest shift has been moving away from chasing individual projects and towards building relationships based on trust, knowledge and confidence. The kinds of relationships that are cultivated over time but only hold up if they are driven by one fundamental principle: good work. Not subjectively good work, but work that delivers what the client needs and that actually performs in the market.
Praise from peers is nice, but the compliment I really want is a client trusting us with another project. That’s been my philosophy since my days at Design Bridge, and it still shapes how I think today.
If there’s one habit I bring, it’s asking: “What if?” What if you tried that? Why not? I love to question everything and always encourage the team to challenge themselves. The worst a client can say is “no.” The best response is, “You were right to push us, it helped us move further,” and who doesn’t want to hear that?
