Ten Years at the Helm of Altitude Design Office: A Q&A with Greg Nelson

In the decade since Greg Nelson established Altitude Design Office in 2014, it’s grown from a single practitioner to a small group of collaborators in Santa Monica, California, to a nationwide team of talented designers with a broad range of expertise and experience.

As we celebrate this tenth anniversary, I asked Greg to reflect on Altitude’s first ten years—and on the next ten.

What drew you to the design industry?

When I was in middle school, my family built a house, and I was able to witness firsthand the entire process of bringing a building to life, followed by the experience of living within that building and using the spaces my family had created. This brought me real clarity about the connection between design and experience and inspired me to want to create places and spaces—and experiences—for other people.

What motivated you to launch Altitude?

After many years of working inside of large architecture firms I realized I wanted to have a more focused relationship with clients. Our work, at its heart, is about meaning and message, and I believe we can deliver the most meaningful work when we have a direct line to our clients and a firsthand understanding of what really matters to them.

What are your favorite kinds of challenges to solve?

My favorite projects are complex branded environments where there is a deep story to tell—a clear message that’s simultaneously rooted in an organization’s history, culture and values and pointing toward future goals and opportunities as well. I enjoy the strategy of thinking about how the story should be told, how it should unfold and ultimately how it’s designed.

What questions or issues do clients most often come to you and your team to answer or address?  

Many clients want to display strength and permanence in their brand, but also struggle with the need to be flexible over time as things may change. Budget is another challenge. As corporate budgets continue to be scrutinized, we are often being asked to do more with less: create a comprehensive signage or branding program while being judicious about how the budget is spent.

After ten years, what are you most proud of?  

We’ve assembled a talented team of people who do great work. We’re distributed across the U.S. and we’re doing projects all over the country, too. The way we were forced to adapt quickly and adopt new ways of working during the pandemic became an opportunity and advantage for us. We’ve intentionally kept our firm a modest size so we can deliver exceptional service and creativity to our clients.

This has culminated in an outcome that I’m most proud of: we have a significant number of clients who keep coming back to us over and over—and who refer us to their contacts for new work. We’ve built strong, positive, lasting relationships while maintaining a balanced culture for our team. 

What do you look forward to in the years ahead?  

A big part of our team’s culture is curiosity and a shared passion for continuous learning, so I look forward to working on new project types we haven’t yet encountered and working in new places. 

Where does the name Altitude come from?  

Outside of work I fly hot air balloons for fun. The name Altitude came from ballooning, and I thought it related in many ways to our clients: they operate at varying levels, sizes, budgets, objectives and have unique people they serve. Altitude symbolizes the idea that regardless of these variables, we can navigate them all and use design to create meaningful experiences that help elevate their organizations. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Virginia Pettit Sertich is a marketing consultant to Altitude Design Office and has worked with Greg since 2008, when they were both part of the same global design firm. Trained as an architect and experienced as a writer, Virginia now leverages her 20+ years of marketing leadership to develop strategic content that helps designers get the attention they deserve.