About

Michael Sullivan — Creative Advisory

Creative advisor. Brand, design, product and customer experience, and the strategy behind them.

I work with founders, owners and leadership teams on how their companies and products are seen. I have spent 25 years building creative organizations, leading design at scale and shipping the work, in Barcelona, Copenhagen and Stockholm, for some of the most demanding brands in the world.

Twenty-five years, three chapters.

Chapter 01

METROPOLIS / BARCELONA / 2001 TO 2018

First, I built one.

I founded Metropolis in Barcelona and ran it for seventeen years. We grew +300%/year from nothing to more than 100 people. Designing products, brands and digital experiences for various luxury houses in the fashion and life style industry. I exited the company in 2017 and retook the name in 2026 turning it into a creative AI design studio.

In the same years I was Editor in Chief of Display, a luxury magazine where I worked with Karl Lagerfeld, Mario Testino and David LaChapelle, and led creative work for LVMH, Heineken and Marriott. Luxury taught me codes and restraint. Global consumer brands taught me scale.

Strategy is only useful if it survives clients, teams, budgets and delivery.

Chapter 02

ENFO / ACCENTURE SONG / VAIMO / 2018 TO 2026

Then, I led inside the machine.

I spent the next years inside large organizations, seeing how creativity lives and dies at enterprise scale. As SVP Creative and Digital at Enfo I sat in strategy management and grew the design business unit by 200%. At Accenture Song, the largest creative agency in the world, I built and scaled the digital division in Denmark, then led Brand Experience and Design across the Nordics, driving brand and digital transformation for Fortune 500 clients. Most recently I was Experience Director at Vaimo, working with commerce and experience globally.

Since 2021, this work has increasingly involved AI: strategy, product and experience initiatives focused on how new capabilities become useful, understandable and valuable to customers.

Large organizations rarely lack talent. They lack creative authority, and someone senior enough to protect the standard.

Chapter 03

CREATIVE ADVISORY / STOCKHOLM / NOW

Now, I bring the judgment to the table.

Everything converges here. The founder years taught me what it takes to build and ship. The enterprise years taught me how decisions are actually made at the top, and where creativity loses its seat. This practice is the distillation: working directly with founders, owners and leadership teams on the decisions that shape how their companies and products are seen, before money is spent on execution.

The scarcer production becomes as a differentiator, the more valuable judgment gets.

What makes me different

Boardroom language and creative taste

Consultants rarely bring taste. Creatives rarely bring boardroom language. My work sits where those meet.

Brand, product and experience together

I do not separate brand from the experience that proves it. Company perception is shaped through story, product, service, design quality and every visible decision.

AI era depth

I have worked with AI related strategy, product and experience initiatives since 2021, focused on how new capabilities become useful, understandable and valuable to customers.

Global premium context

Experience across luxury, hospitality, finance, commerce and technology gives me a broad pattern library of what creates trust, desire and distinction.

Operator credibility

I have founded, scaled and exited a company, and built teams inside global consultancies. I have not only advised from the outside.

Strategic directness

I work at the level of clarity, decisions and creative standards, not decorative output.

Boards, advisory, jury

Member of the board, VICITY, Stockholm, since 2023.
Advisor, Brim Brands for Impact, since 2025.
Chairman of the board, LIVN, since 2026.
Chairman of the board, Metropolis, since 2026.
Jury member Native Advertising Awards.

EXPERIENCE

Metropolis and this advisory practice

I am the founder of Metropolis, an independent design company focused on brand, digital experience and creative execution.

This advisory practice is separate from agency production and is focused on senior counsel, direction and decision making. But when a client needs the work to move from strategy into design, Metropolis can become the execution path.

Based in Stockholm. Working internationally.

I work with selected clients in Sweden, across the Nordics and internationally. I have lived and worked in Barcelona, Paris, London, Copenhagen and Stockholm, and I work in English, Swedish and Spanish.

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