Clients can be nervous about giving small companies big projects, but to grow they need larger projects to keep everyone busy
How do design businesses of different sizes fare against each other? Maeve Hosea discovers what life is like for design agencies big and small.
Against a backdrop of economic challenge, a heightened energy is pulsing through the design industry, from the coffee shop offices of nimble one-man bands to the swanky headquarters of global behemoths. Now the sector has emerged as central to the definition of a modern brand, it finds itself increasingly seeking out ways to be sleek, robust and fit-for-purpose.
With projects that include innovative furniture for future modes of working and a new public realm project for the city of Bath, Pearson Lloyd operates from its London base with a team of 10 people. The team is deliberately small. The consultancy strives to be intellectually challenging and forward-looking and a small business model is better able to facilitate this. ‘We don’t want to be complacent on any level,’ says founder Tom Lloyd. ‘But I don’t think size undermines our ability to deliver complex projects, and in fact, with the type of work we do, our people need to immerse themselves in a way that a larger team model doesn’t necessarily support.’
Sixty per cent of design consultancies are not just small but have fewer than five staff. The advantage for a designer working in a smaller operation is the ability to stay close to a project that appeals to them personally.
Studio Glithero, a two-person outfit founded by Tim Simpson and Sarah van Gameren in 1998, concentrates on designing high-end furniture, products and installation pieces for galleries. The consultancy says knowing what it does differently and having a distinctive approach across a range of projects adds value to its work in a competitive market. ‘I am proud of the fact that we are steady and able to make the work we want to make,’ comments Simpson. ‘It is a volatile market situation at the moment and the trick for us has been to be a little bit gymnastic and place our work in different areas.’
Susanna Cook, Creative Director of Allies, a small design and branding consultancy, says the business works on bigger projects with a small team and relies on an extended skill base of freelance talent or ‘allies’ such as social media consultants. ‘Now we are in a studio that embodies our company culture, and we are having our best year yet,’ comments Cook. ‘I feel in a position to plan our growth. However, I don’t want the core staff to be more than six and because of our collaborative work style I want to have space to host regular networking suppers here with clients.’
Due to the natural ebb and flow of business, small businesses tend to have flexible cost and employment structures. ‘Our challenge is to balance full-time employment with the pipeline of business coming in,’ says Claudius König, founder of small branding group Closer London.
‘As work is irregular we need to be able to respond quickly in putting together senior talent with a cost structure that allows for junior support, so freelance and flexitime is much more the norm than it was, say, five years ago.’ Closer compares itself to bigger consultancies in terms of quality and ability but doesn’t compete directly with the big players.
Small consultancies often have a hard time trying to persuade clients with large projects that big is not necessarily best. ‘The fundamental difference between us and bigger operations is scale and time,’ comments Garry Blackburn, Partner of graphics-focused Rose Design. ‘Clients can be nervous about giving small companies big projects, but to grow they need larger projects to keep everyone busy.’
The landscape is shifting. Global branding giant Interbrand claims it always comes up against the usual suspects at the level it is pitching at, but now believes it is likely to be up against smaller consultancies for back-end work such as building websites. ‘A big brand will typically have a top list of consultancies it is working with, but may have to shorten the programme so that the deliverables might be done with smaller consultancies,’ says Creative Director Andy Payne.
According to Dick Powell, co-founder of product design specialist Seymour Powell, the scale of the large consultanc business gives reassurance. ‘There is an old saying that big businesses gravitate towards big business. We are working for substantial businesses that are product-led and product as brand is becoming much more important now,’ he explains.
Big consultancies, in particular, are finding foreign markets critical. The world for design consultancies of all sizes is changing rapidly, says Jonathan Ford, Creative Director of branding and packaging specialist Pearlfisher. ‘The market has become a lot smaller very quickly and while that is a challenge because a brand can find designers that are good everywhere, there are valuable opportunities for UK design companies to reach out across borders.’
Trends such as the consolidation of technology, the empowerment of consumers and the growth of emerging markets present the design specialist with interlinked opportunities and obstacles. A design consultancy with a global view is in an enviable position to capitalise on the growing international nature of business.
Although Ford advises caution in establishing an office in a foreign market, Pearlfisher finds itself stepping into emerging economies at a rate it hadn’t anticipated. ‘It has taken five to six years in the US for us to be seen as an interesting new kid on the block, rather than high-risk to work with,’ he says.
‘But if you get your reputation out therewith international clients they come to you in buying mode.’
This is an experience echoed by retail specialist Checkland Kindleysides, which does not have international offices, but has extensive experience of global projects. ‘International clients are really important because everything is connected – you rarely do a job where a global brand only asks you to do their stuff in the UK,’ says Managing Director Jeff Kindleysides. ‘We have designed stores for Timberland, from Kazakhstan to Boston.’
Because of the very real reduction in the size of the world in business terms, Checkland Kindleysides often finds itself up against international competition both for UK and international projects. Much of its reputation for getting the job done cost-effectively and reactively, in often condensed time scales, is linked to its practice of partnering with specialists on the ground such as a local project architect.
It is with this ability to deliver local knowledge to a global customer base that communications group Havas has launched a design and branding network across ten cities worldwide. Havas Design Plus features well-known groups including Conran Design Group (CDG) and Euro RSCG. ‘The world that the brand lives in is very different to what it was five years ago and increasingly clients are looking for breadth and depth,’ explains Jane Simmonds, Managing Partner of CDG. ‘This partnership gives us access to trends and data from all over the world and means that our solutions are well informed, not parochial.’
As design becomes a greater force for business, there is a consensus among design consultancies that their work delivers value and differentiation, giving brands a competitive edge.
Agencies understand there are pros and cons of being one size or another. But realising growth requires will as well as opportunity.
Start Up Diary: Kin Design
Kevin Palmer
Kevin Palmer talks about the thrills and spills of founding the London-based digital design group, Kin Design.
‘Coming from large established design consultancy backgrounds, Matt Wade and I launched the business 18 months ago. We work for a good balance of corporate, public and arts-based clients and have built a large portfolio of diverse and innovative work.
Our strategy is to grow slowly and organically because we are in this for the long run and have seen too many digital start-ups get greedy and just end up imploding.
It makes sense to build up our own brand and reputation for strong art direction and a return to ‘craft’ – something which is too often lacking in the digital realm.
We were very lucky to get our first project going as we were leaving our last jobs – working every evening and weekend – which nearly killed us. But it meant we were already up and running and had some money in the bank once we left.
We also got a very helpful ‘leg up’ through some old colleagues who gave us our first clients and let us share their office space while we found our own studio.
Finding a good space is very important. We took a while before finding our loft in Farringdon. It was a nerve-racking commitment to make at the time, because it meant signing up to leases and paying deposits, but we soon reaped the rewards from it. It’s a great space to bring clients into, with lots of natural light and large white walls on which we exhibit our work.
Having this space helped elevate us very quickly from simply a two-man start-up to a solid design business.
Our first job was for Unilever – working alongside SHM Productions – branding an internal workshop for Unilever’s Global IT Conference. We created the identity for the event and ran this across the printed graphics, environmental signage and sonic branding. Our main focus was a syncopated three-screen animated video projection piece with a surround-sound music track. It opened the event.
It felt incredibly liberating starting out. We realised very early on that everything was all down to us. In our previous agencies we were used to the ‘layered blanket’ of having other people and departments around us. But now, if it’s going to go wrong then it’s down to us.
Interestingly, the main obstacle to growth is not getting the work or becoming established, but good old-fashioned cashflow. We’ve been surprised at the amount of time and effort needed to get large wealthy corporations to pay us on time.
My ultimate advice for anyone considering starting up on their own is just to go for it. Even if it doesn’t work out, at least you will have given it a go rather than just sitting behind your desk wondering ‘what if...?’