In the third of 14 reviews of the awards on offer at the How-Do Awards, the third category up was design consultancy of the year - a sector in the region which has come an awfully long way in the past few years.
Whereas Manchester and the North West has traditionally been the strongest regional centre for advertising and related marketing services activities, nationally-acknowledged design agencies were historically thin on the ground. For many years The Chase was ploughing a lonely furrow carrying the regional design banner, in contrast to Edinburgh and Leeds which seemed to be nurturing substantial numbers of recognised home-grown outfits. And as for the prospect of a North West design agency picking up national work, well….
But how things have changed in just the past few years. North West agencies now by a distance make up the largest regional centre of design excellence outside the capital and regional agencies are now handling numerous and significant national chunks of design business.
Although still a smaller sector in numerical terms, this category proved to be one of the most hotly-contested categories and the judges finally short listed six agencies: Dinosaur, LOVE, Touchpoint, True North, Uniform and Walsh Simmons.
The winner proved to be LOVE with a judges' commendation for Uniform.
All submitted material and information from the design agencies related to their activities in 2007.
The judges’ comments follow. The design consultancy of the year category was sponsored by Highlight
Dinosaur UK
Dinosaur increased the number of staff from three to seven on the back of turnover up by over 50% while profits increased by 30%. It also enabled the consultancy to appoint a new CEO Grant Mercer. Gola and Urbis became two new clients while the Co-op kept faith with Dinosaur by retaining it when it slimmed down its roster of agencies from 45 to 10.
 LOVE and Frank Hanna/Highlight
LOVE’s year began with the news a founder wanted to leave. The agency opted to buy his shares and restructure the company to ensure such undue strain on staff wouldn’t arise again. LOVE fired some clients, said goodbye to five staff and said hello to 12 new faces. New clients included MBNA, Microsoft, STA Travel, Dr Martens, Christian Aid and Taylors of Harrogate. Elsewhere, £20,000 was set aside for staff training.
Touchpoint
The three year old design agency enjoyed sales growth of almost 100% against 2006 buoyed by over £500,000 of new business wins. New clients to the agency were Typhoo, Coors, Morrisons, Vivalis and Sunrise Soya. The agency also helped long-standing client Kellogg’s reposition some existing brands including Frosties and Crunchy Nut.
True North
MD Martin Carr said the year was a “fabulous” one for the agency. Fee income grew by over 50% to top £1m while the trade magazine Design Week ranked the agency sixth in the UK for ‘creativity’. New clients to the agency were the Tate, Adidas and the National Portrait Gallery. TN also designed two sets of new stamps for the Royal Mail including last summer’s Harry Potter issue. Also created the visual identity and campaign for the Turner Prize.
Uniform
Staff numbers grew from 16 to 24 as turnover rose to over £1m and larger offices are now being sought. In the meantime, the agency has an ongoing work placement arrangement with LJMU. New clients included Sony, Grosvenor and Minerva and an increasing number of overseas projects were undertaken. Regionally FACT, Liverpool Biennial and Open Eye Gallery turned to Uniform and the agency was the only one on Merseyside to be ranked in Design Week’s Top 100 consultancies.
Walsh Simmons
MD Justine Wright parted company with her co-owner, took over control of the agency and implemented a ‘massive restructure’. The agency finished the year with turnover up by over 20% and profitability had doubled. New clients included Manchester Airport, Futurebuilders, Harvest Housing, GE Capital and the Science & Facilities Council. The company has introduced staff training for the first time in 18 years and recommended agency status with RAR was achieved.
The next award category review will be digital agency of the year.
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