Hong Kong group woos clients at London office

A Hong Kong design consultancy is opening a London office, turning the tables on UK groups and their efforts to monopolise Asian clients.

Sixth Sense was formed about six months ago as a division of parent company RMA Hong Kong, which designs visual merchandising and is itself owned by international advertising group DMB&B.

Nick Hamilton and former WPP director David Young set up two-year-old RMA Hong Kong and then went on to establish Sixth Sense in order to specialise in retail and leisure design.

The consultancy’s clients include British American Tobacco and Kraft. It has recently designed a nightclub in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City.

The 13-strong Hong Kong office is multidisciplinary and is currently redesigning a cigarette brand for BAT which is particularly targeted at the Asian market.

The London base, to be up and running in January, will concentrate on Asian packaging jobs, allowing Sixth Sense “to offer a 24-hour design service”, explains consultancy executive creative director and managing director Hamilton.

The hope is the office will then go on to win UK work, ruffling the feathers of UK consultancies which cream off the top Asian clients from local groups, Hamilton says.

Hamilton is in talks with a London designer to head up the office, and is initially looking for a couple of additional creatives.