Taking seed

Last week Design Week columnist Tim Rich argued in these pages that so-called “beauty parades” no longer have a place in the design industry. By that, he meant that awards based on the sheer “beauty” of visual work are outmoded, given the increasingly strategic role design consultancies at the top end of the tree are playing in projects and the belief that commercial effectiveness can be measured and compared from job to job.

Rich has a point, particularly about effectiveness. The success of the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards over the past ten or so years in convincing clients that design has a measurable value, that – if properly managed – it is an investment, not a cost, is impressive.

The Design Business Association has done sterling work in promoting this concept, but its success doesn’t debase the standing of awards for “creative excellence” – the phrase that links the awards schemes run by Design Week and British Design and Art Direction respectively. No designer worth his or her salt would hope to get away in a so-called “beauty parade” with work that doesn’t do the job, especially as the judges selected by those two organisations are more than capable of looking beneath the skin of a project to assess its real worth without needing to check out the client’s balance sheet.

In an ideal world, the very best work also puts in the very best financial performance, topping both creative and effectiveness charts – in the way Design Acumen’s airline seats for British Airways have, Lewis Moberly’s tights packaging for Boots the Chemists and just about anything from Apple Computer might be expected to do. Effective measures of the creative quality of strategic consultancy have yet to be established, but that will no doubt follow.

So, confident that awards are a valid way of measuring creativity in visual design, here is the third Design Week Creative Survey. Consultancies are ranked according to awards they have won over the past five years – which is why groups such as Thomas Heatherwick Studios still figure prominently, despite an absence from the awards over the past couple of years.

We have based our listings largely on data submitted by awards organisers and have verified wherever possible design group’s claims of wins and nominations. Points have been awarded for wins in various award schemes, as explained in the chart on page 20.

As before, we have produced two main listings: one focusing just on Design Week Awards and D&AD Awards, the other on cumulative wins, including these two schemes and a host of other international prizes. The reason for this is the high standing the former have within the UK design community.

TOP 50 – DW and D&AD awards

It was inevitable that things would change this year and that Johnson Banks would drop back to second place in the rankings, giving way to creative giant The Partners. After 17 years of solid award wins it is hardly surprising to see the London supergroup back on top. The challenge it faces now is to retain supremacy over the next couple of years, following its acquisition last month by US advertising and design conglomerate Young & Rubicam. It is, after all only ten points ahead of Johnson Banks, whereas the smaller group lead by 39 points in the 1999 listing.

The Partners owes its success to projects such as the Now Wash Your Hands calendar for Thristlington Cubicles and the Models 1 identity, both D&AD Awards silver winners. That it also won a Design Week Award for a poster – Emotions for the Museum of Emotions – hits Johnson Banks where it hurts, because it only managed nominations in its favoured category this year.

It has been a great year for Lewis Moberly, which has added 45 points to make third place. Once best known for packaging design, it is identity projects that have won top prizes this year, notably work for glass manufacturer Stuart Crystal, which won in both awards schemes.

It’s no surprise to see Radley Yeldar rising up the charts, given its prowess in annual reports. But what is surprising is that this year’s 27 point boost is due in part to a packaging win in the Design Week Awards, for its Down to Earth chutneys and pickles range. Like Lewis Moberly, it shows that it pays to diversify.

Exhibition design group Met Studio leaps up the charts from equal 40 last year to 21 in this year’s survey. This is on the strength of its work on the Wired Worlds digital show at The National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, which won Best of Show in the Design Week Awards. We might look to that other Science Museum project, the stunning new Wellcome Wing in London to give a similar boost to exhibition designers in next year’s charts.

Apple Design Group continues to fly the flag for in-house design, shooting up the charts on the strength of its gold and silver wins at the D&AD Awards for the Apple Cinema Display and the iBook laptop computer respectively. Dyson Appliances and BBC Resources both stay in the chart this year.

No survey report is complete this year without a comment on the onslaught of digital media and its effect on more traditional design. Last year there were no pure digital media groups in this listing, only conglomerates such as Fitch and print-to-digital-media groups such as MetaDesign London. This year, Deepend Design has come storming into the Top 50 on the strength largely of successes in the Design Week Awards, with its websites for London furniture company Viaduct and entertainment group Cartoon Network. We can expect it to be joined by others in the field next year.

Other newcomers include Browns, born two years ago out of an Addison breakaway and now with a reputation for great literature design, including its award-winning Flowers book. Frost Design’s expertise in editorial design is finally paying off and Anglo-Dutch print design group Una makes a well-deserved appearance.

Design Bridge, Glasgow’s Tank Design, Slaughter Hanson, The Partners’ Y&R stablemate Landor Associates and NB:Studio all debut in the Top 50. But for many the most memorable new entry is Manchester group Tucker Clarke-Williams, whose Tom Jones promotion with its flying black lace knickers drew cheers at awards.

The points system