Hot fifty – Land Securities
For the second year running, property developer Land Securities has made it into the Hot 50. It is here again for the consistency of its design management process and commitment to great creativity, of which there has been even greater evidence over the past 12 months.
A winner in the 2007 Design Week Awards, notably for the inventive Go Shop promotion for London retail development Cardinal Place by GBH, it went on to feature prominently in the Benchmarks awards, organised by Design Week to celebrate the best in branding design. Land Securities beat strong competition to take the title Client of the Year, a new Benchmarks feature.
Over the past four years, Land Securities has earned a reputation for eye-catching, witty design to promote its properties. It began when its then head of marketing for central London, Elizabeth Lockwood, called in consultant Jan Casey to help build a roster of consultancies. In 2004, the resulting 25-strong team included The Chase, Esterson Associates, Hat Trick Design, NB Studio, Radford Wallis, Together Design and Williams Murray Hamm. Though it has changed a little, with GBH joining, the creative strength remains.
The aim is to create the personality necessary to sell ‘lifestyle’ properties, be it to niche retailers, businesses or consumers. This kind of consistency is to be applauded. Lockwood has now moved on from Land Securities, but the current management team led by Richard Glassborow are just as mindful of design.
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I am very pleased to see that Land Securities are named in this year’s Hot 50. And whilst it is great to see that I was credited as the architect of the roster and indeed the scale and breadth of the design work commissioned, I have to say that on this occasion and on others there is the most important credit missing. Mike Hussey (Managing Director of LS London Portfolio) is the true hero of this piece both from day one and now. It was Mike who shared the vision and fought to enable it to become reality in a market and business that was steadfastly against design as a business-enabler. Without his insight, vision, leadership and quite frankly, sheer determination, Land Securities would never have been mentioned in Design Week in 2004, or now. He is the reason that LandSec continue to be nominated for design awards and continue to devote time and money to raising the bar with design. Please can I ask that before I or the incumbent Richard Glassborow or indeed Jan Casey, get lauded with praise, a credit is given to the person who truly deserves it: Mike Hussey, for at the moment, it is like you crediting Apple but never mentioning Steve Jobs.
Since leaving LS in November 06, I have been retained as a consultant to Mike and LS.