That was the year that was

Another rollercoaster year for British design, and Design Week was along for the ride. There were many ups and downs this year – the UK design industry never stood still. Here are the edited highlights…

January

Lloyd Northover Citigate is awarded a five-year consultancy contract with Government agency National Savings, beating Fishburn Hedges and Holmes & Marchant.

British Design and Art Direction elects Michael Johnson and Glenn Tutssel to its committee.

Met Studio places itself into voluntary liquidation after mounting debts, resulting in seven redundancies.

Enterprise IG acquires a 50 per cent stake in Hamburg consultancy Windi Winderlich as part of its drive into mainland Europe.

The Co-Operative Wholesale Society announces the relaunch of its 275 strong Late Shop convenience chain as Welcome. Enterprise IG carries out the project.

February

DW unearth’s Channel 4’s plans to ditch its “constraining” circles logo, created in-house with early input from Tomato, for a version by Spin. The new look features squares and vertical bands of moving colours.

BA appoints Rodney Fitch & Co to develop proposals for a range of brand extensions, including cafés and restaurants.

Unilever launches a Lipton-branded tea-based “refreshment service” in the US, aimed at colleges, airports and railway stations, to compete with the popularity of coffee shops.

Bass Brewers scraps plans to charge design groups wishing to join its roster a £500 levy, after an industry outcry. In a statement the company admits, “…there was not wholehearted support to pay for this”.

The Coleman Group completes its plans to establish a European design network by taking a stake in Dutch packaging and corporate design consultancy Millford-Van den Berg.

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport introduces a new identity, created by CDT Design. Despite tabloid concerns about cost, the DCMS saves 20 per cent on printing bills.

Growth in the multimedia sector, which favours IBM-compatible PCs, starts to challenge the pre-eminence of Apple Macintosh in the design industry, according to a report from accountant Willott Kingston Smith.

March

Lambie-Nairn is appointed to rebrand BBC Worldwide for a global marketing campaign.

James Dyson, Terence Conran, Apple Computer and Johnson Banks are lauded at the tenth annual Design Week Awards. Lambie-Nairn takes Best of Show for its BBC identity.

The British Council shelves plans for a brand redesign after a review by Wolff Olins. Cost is a reason, says British Council director of communications Paul Docherty. The council’s corporate brand development director Johnnie Seidler leaves by mutual consent.

Spanish car maker Seat, part of the Volkswagen Group, is rebranded by Enterprise IG.

Virgin is planning a bar/café format based around computer games, for launch in 2000. No design group has yet been appointed.

Tom Dixon is promoted to head up design at retailer Habitat.

Enterprise IG tops Design Week’s Top 100 table, with a fee-income of £35m. Leading groups see their income grow by 20 per cent.

Food retailer Iceland trials a new identity created by Crabtree Hall.

April

Sainsbury’s admits that it is preparing to launch a new corporate identity, created by 20/20, in the summer, in a bid to fight back against increasingly successful rivals.

Fitch boss Martin Beck outlines plans for the group after its acquisition by Lighthouse Holdings. He later becomes Lighthouse president.

Design consultancies are at the sharp end of payment malpractice by some of the UK’s biggest companies, according to a study by The Federation of Small Businesses.

Former Landor Associates chief executive John Diefenbach becomes a partner at Wolff Olins.

Rodney Fitch buys back the 50 per cent stake Virgin Group had held in his consultancy, as he simultaneously sells the majority stake he had held in Wickens Tutt Southgate. Virgin is also discovered to have sold its stake in Clinic.

Diefenbach Elkins Davies Baron announces a change of name to FutureBrand.

Revolution places its 20-strong environments division in receivership. Chairman Ray Taylor says the division’s performance has been lagging. Axed staff later dispute the management’s account of events.

Barclays Bank launches a rebranding programme by Interbrand Newell and Sorrell.

WPP Group announces revenue of £465.8m in the three months to 31 March.

May

Guinness obtains planning permission for a £30m overhaul of its Dublin visitors centre, to a plan by Imagination and architect Robinson Keefe Devane.

Travel agent First Choice launches Travel Choice, a 202-strong high street chain developed by Design House.

Interbrand Newell and Sorrell rebrands charity Oxfam.

Fitch shareholders approve the group’s acquisition by Lighthouse Holdings, starting a process to delist the design group from the London Stock Exchange, where it had been the first design consultancy to float.

Iceland announces a rebranding programme, developed mostly in-house, with help from Manchester packaging group Shoot the Moon.

Williams Murray Banks creates a new brand identity for Planet Organic, aiming to rid organic foods of their “hokey” image.

Food giant Van den Bergh opens tea house Ch’a, created by Design House, in a bid to re-establish tea as the nation’s favourite drink.

June

FRCH Design Worldwide and Lyons Marketing Communications merge in New York to create a branding consultancy with a £15.5m annual fee-income.

Sainsbury’s introduces the initial stages of its long-awaited 20/20 rebranding. A new colour palette and store facias are the first elements.

BDG McColl joins Interbrand Newell and Sorrell, Revolution and Rodney Fitch on the list of design consultancies appointed to recreate a fresh image for the ailing retailer Marks & Spencer.

Consultancies on Asda’s design roster worry that the retailer’s acquisition by Wal-Mart may hamper the chances of future work.

The Metropolitan Police gets a mixed response to a recruitment campaign, created by Seed Design, intended to recruit more black and Asian officers.The campaign uses the visual style of a blockbuster “gangsta” movie.

Enterprise IG managing director Charles Trevail is poached to head up FutureBrand’s business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Addision managing partner Simon Lake quits for pastures new.

July

Razorfish creative director and Sunbather founder Mike Bennett leaves the group with plans to set up his own interactive TV outfit.

Branding and marketing consultancy Thumb appoints former Aegis Group director Graham Brown as managing director, following the departure of Roger Cleghorn.

Former Giant partner Neil Smith launches Howdy, becoming the second of the four Giant partners to go it alone.

Marks & Spencer announces that John Herbert Partnership will be designing new store interiors, as it upgrades 125 of its 294 stores.

Lynne Dobney is named as successor to Design Business Association chairman Colin Porter, who stepped down in September after two years at the DBA helm.

Vinopolis – City of Wine opens in London, with an identity by Lewis Moberly, interiors by Jasper Jacob Associates and audiovisuals by Media Projects.

Rodney Fitch managing director Chris Jenkins quits the group. Consultancy founder Rodney Fitch announces he will be making several senior appointments to replace him.

Arthesia West’s management team, Alex Ritchie, Owen Snee and Stuart Taylor, set up a new design group called Blu, less than a year after joining Arthesia Group.

Telewest Communications appoints Brown Inc to brand its digital TV service.

August

Fitch senior consultant Neil Whitehead and senior director Alan Thompson join Rodney Fitch, as Fitch names its global operations board following the Lighthouse acquisition.

Eleven axed staff from Revolution’s interiors division set up Mesh Creative.

Conran Design Group is appointed to develop a new retail format for Our Price’s 220 stores.

Edward Briscoe Design is forced into compulsory liquidation as a result of “insurmountable problems left by the previous directors”.

Sonia Lamba is appointed creative director of The Attik’s London office as Aporva Baxi takes up residence in the New York Office.

Landor Associates is appointed by Forte to review its four star Le Méridien hotel chain.

Boots The Chemists pilots a men’s grooming service in stores in Bristol and Edinburgh, with design elements from its in-house team.

Electrical retail chain Curry’s announces it will be trialing a new store design developed with Crabtree Hall.

McDonald’s reveals that its Millennium Dome restaurant designs will serve as a trial for any future UK retail modifications.

Waterstone’s unveils plans for its London flagship store in Piccadilly with in-store graphics from Interbrand Newell and Sorrell, and four eateries branded by BDG McColl.

September

Enterprise IG completes its first airline branding project, for the relaunch of Thomas Cook’s tour operator and airline operations. JMC, the name for the business, is taken from the initials of Thomas Cook’s son John Mason.

Identica begins a review of the Co-operative Wholesale Society’s own-label products as part of a three-year strategy, with plans to introduce 1000 new product lines.

Appointed at the eleventh hour, design group Work is given its fourth job at the Millennium Dome, designing the Shared Ground perimeter of the Greenwich structure.

The Business Design Centre in London is reported to be close to a deal to buy the Earl’s Court and Olympia exhibition halls from P&O.

Design Council design and communications director Sean Blair announces he will be leaving at the end of the year, having set up a virtual consultancy, Nowhere.

The Brand Union duo, Lambie Nairn and Tutssels, are heard to be in the sights of WPP Group.

Conran Studios and CD Partnership join together as Conran & Partners.

Nucleus beats rival consultancies Interbrand Newell and Sorrell and Identica in a three-way bid to rebrand Europe’s second largest cable company, UPC.

October

Basten Greenhill Andrews is appointed to refresh the global branding of Castrol International.

Fitch senior associate director Sara O’Rorke is promoted to director, following the departure of senior consultant Neil Whitehead in August.

Two design groups lose out to marketing agency Joshua in a pitch to redesign the identity for British Airways World Cargo.

Former head of business development at the Chase, Martin Monks, joins advertising group Junction as managing director of design.

The DBA launches a new logo by Coley Porter Bell.

The Partners brands KLM’s new budget UK airline, Buzz, due to start operating next year, having previously created its name and identity.

Tesco announces a £1.1bn expansion programme across Europe and the Far East over the next 18 months.

Fitch redesigns Royal Doulton’s brand identity as part of a rebranding project for The Royal Doulton Company.

Enterprise IG creates a name and identity for Anglo-Dutch company Corus, following the merger between British Steel and Koninklijke Hoogovens.

Glasgow group 999 Design launches a new name and identity for Thus, previously called ScottishTelecom.

The Morris Family, the group behind the BDC, buys London’s Earls Court Olympia for £183m and announces plans to rebrand the complex.

WPP completes it’s acquisition of The Brand Union, in a deal rumoured to be worth up to £25m.

Clarity Communications withdraws its services from Carphone Warehouse due to a conflict of interest with other clients.

Internet group AOL Europe appoints Smith & Milton to design a new visual identity to distinguish it from its US namesake.

Orange unveils plans to redesign its 82 UK retail outlets over the next four years. The telecoms group holds talks with Wolff Olins.

Interbrand Newell and Sorrell creates a new identity for News International’s elaunched free Internet service provider Currant Bun, renaming it bun.com.

The first UK internet service provider Demon Internet launches a new logo featuring a halo designed by Creative Leap.

Model agency Models 1 launches a new corporate identity developed by The Partners.

Kugel creates branding for Europe’s largest urban regeneration project, the King’s Cross Central Development.

Global interactive business solutions and digital media design group Seven Interactive merges UK and US operations to better service its expanding client base.

Springpoint develops a brand strategy for the city of Belfast.

November

Wagstaff managing director Clare Anderson leaves the group, along with design director Brian Green and two designers.

Design and communications director Sean Blair quits the Design Council.

British Airways looks for a new head of design management following the departure of Chris Holt, the man responsible for introducing BA’s controversial ethnic tailfin design.

Conran & Partners merges with Sebastian Conran Associates.

Airport operator BAA appoints Fitch and The Design Solution, plus architect Chapman Taylor, as framework consultants for three years in a deal worth £1.2m.

Conran Design Group joins forces with London and Singapore design consultancy DIA.

Lighthouse holdings acquires Seattle design group The Leonhardt Group. It renames itself Lighthouse Global Network and appoints Julian Hanson-Smith as chief operating officer.

Following the publication of a Government report into the creative industries, Culture Secretary Chris Smith claims they are “right at the heart” of the British economy.

Asda announces plans for a £75m roll out of 50 mini hypermarkets and refurbishments under the Asda Fresh brand identity.

C Eye develops an identity for Forte’s new £100m upmarket sub-brand, Posthouse Premier. The hotel group also unveils details of a revamp for the Posthouse chain.

Storehouse, the holding company for Mothercare and Bhs, reveals plans for new store formats as a result of a £15.7m loss for the first six months of 1999.

Littlewoods launches a new corporate identity, designed by Wickens Tutt Southgate.

WPP merges interactive media, video and communications consultancy Clever Media with Enterprise IG to enable the group to grow on an international scale.

The Works wins a four-way pitch to create the identity for next October’s Rugby League World Cup in the UK.

Japanese luxury car manufacturer Lexus appoints MetaDesign London to position the brand a cross Europe.

December

Lambie-Nairn designs the identity for BAE Systems, the new name for British Aerospace following its £7bn merger with Marconi Electronic Systems.

Orange launches a new Internet service called Orange.net, created by Web design consultancy AKQA.

Quadro Consulting is appointed by Hong Kong manufacturer IDT Group to create a streamlined system for product design.

Judi Green announces plans to leave Wagstaffs to join Dorling Kindersley as its new creative director. n