A moving story with a creative happy ending

I was pleased to read your feature Space exploration, after starting this same journey ourselves. Having acquired another company at the beginning of the year, we’re forced to look for larger premises that will allow all 62 of us to operate effectively under one roof.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned over our 22 years (and three properties), it is that change is inevitable, and if you’re intending to be around in a few years, you have to build flexibility into your planning.

With an integrated offering covering design, advertising, digital and public relations, we find departments growing on a regular basis, followed by migrations of staff, along with their possessions, traipsing from one part of the building to another. That’s a sure way of keeping your IT manager fully occupied, if not exactly happy.

This is all very well if you’ve planned for change, but ripping down walls or moving the reception area every time more space is

required is not good news, neither for you nor for your clients.

The trouble for us is, with our current mill house property near the centre of Cambridge, we’ve got very high ideals, and, as Trish Lorenz rightly points out, ‘creative’ environments aren’t exactly easy to find, whichever part of the country you operate in. But our ambitions remain high and our vision clear. Let’s hope we’re feeling the same this time next year.

Richard Bland, Creative director, Ware Anthony Rust, Cambridge CB3 9EY