Design Week Top 100 boom

Business is booming in design, according to Design Week’s latest Top 100 consultancy survey. Fee-income for key UK players was up 20 per cent last year compared with 1998. Collective fees for Top 100 groups totalled £490m on turnover of £792m – up 25 per cent.

Enterprise IG tops the UK charts again, with a 30 per cent rise to almost £35m in fees billed through its London office. WPP Group’s identity arm also takes pole position in the global listing, with fee-income of £99m.

Imagination moves into second slot in the UK chart with fees up 34 per cent to £29m, while Interbrand Newell and Sorrell ranks third, with fees of £17m.

High flyers include FutureBrand UK – the UK arm of Interpublic Group’s newly fledged branding empire, created through the merger of FutureBrand and The Coleman Group Worldwide. It shares fourth slot with incoming events group Caribiner International, now also owned by IPG (DW 24 March).

But the big movement comes from digital media. Digital supergroups such as AKQA, Clarity IBD, Hyperlink and US-based Razorfish all debut in the UK charts this year, having not previously entered the DW survey.

The Top 100 listings are once more based on a trawl of UK design groups, via a questionnaire. The results have been analysed with help from independent operator Ian Cochrane, chairman of Ticegroup.

The full results, including global charts, an efficiency table and the leading groups in various design disciplines, are published in The Top 100 supplement accompanying this issue.