LFH brings back Irvine as ‘head of the roost’ as the group aims to move into creative work

Design, production and print consultancy LFH is planning to ramp up its design offer, with the appointment of former Landor Associates design director Steve Irvine.

Irvine, who takes up the mantle as creative director this week, returns to the consultancy after an absence of ten years. He was part of the original start-up team of seven when the group started out in 1993.

LFH joint managing director Mano Manoharan says that Irvine’s role will be vital in bolstering the consultancy’s creative offer to key clients such as Unilever and Coca-Cola.

The consultancy last week secured a ‘long-term, exclusive contract with Coca-Cola for adaptive design and production over [specific] European territories’, reveals Manoharan. The consultancy plans to open a Brussels office in January 2008 off the back of the win.

Although it started out with an emphasis on creative and strategic services, the business has evolved with a focus on adaptive design and execution to give it stability, explains Manoharan.

The idea now, he says, is to build on the long-term contracts, with the ability to ‘go upstream into design’.

‘Steve’s role will be absolutely vital with key clients like Unilever and Coca-Cola to build up and sustain a credible design arm,’ says Manoharan.

Irvine will oversee a design team of 12. He replaces Sophie Neilan, who coincidentally joined Landor from LFH as design director last January.

At Landor, Joe Emery, who had been promoted internally, takes over Irvine’s role as design director.

The original LFH team, Manoharan explains, was made up of a number of former Coley Porter Bell and Smith & Milton employees.

Frustrated by the lack of prospects at LFH, Irvine left in 1999 to work for the then Enterprise IG and Ziggurat, but has returned to LFH as ‘head of the roost’.