Consultancies need technical and traditional skills

With regards to your VoxPop on digital media groups (DW 30 June), while I can’t really comment on this particular situation, the problem we have found is that very few specialist Web design consultancies have an aptitude for delivering strategic solutions as part of the whole design/ communications mix.

Web specialists are often very good at coming up with specific visual devices. But, while they may look fantastic on the Internet, they do not provide us with the resources we need to work on sophisticated communications.

Similarly, the more traditional design groups do not as yet have the technical abilities to use fully the opportunities which the Web can offer. This presents us and, I suspect, other clients with a big problem. There are precious few design groups capable of delivering design and communications strategies for this medium, to the quality standards we require and in the volume we need.

This problem will, I feel, become exacerbated as broadband network capability kicks in and the Web will move into a richer audio visual environment, prompting the need for a much broader range of design, communication and production skills in agencies.

Clearly, going forward, this is going to be an important issue for design and, I believe, the design industry will need to reassess itself and evolve in order to provide the kind of services clients will need in future.

David Mercer

Head of design

BT

david.mercer@bt.com