Cog unveils growth plans

London consultancy Cog Design is on the hunt for its first creative director, in an attempt to grow the consultancy’s turnover to £1.7m by 2011.

The group is also planning to bolster its expansion plans with a recruitment drive for a raft of new positions that will include print and Web designers.

Cog Design founder Michael Smith explains, ‘The business has been steadily growing now for about 17 years, but it’s got to a point where the team is too big and it’s too much to manage a dual role.’

Expanding outside of Cog Design’s niche funded arts sector experience is also another ambition, Smith reveals.

A host of new project wins, including the Wellcome Collection, the Docklands Museum, the Department for International Development and the Commonwealth Foundation, has also prompted the recruitment drive.

Smith explains that he will reposition the consultancy’s Web and print divisions under one banner, as a result of arts marketing budgets merging with digital resources.

‘The management of digital and print budgets [within the funded arts sector] are now being combined, and the areas of work tend to be led by where the budgets are – it won’t necessarily roll into complete strategy. In the past 18 months, more popular e-mail campaigns have bridged that gap between print and Web, meaning we have to be able to provide a full service,’ he says.