Bell Design to represent the industry at Shanghai Expo

Bell Design is hoping to take advantage of its exclusive design residency at the pavilion to win Chinese business for the new office.

Bell Design joins the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, the Royal Institute of British Architecture and the International Visual Communications Association, each representing their respective sectors, at the five-month long expo.

The consultancy won the UKTI tender last summer. It will hold interactive workshops about building sustainable brands for Chinese government officials, under the title Sowing The Seeds of Creative Partnership. The sessions will be led by Bell Design creative director Ian Allison.

UKTI design industry adviser Christine Losecaat says that although other workshops are being facilitated by trade bodies and organisations, the presence of design trade bodies is unnecessary.

’Over the past three years, through the work of the China Design Task Force and UK China Partners, member groups have built extensive local networks and have created clear China business development plans,’ says Losecaat.

The IPA and RIBA workshops will be led by Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland and architect Sir Terry Farrell.

Bell will open an office in the Chao Yang province of Beijing in June, according to founder Alan Bell, who is about to appoint someone ’already working in China’ to head up the new office.

’We will offer strategic advice on branding, marketing and PR to both regional government and businesses,’ says Bell.

’The key ambition is to make inward investment and appeal to investment or business from the West,’ Bell says. Projects could involve ’differentiating cities’.