Leandro Castelao's cover & poster for Design Week's Top100 Survey
DW Top 100 survey reveals 'surprisingly good' results.
Imagination has retained pole position in the Design Week Top 100 Consultancy Survey this year, with an 18 per cent rise in fee-income. The consultancy has reported a total fee-income of £40.1m, compared with the £34m it posted last year.AKQA has held on to second place in the chart, with a fee-income of £37.2m, while Checkland Kindleysides ranks third up from fifth place last year with a fee-income of £15.4m. Last year’s third-placed consultancy Radley Yeldar has dropped to fifth position this year. Consultancy Foolproof and Flow Interactive has reported the highest growth in fee-income over the past year, at 116 per cent. The One Off has reported an 86 per cent rise in fee-income and Green Room Retail Design has seen a 76 per cent rise. The Workshop has reported the biggest drop in fee-income down by 32 per cent while The Team has seen its fee-income fall by 31 per cent and WPA Pinfold has reported a 21 per cent drop. There has been a total fee-income rise of 14 per cent across the Top 100 consultancies, to stand at £411m. This compares to a fee-income fall of 13 per cent last year.
In their analysis, Kingston Smith W1 partner Amanda Merron and manager Terrence Bourne describe the results as ’surprisingly good’. They add, ’Despite the doom and gloom of 2010, designers have performed well and the outlook for 2011 looks brighter. If Top 100 groups’ predictions are correct, then fee-income should increase across the board.’