Design firm LPK opens London office

Downtown design firm LPK has opened its fourth international office that, pound for pound, could vastly expand its creative operations.

The office, in central London, joins operations in Geneva, Frankfurt and China and furthers LPK's plan to compete internationally with some of the world's biggest firms.

The 400-employee company expects to do this through its very structure - LPK is employee-owned, rather than controlled by a holding company. As such, its far-flung offices cooperate closely with each other.

With this kind of organization, LPK can mix its best talent across nations, while controlling expenses across currencies.

"We are building one seamless organization globally and we're doing that not just in how we talk about it but in how we structure our business," said John Recker, chief strategic officer at LPK, who is responsible for international relations.

LPK's clients, including Procter & Gamble, Kellogg's and Hershey's, are demanding it as they increasingly expand their brands globally. To best understand the lifestyles of these widely dispersed consumers, a designer also needs to be immersed in their communities.

But LPK's overseas offices are not each limited to their geographies. Unlike some major firms, its offices do not operate as individual profit centers with their own client bases and profit requirements. Rather, the offices collaborate on resources and clients.

London, because it is the headquarters to many large communications and media firms, is becoming increasingly significant to designers, said Thomas Lockwood, president of the Design Management Institution, a Boston nonprofit that promotes the importance of design in business.

"A lot of people are beginning to turn to these major design firms for a much broader scope of work," he said.

Which is why LPK has been looking at London since it opened its first overseas office, in Geneva, four years ago.

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source: bizjournals.com