Corporate Vision Issue 12 2018

36 CORPORATE VISION / Issue 12 2018 , Lumsden is highly regarded for their retail designwork in the Cultural and Visitor Destination sector. Recently, we caught up with Founder and Creative Director, Callum Lumsdenwho provided us with a detailed insight into the inner-workings of the firm. Insatiable Appetite for Design Based in Farringdon, London the 10-strong team of design- ers have built an enviable reputation for providing museums, galleries and visitor attractions with shop, café and restaurant designs that enhance the brand of their clients and produce tangible financial results. Founder and Creative Direc- tor, Callum Lumsden came to prominence in this sector when he produced the award-winning shop designs for Tate Modern in the year 2000. The designs for this iconic project attracted the attention of a wide range of major names in the industry resulting in a portfolio which boasts an impressive client list from all around the world. In the UK, this includes British Museum, V&A, National Museum of Scotland and London Transport Museum. Museum and Gallery clients such as MoMA NYC, Museum of Moscow, Albertina and Belvedere in Vienna, National Gallery of Canada and MOCAA in Cape Town are testament to the inter- national reputation of the agency. Visitor destination clients include Warner Bros.-The Making of Har- ry Potter and their studio tour in Hollywood, Universal in Orlando and LA, alongside Abbey Road Studios, Royal National Theatre and Platform 9 3/4 in Kings Cross. Going into further detail about how the firm undertakes a new project, Callum begins by detailing the Lumsden Design’s overall mission and how the team ensure that their clients receive the best possible outcome. “Here at Lumsden Design, our overall mission is to develop and reinforce our reputation as the market leader in our sector. We never consider our reputation as being unassailable. Additionally, we are proud to be recognised for delivering not only great design but, just as important, environments that delight our clients’ visitors whilst delivering a real return on investment for the client. Our appearance and commentary in the media and on international conference plat- forms, as well as our collection of design and industry awards are strategically utilised by us to enhance our reputation to the wider world. “As a whole, our common objec- tive is a commercially successful space where the visitor is given an immersive and enjoyable experience which effortlessly ex- tends from gallery, exhibition or entertainment to active participa- tion by buying a memory, a gift, a cappuccino. At the start, we be- gin by understanding our client’s brand DNA, their visitor profile, and the commercial objectives of sales, average transaction and spend per visitor through to managing customer flow, digital integration, stock, storage and queue management. Our clients become a part of our team and we work with them to achieve the best possible design solutions to achieve that objective.” Recently, Lumsden Design found success in the 2018 Corporate Excellence Awards in which they were recognised as the Retail Design Agency of the Year 2018 - United Kingdom. On the back of this, Callum informs us of the key differentiators between Lumsden Design and their competitors which marks the firm out as the best possible option to clients. “Overall, our experience, our expertise and our enthusiasm for their sector enables us to stand out. When we meet a potential client for the first time, we consistently discover that the complexity of the projects which they want us to deliver is not fully apparent to them. Our experi- ence of dealing with Trustees, ar- chitects, retail management, and building projects goes back over 20 years. Also, our expertise in understanding the demographic of their visitors, SKU manage- ment, lighting schemes, product adjacencies and queue man- agement. In addition to this, our enthusiasm for the cultural and entertainment sectors is genuine and we love what we do!” When discussing the internal culture at Lumsden Design, Callum is keen to highlight how each member of the team are all dedicated to achieving the firm’s overall mission, and notes on the 1810CV41 company’s approach to hiring new members. “At Lumsden Design, we have a very democratic culture in our agency. The structure is very flat and whilst there is a hierarchy for business purposes there isn’t in terms of creative thought. We genuinely believe that ideas should come from everybody in the team and this ensures that we are consistently able to tailor our designs to be unique to each of our clients. Our working environment is relaxed and fun, we all sit down for lunch together for instance. We also regularly organise awaydays to inject a bit of relief from staring at comput- er screens and ensuring team building for everyone. Combined with ensuring that all of our staff have access to training to update their skills for anything from pres- entation to AutoCAD training we really try to help our staff develop professionally.” “We are extremely fortunate that many of our best candidates approach us first. With good PR and the marketing of our agency we ensure that word gets around about the kind of projects we do. The retail design market is very competitive and the opportunity for designers to really be able to grow their creativity in that particular industry is limited as most mainstream retailers require one great concept which then gets repeated throughout their estate. In our world our