Liverpool City Council has opened a can of worms with the appointment of a London-based design firm to work on signage for the city, following its recent successful bid to be named European City of Culture 2008.
The Council’s decision to appoint London-based consultancy Fitch has flown in the face of several leading figures in the industry who believe the Capital of Culture bid should be a way for the city to showcase its many strengths – including its media, marketing and creative communities.
A spokesperson for the Liverpool & Manchester Design Initiative (LMDI) said: “The whole point of the LMDI is that we’re trying to encourage North West businesses to give their design contracts to North West agencies.
“There are plenty of designers here that could have done that project; to take it down to London completely defies what we are here for. It’s typical, I’m sorry to say, just typical.”
“I doubt Fitch would be cost-effective for the City Council,” commented one Liverpool designer.
“Interestingly, the City Council does put pitches out for local business on a free-pitch basis. We’re all prepared to show them what we can do and it doesn’t cost them a penny. It’s very shortsighted. It would be interesting to know why, as the Capital of Culture, we have to go outside the area. What have Fitch got that we haven’t?”
Simon Farrell, a director at The Chase, said: “It’s a tough one. Obviously they are under no obligation to appoint someone from the North West. It depends how they went about it. If they looked at people in the North West and couldn’t find anyone up here, then fair enough, but if they went straight down to London without looking up here, then that’s disappointing. There are certainly plenty of people up here that could do a good job.”
Not all of the North West community was equally angered by the appointment, however. One source commented: “It’s not our right to get all work that comes out of Liverpool just because we’re based here. We’ve got to be good enough to compete, and most of the time we are.”
Nobody at Liverpool City Council would comment on the appointment as Adline went to press, despite numerous calls.