Uniform unveils new structure and recruitment as part of new strategy
After 20 years of annual double digit growth, Liverpool-based design studio Uniform has unveiled a new business structure.
The business has appointed a new executive chairman, FJ Rutjies, and announced the start of an acquisition drive as it enters a new chapter of growth.
Uniform’s expansion is supported by new client wins and senior hires, including Ad Gefrin, the Northumbrian Whiskey distillery, and the appointment of head of experience, ex Paul Smith and Rapha, Mark Errington.
The newly-formed Uniform Group, a modern family of creative businesses, will now sit above two separate market-focused businesses: Continuous – a brand consultancy working with Primark, innocent, Amtico and Ideal Standard; and Somewhere – a creative agency for Property & Place with a deep expertise of the property sector.
Uniform, founded in 1998, is well known for its branding work with Chaos, Ideal Standard, Mitre and innocent as well as its long standing heritage in the property sector delivering CGI and interactive marketing tools for the likes of Canary Wharf Group, Urban Splash, Foster & Partners and BIG architects.
Recognised as one of the fastest growing agencies in the UK over the past five years, Uniform was placed at number 34 in the 2019 Design Week Top 100 rankings.
Nick Howe, founder, becomes CEO of the Uniform Group, with Michelle Ford moving into a newly created COO role. Stephen Ardern and Tim Sharp will lead the Continuous business, as managing director and executive creative director, respectively, and founder Nick Bentley and Laurie Jones will lead the Somewhere business as managing director and creative director, respectively.
Uniform also recently appointed FJ Rutjes as chair with a remit to help the business go further and faster in this next phase of growth, and Mark Errington, who previously held senior digital roles at Rapha, Paul Smith and Castore, joins the Continuous team as head of experience to strengthen the brand consultancy’s digital capability.
Chief executive, Nick Howe, said: “This is the logical next step in the Uniform journey. We have never stood still and we’ll always be evolving.
“Our ambition is to build a new independent group, a perfectly formed, modern family of creative businesses that work together and independently on some of the most exciting projects globally.
“After 22 year in business, we saw an opportunity to create something even more special. I’m as excited about the next five years as I was back in 1998 when we founded the business, and I believe what we have been working on is more relevant now than ever. Clients’ needs are changing and the industry is changing too.”
Nick Bentley, managing director for Somewhere, said: “This is an exciting time for our team. We have seen huge changes in the visualisation market over the past five years, and our move to build Somewhere as a leading creative agency for property and place is aligned with how our clients needs are evolving.
“Clients in the property sector want a reliable and knowledgeable partner who can deliver engaging content and emotive experiences at speed and scale. This is exactly where we come in.
“We’ll continue to deliver amazing CG content which we’re already well known for, now with the broader capability to develop exciting strategic and experiential ideas and outputs with an even wider reach.”
And Stephen Ardern, managing director for Continuous said: “Clients are looking to bring more skills in-house and are looking to agencies for more strategic support, to help them respond to what is happening right now as well as plan for what is coming next.
“The new focused offer from Continuous supports this shift, and we have already seen this play out in our long term relationships with the likes of Primark and Ideal Standard.”
He added: “We’re taking a more agile approach to delivery, working with a selected roster of specialist partners and I am delighted to announce our latest client, Ad Gefrin, will benefit from our focused offer.”
