Marc Cansier (left), Chantal Cansier and Marc Brulhart, pictured in 2 Sardines restaurant whose interior they designed, find growing a demand for their one-stop design service

This year is the integrated design company's 10th anniversary and the Hong Kong office, which doubled in size five years ago and now employs 15 staff with contracts taking its designers around the world, has a notable increase in projects in mainland China.
 
Married French graphic designers Marc and Chantal Cansier met Swiss interior and product designer Marc Brulhart in 1992, when all were 20-somethings working in design studios. That year they all embarked on a freelance project together that showed how well their individual strengths worked to create one vision, and the idea of setting up a studio was immediately tabled.

At first, the studio was little more than a table in a converted office in one of their apartments. The team's first project - the design of in-house magazine and other promotional material for Pacific Place mall - turned heads when it won the fledgling company separate design awards in Asia and the US.

The threesome took this as a cue to find premises and hire staff. "The company itself was very easy to set up," Mr Brulhart said. "We had no problem finding young local designers, as design subjects seem to be quite popular in Hong Kong."

The two Marcs handle client proposals and management and company pitches, while Chantal Cansier is head of the design team.

Cross-disciplinary services

The company immediately offered cross-disciplinary design services and soon earned a reputation for local cutting-edge design projects, such as the interior design of restaurants and bars in trendy Soho neighbourhood and interactive Web site designs.

With many of the firm's projects, a client's working interior, corporate identity, brochures, stationery and online presence are all handled by the studio. "It has to be an advantage for us to offer a one-stop design service," Mr Brulhart said. "It happens so often in fragmented design jobs that, for example, the interior designer and corporate publications designer have no idea what the other is working on, so there is no flow within the company's overall identity."

"Many of our clients are international companies needing services for the whole Asian region," explained Mr Cansier. "As a design company that has been operating in Asia for 10 years we have experience with different countries in the region, and can easily incorporate a European company's message into the most effective format for this part of the world."

Recent projects have included concepts and touring exhibition designs for Hermes and Swarovski, Intel, General Electric and Credit Suisse First Boston - all field leaders.

Since 2000, the Hong Kong Government has commissioned Marc & Chantal Design to create several travelling trade exhibition set-ups, recently promoting Hong Kong in London, Melbourne and Sydney with bold multi-media structures.