2017 Women in BUILD Awards

Build 2017 Women in BUILD Awards 6 stablished in 2007 by Hilary, FIG has since flourished and is now a world-class interiors and graphic design company. Hilary is keen to tell us more about the firm and the servic- es it offers. “FIG is an interior studio based in Shoreditch London with other offices based in Barcelona, Paris, and New Delhi also with partners in the Middle East and South-East Asia. We are multi-disciplinary designers with an emphasis on hospitality and commercial residential projects. We design hotels, resorts, spa’s, apart-hotels, as well as restaurants and bars and also work for developers on serviced apartments or large residential developments. “To ensure that the outcome is always exceptional, we always aim to work with clients who value the creativity that we bring to every brief and who trust us as professionals. We achieve the best outcomes when the client feeds us with their ideas and then let’s us get on with our job. It is a collaborative process.” Flexibility is what sets FIG apart from its competitors, alongside the vast industry experience that Hilary brings to the company, as she explains. “Unlike many interior designers, at FIG we do not have a house style. This is intentional because it allows us to apply our creativity in a completely different style for every project. The client can be rest assured that their project will not look like anyone else’s. Or, if we are designing for a brand, we are able to design using the brand identity without stamping our ‘house-style’ on the project. “Whilst we do lean towards contemporary design, each job has a different twist to it. Also, our unusual versatility allows us to design for urban properties or resort developments either luxury or budget. We are strong on working to budgets unlike other designers, who bring us a bad reputation for over spending their client’s money. At FIG, we are on the side of the client and understand how vital it is that the numbers stack up for the investment. “We do have a focus on hospitality and commercial residential projects because we find that many of the developers we are working with might have mixed-use schemes that will have both a hotel and block of apartments on the site. We are also very passionate about creating inspiring spaces, particularly open to the public such as a restau- rant or a hotel lobby where we are designing a specific experience. We have been involved in retail in the past and love working in this sector as well. We just find that in the UK design agencies are usually pigeon-holed into sectors, therefore making it harder to remain fully multi-disciplinary. “Personally, I was trained differently in my Interior Design degree in Australia. We were taught that a good interior designer should be able to adapt to a variety of different functions and spaces. Over my career in this work, which spans over 20 years, I have designed shopping malls, universities, arts centres and theatre’s, offices, hotels, resorts, stores, private homes as well as all of the hotel sector work. As such, I have developed a love for hotels though because it is obviously con- nected with the travel industry which is such an exciting and growing industry to be in. Everyone loves to stay in a cool hotel and talk about all the hotels they have seen all over the world. On top of that I get to travel with my work which has been a childhood dream completely realised.” Fusion Interiors Group Best Female Owned Interior Design Company – 2017 & BUILD Excellence Award for Hospitality Design Fusion Interiors Group (FIG) is an international interior design specialist based in London. We invited Founder Hilary Lancaster to tell us more about her firm and how she has driven it to the success it enjoys today. E