Introducing Interior Design’s 2024 Rising Giants

While many overarching industry trends recounted in the previous essay apply to both the top and Rising firms, including full pandemic recovery and generally healthy vital signs, there are some nuances between the two populaces worth highlighting.

First, Rising Giants took a bigger hit during COVID, so have farther to recover. Second, their design fees are less than a tenth the amount of the top 100 firms’ ($576 million compared to $5.9 billion), so small changes in their numbers can result in more significant swings percentagewise. Not to mention that one huge project or a single market performing extremely well or poorly on any given year can make the data look more volatile than it truly is.

All that a prelude to say: The Rising Giants had a good 2023. Fees have grown 11 percent since 2019 (and 8 percent yearover year), while FF&C value rose 15 percent in that same time period. The number of projects firms worked on increased 9 percent from 2022 to 2023 and more than doubled since 2019. (Top 100 Giants’s projects increased only 13 percent in that interval.) Not to mention that 24,956 is a heck of a lot of projects for the Rising firms!

Note: “blank cells” = did not report data

Remember we mentioned the roster of employees shrank 16 percent for the top 100 firms? That’s the exact same percentage that Rising Giants staff grew, which is concrete evidence of how much further they had to build back up after pandemic downsizing. It makes sense we’re seeing positive recovery in greater percentages for Risers than for the top 100 because of the deeper hit they took. To get more specific, the number of principals/partners is up 109 percent since 2019; project managers are up 61 percent; and designers are up 36 percent. (Remember, these figures include new hires and promotions.)

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Interested in learning more about Interior Design’s 2024 Giants of Design? Check out our reports for Top 100 Giants, Sustainability Giants, and more.

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Overall, salaries rose 11 percent but billable rates only grew 2. Translation: Rising Giants are doing more projects and paying their staffers more but not increasing their billable fees to compensate—likely due to the competitive nature of the work they’re trying to win.

Forecasts are another arena where top and Rising Giants diverge, with the latter trending a bit more optimistic. Last year, the top 100 projected a decline (which did not come to pass) while the second 100 firms anticipated an uptick (which did occur—although even more forcefully than anticipated). For 2024, Rising Giants are forecasting less of a slowdown than the top 100 are predicting, their rosier expectations evidence of a very different recovery trajectory.

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*New this year is data centers, a vertical that also encompasses mission critical and advanced facilities.

Note: “blank cells” = did not report data

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Most Admired Firms

Editor’s Note: Take a look at recent coverage of our Rising Giants most admired firms of 2023 below. Gensler tops the list followed by Rockwell Group, AvroKO, Yabu Pushelberg, and Rottet Studio.

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Percentage of Rising Giants Reporting These Challenges As The Biggest They Face

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Methodology

The Interior Design Giants annual business survey comprises the largest firms ranked by interior design fees for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2023. The listings are generated from only those surveyed. To be recognized as a top 100, Rising, Healthcare, Hospitality, or Sustainability Giant, you must meet the following criteria: Have at least one office location in North America, and generate at least 25% of your interior design fee income in North America. Firms that do not meet the criteria are ranked on our International Giants list. Interior design fees include those attributed to:

1. All aspects of a firm’s in­terior design practice, from strategic planning and programming to design and project management.

2. Fees paid to a firm for work performed by employees and independent contractors who are “full-time staff equivalent.”

Interior design fees do not include revenues paid to a firm and remitted to subcontractors who are not con­sid­ered full-time staff equivalent. For example, certain firms attract work that is subcontracted to a local firm. The originating firm may collect all the fees and re­tain a management or generation fee, paying the remainder to the performing firm. The amounts paid to the latter are not included in fees of the collecting firm when determining its ranking. Ties are broken by rank from last year. Where applicable, all per­cent­ages are based on responding Giants, not their total number. 

All research conducted by ThinkLab, the research division of SANDOW Design Group.