Invisibility remains their claim to fame.

For a company that boasts of 800m² of office / production space in a choice industrial area, a staff strength of 30 odd skilled persons, and a client list that reads like a random sampling from the Corporate Affairs Commission’s directory, Total Consult has certainly come a long way from the fledgling company that once operated from a 3 bedroom flat in Iwaya, Lagos back in 1992. Yet, 13 years after, the company that set out as an integrated design and build service provider with unique competence in the area of stage sets, merchandising units, specialized furniture, exhibition stands and other outdoor advertising support solutions still insists: ‘Our invisibility is our claim to fame’

In this exchange with Ayodele Arigbabu, Total Consult’s Managing Director – Theo Lawson (a 1985 graduate of the prestigious Architectural Association School of Architecture – AA - in London) lifts that veil of invisibility for one rare moment as he talks on design, entrepreneurship and the total architect.

AA: Total Consult has emerged market leader in advertising and marketing communication / merchandising support services. What factors are responsible for leveraging the company in this area of market specificity?

TL: Firstly all blessings are of God and thanks be to him. I would like to think our success has been due primarily to the fact that we enjoy what we do and any one that joins catches the bug. The Advertising and Entertainment industries offer a lot of stimuli with ever changing products and packaging. Integrity is also quite important; never promising what you cannot deliver.

AA: Your company has worked for several clients and executed a large volume of design and build assignments since inception….which client(s) would you recall as being most memorable, which assignment(s) were most challenging?









TL: Design and ‘implementation’ as opposed to ‘build’. The latter is more likely to be linked solely with Building construction which still falls under implementation. The most memorable projects would be the first. My first completed building was for my brother Dr. Lovett Lawson in Jos circa 1984. It was 3bedroom brick bungalow designed on a hexagonal matrix while I was still in school and was envisaged initially as a guest house. I first saw the building after it had been completed and felt really proud. My first stage set was for a pair of fashion designers that wanted to host a fashion show with a difference, so in 1990, I designed an architecture influenced stage and catwalk. I worked with Duro Oni on lights and everyone including myself thought it wasn’t bad. We have had many great jobs, a few good jobs and a very few near disasters and in all we give thanks to God.

AA: ‘The Impossible - we do right away, miracles take a bit longer’…have your clients really come to relate with this Total Consult mantra…or does it remain an aspiration in service delivery?

TL: It’s become more like the cross we bear. Clients always leave commitment to last minute but still expect a successful service delivery, on time.

AA: ‘Take care of your tools, they feed you’. That is another of your maxims…to put it bluntly, how have you taken care of your tools….how have they fed you?

TL: It started off with investment in mechanical and electrical tools to enhance our productivity; we then went electronic with computers, cameras, walkie-talkies, lights etc which gave us that extra edge. In Nigeria, we lack a maintenance culture and if we didn’t consciously address this issue, our tools would stop working for us and we’d starve. I have started to look at the concept of human tools also; so the adage for me now is “take care of your tools/people, we feed each other.

AA: For two years now, you have ventured into a separate practice – The Lawson + Odeinde Partnership which offers traditional architectural consultancy…does that indicate an ascendancy of ‘permanence’ over ‘temporariness’ of built forms in your design oeuvre…have you left stage sets and pavilions to ‘the team’ at Total Consult?

TL: I got into marketing support quite accidentally and developed it as a hobby before it became our bread and butter; but as an architect I crave for that great project, that building or monument that will be my legacy, my statement. It probably will not happen for many years yet so in the mean time I keep practicing and building stage sets.

AA: You trained at the Architectural Association in London that puts you in the same league with the likes of Prizker award recipient – Rem Koolhaas and the avante-gardist – Zaha Hadid as alumni of that legendary institution. 20 years after leaving the AA, would you say you have found the creative space in Nigeria to exploit the full potential of your prodigious training?

TL: Both Zaha and Rem were lecturers when I got into the AA and considering that Zaha’s first major built project is only say 3years old and Rem is more famous for building shops and writing philosophies, I think I still have time to play catch up. A problem however is that our palette is not as rich in materials and budget…but this also throws up interesting challenges which may stimulate creativity.

AA: As a member of the Nigerian Institute of Architects, with a strong entrepreneurial background, what future would you prescribe for Design education in this environment where the designation of ‘supplier’ commands more respect than that of ‘designer’?

TL: Successful firms should take on lots of interns in some type of informal apprenticeship programme where interns are exposed to both design and managerial skills. Most firms today have diversified from core architectural consultancy; some are ‘project managers’, fashion and brand identity designers etc and the successful firms should help prop up our failing educational institutions.

AA: Your wife is the executive director of the frontline entrepreneurship development organisation- FATE Foundation…..based on your own pedigree, do you see yourself playing a key role in Design and Entrepreneurial training as empowerment ‘tools’ for young people….or have you ceded all such matters to your better half?

TL: My wife was the executive director of FATE Foundation; she resigned 6months ago to become an entrepreneur as well, so now I can give her lectures on how things are in the real world. I am sure when we’re a bit more settled; I shall extend my current office based intern training to the universities.

AA: Still talking family, you have a brother and a cousin in the advertising business – Billy Lawson of JWT (formerly LTC) and Shola Lawson of UB40….What influences were you exposed to as kids? Or is there a creative gene in the family?

TL: My father was a civil servant, Sola’s father was a soldier; both were retired before they reached their zenith. Me, I swore never to work for Government and preferably for myself. I can assume this for Billy as well but I’m not sure of Sola’s sickness…(laughs).

AA: What you do now, does it tally with what you envisioned 20 years ago upon graduation from architectural school? Where do you see Theo Lawson and Total Consult in the next 20 years?

TL: When my elder brothers graduated, there were job offers waiting, cars were affordable, life was easier. I came back with optimism into a Nigeria that I later found to be feeding on itself, all the value systems and infrastructure were disintegrating; so to survive required strong faith and dogged hard-work. In 20yrs, I see TC going strong and pushing boundaries in design with a new crop of young designers. Theo Lawson will be the barman (ever ready to chat on design issues) in his little boutique hotel somewhere….maybe in Badagry.

-Ayodele Arigbabu.

Published in The Guardian Life- Nov 27-Dec. o3 '05.