Return to search

Intra-metropolitan agglomerations of producer services firms: the case of graphic design firms in metropolitan Melbourne, 1981-2001

Graphic Design is one part of the producer services sector of the modern metropolitan region. It is a sector that has experienced considerable development in terms of number of firms through demand created by the expansion of advertising and multi media. To date research has established that producer services, particularly finance related ones, agglomerate in the central city to take advantage of the agglomeration economies available in large metropolitan areas. This thesis argues that one of the key factors for the agglomeration of graphic design is the need for face-to-face communication with clients and other firms. There has been some work undertaken looking at the location of non-finance producer services, such as design, although these have been presented as snapshots at a point in time.This thesis extends this understanding through an analysis of agglomerations of graphic design firms over a twenty year time horizon. Using details of firm location in Melbourne every five years from 1981 to 2001 the thesis uses a geospatial analytical technique to identify agglomerations and explores the change in the size, location and density of agglomerations of firms. This research shows that the initial agglomeration of 1981 was still present by 2001 and had been joined by a number of new agglomerations ringing the Melbourne CBD while at the same time there has also been a dispersal of firms to the middle suburbs. In order to provide some insight in to the agglomeration of graphic design firms this research also examines the geography of two industries allied to graphic design: advertising and printing. This research shows that graphic designers and advertising agencies tend to locate in similar parts of inner Melbourne which may be due to the need for face-to-face contact between fims in these two industries. (For complete abstract open document)

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/245634
CreatorsElliott, Peter Vincent
Source SetsAustraliasian Digital Theses Program
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
RightsTerms and Conditions: Copyright in works deposited in the University of Melbourne Eprints Repository (UMER) is retained by the copyright owner. The work may not be altered without permission from the copyright owner. Readers may only, download, print, and save electronic copies of whole works for their own personal non-commercial use. Any use that exceeds these limits requires permission from the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from these works., Open Access

Page generated in 0.0016 seconds