Wolff Olins
TypeWholly-owned subsidiary
IndustryBrand consulting
Founded1965 (1965) in London, United Kingdom
FoundersJames Main
Michael Wolff
Wally Olins
Headquarters
London
New York City
San Francisco
Key people
Sairah Ashman (Global chief executive)
Michael Khoury (president, North America)
Number of employees
150
ParentOmnicom Group
Websitewolffolins.com

Wolff Olins is a global brand consultancy agency that specializes in corporate identity. It was founded in 1965 in London, where its main office is still based, as well as having offices in New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles. It employs some 150 designers, strategists, technologists, environment specialists and programme managers, and has been part of the Omnicom Group since 2001. Since the agency was founded, it has worked for several entities in various sectors including technology, culture, retail, sport, consumer goods, travel, energy and public utilities, media and non-profit.[1][2]

In 2012 the firm was listed by The Sunday Times as one of the "best small companies to work for", and was in 31st place on list of the "best places to work" compiled by Ad Age magazine.[3] In 2018 Fast Company magazine placed the company at the head of a list of the "most innovative design firms".[4]

History

Wolff Olins was founded in Camden Town, London, in 1965 by designer Michael Wolff and advertising executive Wally Olins.[5] Wolff left the business in 1983, and Olins in 2001; Wolff is still active in the field of branding, and Olins died on 14 April 2014.[5] Wolff Olins currently has offices in London, New York City and San Francisco.

In 2002, Wolff Olins was selected by the British Library as a subject of their National Life Stories oral history project.[1]

In 2012, designs for Orange and London Olympics were included in a retrospective examining design from 1948 to 2012 at the V&A in London.[6]

In 2017, Sairah Ashman was appointed as the first female CEO of Wolff Olins.[7]

Work

From 1965 to the early 1990s, Wolff Olins developed corporate identities for various large European companies. During this time Olins published The Corporate Personality (1978) and Corporate Identity (1989).[8] Olins defined corporate identity as "strategy made visible", and the firm worked with companies including BOC (1967), The Beatles' Apple Records (1968), Bovis (1971), Volkswagen's VAG (1978), 3i (1983), Prudential (1986) and BT (1991).

During the 1990s, Wolff Olins focused more on corporate branding. The company's work during that time includes First Direct (1989), Orange (1994), Odeon (1997), Heathrow Express (1998), Tata Group (2000), Unilever flower U logo (2004), and the BBC Reith blocks logo (2021).

The logo for the 2012 Olympic Games, designed by the agency in 2007, was included in Extraordinary Stories about Ordinary Things, an exhibition in 2012 at The Design Museum in London.[9]

Criticism

Some of Wolff Olins' work has received controversial reception.[10][11] Its piper design for BT in 1991 attracted a great deal of opposition.[12] The company was also responsible for the short-lived $110m (£75m) re-branding of PwC Consulting to Monday in 2002.[13] The launch of the London 2012 brand in 2007 was met with widespread public derision.[14] Design critic Stephen Bayley condemned the London 2012 Olympic Games logo as "a puerile mess, an artistic flop and a commercial scandal".[15]

In July 2021 Wolff Olins designed a rebranding for, the then largest active asset manager in the UK, Standard Life Aberdeen plc to change its name to Abrdn. Although pronounced Aberdeen this vowelless name was met with widespread ridicule and was the butt of many online jokes. An online poll of investors described the rebrand of Standard Life Aberdeen as an “act of corporate insanity”.[16][17][18]

References

  1. 1 2 "National Life Stories: An Oral History of Wolff Olins". Bl.uk. 30 November 2003. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  2. ↑ "Wolff Olins". Design Is History. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  3. ↑ "Wolff Olins Is No. 31 on Ad Age's Best Places to Work List", Ad Age, 26 March 2012.
  4. ↑ "The World's Most Innovative Companies 2018, Design Sector". Fast Company. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  5. 1 2 Gomez-Palacio, Bryony; Vit, Armin (2009). Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design. Rockport Publishers. ISBN 978-1-59253-447-0.
  6. ↑ "British Design 1948–2012: Innovation in the Modern Age". V&A.
  7. ↑ "Wolff Olins appoints Sairah Ashman as first female CEO - Design Week". Design Week. 3 August 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  8. ↑ Wally Olins, The Corporate Personality, Design Council, London, 1978 and Corporate Identity, Thames and Hudson, London, 1989
  9. ↑ "Design Museum".
  10. ↑ Stephen Bayleyweighs (5 April 2006). "Design expert Stephen Bayleyweighs up other contenders for Britain's lousiest logo | Media". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  11. ↑ "Wolff Olins: Expectations Confounded". Creative Review. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
  12. ↑ Bayley, Stephen (10 June 2007). "Stephen Bayley: You can't fool the British people with a logo and an instant brand". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  13. ↑ "Monday name change for PwC". 10 June 2002. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  14. ↑ April 2019, Nick Carson 09. "14 controversial moments in logo and brand design". Creative Bloq. Retrieved 31 May 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  15. ↑ Olympic chiefs under fire for 'puerile' logo, The Telegraph, June 4, 2007.
  16. ↑ "Standard Life Aberdeen to become Abrdn in "digitally-enabled" rebrand". DesignWeek.
  17. ↑ "Is the ridiculed 'Abrdn' rebrand the biggest branding misfire of 2021?". CreativeBloq.com.
  18. ↑ "Abrdn rebrand dubbed 'act of corporate insanity'". DailyBusiness.
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