Wolff Olins is a British
advertising agency
An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...
and
corporate identity consultancy. It was started in 1965 and has offices in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
. It now employs some 150 designers, strategists, technologists, programme managers and educators, and has been part of the
Omnicom Group
Omnicom Group Inc. is an American global media, marketing and corporate communications holding company, headquartered in New York City.
Omnicom's branded networks and specialty firms provide services in four disciplines: advertising, customer re ...
since 2001.
It has worked in sectors including technology, culture, retail, energy & utilities, media and non-profit.
The
logo
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...
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. The logo, which cost £400,000, was largely criticised by the British public, being described as "puerile".
Also in 2012, designs for the
Orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
and London Olympics were included in a retrospective examining design from 1948 to 2012 at the
V&A in London.
In the same year the firm was listed by ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'' 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
''Ad Age'' (known as ''Advertising Age'' until 2017) is a global media brand that publishes news, analysis, and data on marketing and media. Its namesake magazine was started as a broadsheet newspaper in Chicago in 1930. ''Ad Age'' appears in mul ...
'' magazine. In 2018 ''
Fast Company
''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year.
History
''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...
'' magazine placed the company at the head of a list of the "most innovative design firms".
History
Wolff Olins was founded in
Camden Town
Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as o ...
, London, in 1965 by designer
Michael Wolff and advertising executive
Wally Olins
Wallace Olins CBE (19 December 1930 – 14 April 2014) was a British practitioner of corporate identity and branding. He co-founded Wolff Olins and Saffron Brand Consultants and was the chairman of both. Olins advised many of the world's leading ...
.
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.
Wolff Olins currently has offices in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
.
In 2002, Wolff Olins was selected by the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
as a subject of their
National Life Stories oral history project.
In 2017, Sairah Ashman was appointed as the first female CEO of Wolff Olins.
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). Olins defined
corporate identity
A corporate identity or corporate image is the manner in which a corporation, firm or business enterprise presents itself to the public (such as customers and investors as well as employees). The corporate identity is typically visualized by ...
as "strategy made visible", and the firm worked with companies including
BOC (1967),
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
'
Apple Records
Apple Records is a record label founded by the Beatles in 1968 as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mar ...
(1968), Bovis (1971),
Volkswagen
Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...
'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
First Direct (styled first direct) is a telephone and internet based retail bank division of HSBC Bank plc based in the United Kingdom. First Direct has headquarters in Leeds, England, and has 1.45 million customers. It was awarded Most T ...
(1989),
Orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
(1994),
Odeon
Odeon may refer to:
Ancient Greek and Roman buildings
* Odeon (building), ancient Greek and Roman buildings built for singing exercises, musical shows and poetry competitions
* Odeon of Agrippa, Athens
* Odeon of Athens
* Odeon of Domitian, Rome
...
(1997),
Heathrow Express
Heathrow Express is a high-frequency airport rail link operating between London Heathrow Airport and . Opened in 1998, trains run non-stop, with a journey time of 15 minutes. The service is operated jointly by Great Western Railway and Heathrow ...
(1998),
Tata Group
The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries, and operations in 100 countries across six continents ...
(2000),
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...
flower U logo (2004), and the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
Reith blocks logo (2021).
Some of Wolff Olins' work has received controversial reception. Its piper design for BT in 1991 attracted a great deal of opposition. The company was also responsible for the short-lived $110m (£75m) re-branding of
Consulting to ''Monday'' in 2002. The launch of the
brand in 2007 was met with widespread public derision. Design critic
condemned the London 2012 Olympic Games logo as "a puerile mess, an artistic flop and a commercial scandal".
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 ''
''. 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”.