 | |
| Company type | Wholly-owned subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Brand design consulting |
| Founded | 1965; 60 years ago (1965) inLondon, United Kingdom |
| Founders | James Main Michael Wolff Wally Olins |
| Headquarters | |
Key people | Sairah Ashman (Global chief executive) Michael Khoury (president,North America) |
Number of employees | 150 |
| Parent | Omnicom Group |
| Website | wolffolins |
Wolff Olins is a globalbrand consultancy agency that specialises incorporate identity. It was founded in 1965 inLondon, where itsmain office is still based, as well as having offices inNew York City,San Francisco andLos Angeles. It employs some 150 designers, strategists, technologists, environment specialists and programme managers, and has been part of theOmnicom Group since 2001.[citation needed]Since the agency was founded, it has worked for several entities in various sectors includingtechnology,culture,retail,sport,consumer goods,travel,energy andpublic utilities,media andnon-profit.[1][2]
In 2012 the firm was listed byThe Sunday Times as one of the "best small companies to work for",[citation needed] and was in 31st place on list of the "best places to work" compiled byAd Age magazine.[3] In 2018Fast Company magazine placed the company at the head of a list of the "most innovative design firms".[4]
Wolff Olins was founded inCamden Town, London, in 1965 by designerMichael Wolff and advertising executiveWally 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 inLondon,New York City,Los Angeles andSan Francisco.
In 2002, Wolff Olins was selected by theBritish Library as a subject of theirNational Life Stories oral history project.[1]
In 2012, designs forOrange and the London Olympics were included in a retrospective examining design from 1948 to 2012 at theV&A in London.[6][failed verification]
In 2017, Sairah Ashman was appointed as the first female CEO of Wolff Olins.[7]
From 1965 to the early 1990s, Wolff Olins developed corporate identities for various large European companies. During this time Olins publishedThe Corporate Personality (1978) andCorporate Identity (1989).[8] Olins definedcorporate identity as "strategy made visible", and the firm worked with companies includingBOC (1967),The Beatles'Apple Records (1968), Bovis (1971),Volkswagen's VAG (1978),3i (1983),Prudential (1986) andBT (1991).
During the 1990s, Wolff Olins focused more on corporate branding. The company's work during that time includedFirst Direct (1989),Orange (1994),Odeon (1997),Heathrow Express (1998),Tata Group (2000),Unilever flower U logo (2004), theNBCUniversal logo (2011), and theBBC Reith blocks logo (2021).
Thelogo for the2012 Olympic Games, designed by the agency in 2007, was included inExtraordinary Stories about Ordinary Things, an exhibition in 2012 at TheDesign Museum in London.[9]
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 ofPwC Consulting toMonday in 2002.[13] The launch of theLondon 2012 brand in 2007 was met with widespread public derision.[14] Design criticStephen 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 toAbrdn. 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 as an “act of corporate insanity”.[16][17][18]
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