U–W in my A–Z of inspirational and authentic logos, and the meanings behind them…

U: Unilever

When a company spans multiple sectors, it’s tricky to design a wholly representative logo. It would be easy to create something generic, post-rationalised with fluff. Prior to May 2004, Unilever had exactly that; a rather bland (albeit robust) U which “seeks to reflect durability and internationally minded and dynamic character... ...twin pillars on a common base suggest... ...two Us symbolise the 1930 union...” etc, etc. The old U was installed after the merging of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie and British soap maker Lever Brothers forming a multinational consumer packaged goods company whose products now include baby food, bottled water, breakfast cereals, cleaning agents, healthcare and hygiene products, ice cream, pet food, pharmaceuticals, tea, toothpaste... Today’s U, designed by Wolff Olins, is filled with 25 rounded icons to represent all their brands and company values from purity and freedom to beauty and fragrance. You don’t get much more representative than this.

V: Victoria & Albert Museum

The 1989 V&A logo only came to being during Alan Fletcher of Pentagram’s work on the museum’s wayfinding signage. The Design Manager at the V&A mentioned that he wanted a single logo as opposed to the numerous versions floating around at the time, and as Fletcher and his team were utilising a new cut of the Bodoni font on signs, they agreed to implement the same typeface in the logo. It was only on the day of the presentation that Fletcher had the idea to remove the leg of the A to enable the ampersand to form the crossbar and result in a beautifully tidy (and somewhat symmetrical) symbol.

W: Woolmark

There’s quite a story behind this globally recognised, and brilliantly iconic logo. Back in 1963, the International Wool Secretariat announced a design competition to create a logo that would identify quality and go on to adorn over 5 billion wool products. The winner was announced as Italian Francesco Saroglia. Hooray! There were photos of Francesco at work crafting the 9 curved bands positioned in triplicate to form a ‘ball of wool’. But these pictures were staged after the winning entry was named. It was all an attempt to hide the real designer’s identity because he was a man of moral principle and didn’t want to be revealed as an entrant – because he had already been invited to join the competition’s judging committee. He reluctantly submitted designs after he’d been shown the poor standard of Italy’s other submissions and didn’t want his country to lose face against entries from the rest of the world. However, Franco Grignani’s style was hard to mask and many of his contemporaries recognised his excellent work in the timeless winning design.

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