Co-operatives emerged as smaller individual retailers sought to increase their collective bargaining power to the level of larger corporate retailers. Aside from improving wholesale negotiations, this also gave individual members a voice to shape the direction of the business rather than investors. The modern co-operative movement emerged in many countries, beginning in Great Britain in 1844 and quickly spreading into the European nations of Italy, Germany and France. Each share the same name but are not part of the same organisational group. And while they all began diversifying their services and products in the 1950s and 60s, each developed quite different design policies. Scroll down to discover Lippincott & Margulies' logo for the Co-op in Great Britain or click here to read about Raymond Loewy’s design for Co-op France.
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