Rotterdam-based harbour group Furness N.V. was founded in 1906 as a ships agency and would later expand its divisions to include Stevedoving, Agencies and Forwarding, Shipowning, Insurance and Road Transport.

To position itself for growth, Furness began to reorganise its divisions and set about developing a new corporate identification program. This was helmed by Ben Bos at Total Design and would be implemented in 1968. This new system intended to reflect a service offering that could deliver a bespoke end-to-end package tailored to the specific needs of a customer or provide these services individually.

Prior to the reorganisation and rebrand, Bos had produced a brochure and annual report for Furness, which was well-received. Shortly following this he was invited to develop a house style for the comapny and a visual system to identify its various operating subsidiaries. The logo for the holding company formed the basis for a series of logos. The idea for this came at the end of August 1968, at an lcograda conference that was taking place in Eindhoven.