Modern, dynamic and human

Design Research Unit’s 1969 corporate identity for ICI.

By the mid 1960s, the activities and reach of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was substantial, with over 100 factories, laboratories and administrative buildings throughout Great Britain, a further 57 in Europe and 300 others spread across the rest of the world. ICI was composed of eight divisions and also ICI Fibres Ltd. These were focused on manufacturing over 12,000 different chemical-related products and employed approximately 200,000 people to do so.

In 1965, ICI asked an outside agency to report on the state of its public relations and to submit recommendations for its improvement. The report’s findings highlighted that ICI did have a recognition problem, and in particular around aspects of its visual identity. A recommendation was made to hire a design consultancy to develop a comprehensive identity program. This would cover: the correct usage of the existing ICI roundel or develop a new one; establish nomenclature; define corporate colours; select a typeface for signage; standardised stationery–leveraging economies of scale to reduce costs–and to publish a corporate identity manual formalising all the changes and establishing a consistent global image.

Design Research Unit (DRU), a design consultancy well-known for their work with British Rail, was selected from a shortlist of agencies. DRU collaborated with ICI to establish a working party responsible for research, design and implementation.