Leaning into the future

Pentagram's 1975 logo for Lucas Industries.

Lucas Industries was a British manufacturer of automotive and aerospace components that grew, by the mid-1970s, into one of the largest of its kind in the world.

At the time, the corporate policy was to appear publicly as small in scale, even though it was significant and extensive. This policy, however, had brought about a complex tapestry of subsidiary names, trademarks and brands.

Confusion and managerial difficulties grew in tandem with the continued increase in subsidiaries. With this problem in mind, in 1975, the Lucas Group decided to introduce a new corporate identity system and logo that would unify all subsidiaries under a single corporate image and design policy. Lucas chose Pentagram, and founders Colin Forbes and Alan Fletcher, to develop a new brand architecture and corporate identity.

The basic element of this new corporate identity was made up of what was known as the “Lucas diagonal”. This would function as the new group identifier and used to link and identify the diverse activities of the Lucas group.