Merck Pharmaceutical Corp – What's the concept?
The concept behind Audrey Krauss and Chermayeff & Geismar's 1975 logo for Merck Pharmaceutical Corp.
Merck is one of the oldest pharmaceutical and chemical companies in the world, with activities spread across hundreds of companies and throughout many countries.
Due to decades of expansion and diversification, mergers and acquisitions, the Merck visual identity had become fragmented and inconsistent.
To address this fragmentation, and unify the public presentation of Merck and its divisions, as well using standardisation to lower production cost of corporate material, a new identity was sought. New York design studio Chermayeff & Geismar were given the job.
The solution revolved around an abstract logo, designed by Audrey Krauss. In its balance of positive and negative space the idea was to allude to pharmaceutical related imagery such as pills and tablets, petri dish and mortar and pestle, as well as the medical cross which referenced Merck’s previous logo.
The studio also created a custom-designed wordmark and selected a corporate typeface to unify the public presentation of Merck and its divisions, address the need for a clear, consistent brand architecture, and utilise economies of scale when producing printed materials.
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