British construction group Tarmac was named after the road surfacing material developed and patented by Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1902.
Under Robin Martin’s leadership, Tarmac moved from being an important regional force to a national road stone and contracting business with acquisitions playing a major role in Tarmac’s growth.
By the 1960s, Tarmac had become a group covering construction, civil engineering and road making, as well as manufacturing the core material it was known for.
The acquisition of new companies and rapid growth created a large and multifaceted corporation but also confusion around its identity. To address this, Tarmac worked with Design Research Unit (DRU) to develop a new corporate identity and logo that would unite the principle subsidiaries and establish a strong and unified presence, making the most of its growing scale.
Designer Ronald Armstrong working at DRU took the consolidation of seven subsidiaries as the starting point for the logo. By repeating the letter ‘T’ seven times forming a tessellating cluster, he created a logo that also evoked roadstones and construction. This was then paired with the wordmark that had been created four years earlier.
The logo remained in use for over 30 years, weathering financial troubles only to be retired in 1996. Its replacement was developed by consultants Sampson Tyrell. Employees felt the old mark looked ‘dated and tied the company too closely to road building and traditional construction’. Instead, Tarmac wanted the new identity to present it as a unified, forward-looking group.
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