V&A appoints Wolff Olins to overhaul its identity

Wolff Olins has been appointed to refresh the identity of the Victoria & Albert Museum and provide guidelines for its future use in print work, as the design element of the V&A’s much-heralded revamp gears up.

The V&A marque, which was created by Alan Fletcher, will be retained and the aim of the brief is to modernise the graphics and develop a more consistent style, according to V&A head of public affairs Damion Whitmore.

He adds, ‘To date our design strategy has been very events and exhibition-led. Each exhibition has had its own graphics and in some ways [this has been] at the cost of the V&A brand.

‘Apart from the marque, we don’t really have a [strategic] identity and the Wolff Olins work will put the corporate brand at the centre of everything we do.’

Wolff Olins has been asked to ‘curate’ the V&A’s print design by providing a ‘toolkit’ to cover both external communications material and how information is presented within the museum, says Whitmore.

Wolff Olins senior consultant Jane Wentworth says that the brief involves making sense of the V&A identity by rationalising its sub-brands.

She adds, ‘The identity is a design classic, but it has been compromised by things being added to it. We want to use the marque with more courage and panache, so as to show the V&A’s take on things.’

Wolff Olins senior designer Adam Thorup and designer Andy Howell are the creatives on the project, which is due to be completed by the end of July and is likely to influence the direction of the V&A signage brief.

Wolff Olins won the work earlier this month after a four-way pitch against Pentagram, Atelier Works and Johnson Banks.