The Brand Union

Brand Union
Subsidiary
Industry Communications
Founded 2007
Headquarters London, England, UK (Head office)
Products brand
design consultancy
Number of employees
 500
Parent WPP Group
Website www.brandunion.com (English)

Brand Union is a global brand and creative design consultancy agency, composed of about 500 people across 24 offices.[1] Brand Union is a wholly owned subsidiary of the WPP Group – one of the world’s largest communications companies.

History

In May 1976, graphic designers Terry Tyrrell and Sam Sampson formed Sampson Tyrrell. The catalyst for this was an opportunity given to them by an advertising agency to help with the corporate identity of British Gas. They worked for clients including Kodak, Lowrey, London Docklands and Legal and General.

The business grew slowly and by 1984 had grown to 10 employees working across a broad range of assignments, focusing mainly on graphic design projects. In 1984 Dave Allen joined from Kodak and helped accelerate growth winning work from Citizen, Mazda and Castrol.

In 1986, Sampson Tyrrell was acquired by the WPP Group plc. This resulted in a period of rapid growth and by 1991 the company was over 100 people in London. In 1992 Sampson and Allen led the formation of Enterprise identity Group with Jim Johnson of Anspach Grossman Portugal, Flavio Gomez of Sidjakov Berman Gomez and Miles Young of Ogilvy and Mather in Asia who owned a design network based in Hong Kong and Taiwan called Artistree. This was in response to the needs of international brand owners who were rapidly globalising the brands and their businesses around the world. Most particularly in Asia. All the founding businesses were formally transitioned into a new brand - Enterprise IG. Enterprise IG was formally launched in 1996. At this time and Allen and Johnson became Joint CEOs.

The business grew organically and by acquisition. Enterprise IG acquired Horniak and Canny in Australia, Springham Anderson in Singapore, Brindfors Design in Stockholm, Winderlich design in Hamburg and in 2001 Brown KSDP (part of the Tempus acquisition made by WPP) decided to join Enterprise IG - adding offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Amsterdam and Paris. This took Enterprise IG up to over $100m revenue, 19 offices and over 700 employees. That year Enterprise IG topped the Design Week 100 league table.

In July, 2001 Enterprise IG acquired The Identity Business, Ireland’s leading brand and identity consultancy .[2]

The Enterprise IG global network expanded with 21 regional offices in 18 markets, and formally became known as Brand Union in October 2007.[3]

Offices

Brand Union has 24 offices around the world:[4]

References

  1. ↑ Brand Union - About Us
  2. ↑ Enterprise IG acquires The Identity Business
  3. ↑ LogoLounge - ENTERPRISE IG IS NOW THE BRAND UNION
  4. ↑ http://www.brandunion.com/connect

External links