Branding & design
Number of items in collection: 525
Short description:
Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.
Life story oral history interviews with people involved in British branding and design industries.
An Oral History of Wolff Olins (catalogue no. C1015) consists of a series of forty commissioned interviews recorded between 2001 and 2003 with directors and staff of international branding consultancy Wolff Olins. The interviews cover a broad range of individuals at all levels of the company, reflecting its origins, its growth and development, the shifting business climate, key accounts and clients, its impact in the sector, and the company's unique ethos. Interviewees included founders Wally Olins, Michael Wolff and Jane Scruton who set up the business in Camden Town, London in 1965; Chief Executive Brian Boylan; Managing Director Charles Wright; designers, consultants, marketing and creative directors past and present; also kitchen, administrative and support staff.Oral history recordings provide valuable first-hand testimony of the past. The views and opinions expressed in oral history interviews are those of the interviewees, who describe events from their own perspective. The interviews are historical documents and their language, tone and content might in some cases reflect attitudes that could cause offence in today’s society.
Long description:
Recordings in this collection can be played by anyone.
Life story oral history interviews with people involved in British branding and design industries.
An Oral History of Wolff Olins (catalogue no. C1015) consists of a series of forty commissioned interviews recorded between 2001 and 2003 with directors and staff of international branding consultancy Wolff Olins. The interviews cover a broad range of individuals at all levels of the company, reflecting its origins, its growth and development, the shifting business climate, key accounts and clients, its impact in the sector, and the company's unique ethos. Interviewees included founders Wally Olins, Michael Wolff and Jane Scruton who set up the business in Camden Town, London in 1965; Chief Executive Brian Boylan; Managing Director Charles Wright; designers, consultants, marketing and creative directors past and present; also kitchen, administrative and support staff.Oral history recordings provide valuable first-hand testimony of the past. The views and opinions expressed in oral history interviews are those of the interviewees, who describe events from their own perspective. The interviews are historical documents and their language, tone and content might in some cases reflect attitudes that could cause offence in today’s society.Related collections
One-to-one oral history interviews explore memories and narratives rarely found elsewhere. First-hand personal testimony fills knowledge gaps, provides new insights, challenges stereotypical views, and overturns orthodoxies. These recordings reveal collective memory, individual agency, gender, skill, influence and intentionality. Shifting family, work, health and educational trends and debates emerge alongside the impact of changing technologies, belief structures and political contexts. Oral history recordings provide valuable first-hand testimony of the past. The views and opinions expressed in oral history interviews are those of the interviewees, who describe events from their own perspective. The interviews are historical documents and their language, tone and content might in some cases reflect attitudes that could cause offence in today’s society.
Ethical use of oral historyThe interviewees have been generous in sharing their memories - often traumatic, confidential and intimate - and listeners are asked to treat this material with respect and sensitivity. Recordings should be analysed and presented in context, so that the interviewee’s meaning is not misconstrued. Quotations and audio clips should be referenced as, for example: “Interview with Hans Arnold by Melanie Roberts, October 2001-January 2002, Oral History of Wolff Olins, reference C1015/04 part x, © The British Library”.
Each interviewee whose recording appears on this site has assigned copyright to The British Library Board and given their consent for the recording to be used for educational study. We have made every effort to contact all the interviewees and inform them about this project. However should any participant wish to discuss their involvement they should contact the Lead Curator, Oral History at the British Library (oralhistory@bl.uk)
Oral history at the British LibraryThe interviews on this site are a small selection from the many thousands held in the Oral History section of the British Library. These recordings go back over 100 years and cover many facets of life in Britain.
Many interviews were gathered through National Life Stories, an externally-funded unit within the Library established in 1987 to “record first-hand experiences of as wide a cross-section of present-day society as possible”.
All recordings on this site are governed by licence agreements.