At the 101st Meeting of Construction Industry Council (CIC) Members held yesterday at the London offices of the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) in Kingsway, CIC’s new logo, together with its new strapline: BUILT ENVIRONMENT PROFESSIONS TOGETHER, was officially launched.
This brand refresh is one of several recommendations of a year-long Strategic Review of the CIC to identify the future focus and shape of the organisation to best serve its members over the next five years. The recommendation stated that the CIC should have a name and strapline which reflects what the organisation represents, with a clear message and vision and defined priorities which are regularly re-assessed.
At the previous Council meeting on 30th June 2016, members agreed that the existing CIC name and logo be retained, but the latter be reviewed for updating to suit new digital media devices and that “Built Environment Professions Together” be the CIC strapline to be added to the name and logo, for implementation as soon as possible.
The original CIC logo was designed by the architect, David Rock CBE, when it was known as the Building Industry Council in 1988/89; it was initially red before changing to blue in 1991 when the organisation’s name was changed to the Construction Industry Council. The logo represents an agora, which is a Greek word, meaning “gathering place” or “assembly”. The Agora was traditionally the centre of any Greek city and was an open-ended forum for discussion. It was therefore intended to represent the ideal of the Council as a forum for the built environment professional bodies.
The new logo was designed by Ocean Design, whose brief was to keep the agora but update the logo so that it could be successfully utilised across all digital platforms.
Speaking about the new, refreshed CIC logo, its Chief Executive, Graham Watts, had this to say: “Former RIBA President, David Rock, gave the Building Industry Council, which became the Construction Industry Council, in 1991, a logo that truly represented the collaborative ideals of the organisation. It was a professional image that enabled a fledgling organisation to punch above its weight, in so many ways. I have lived with it, more or less every day, for 25 years and, whilst it is sad to say goodbye to an old friend, I’m truly delighted with the new design from Ocean. It’s fresh, vibrant, colourful; works well on a range of platforms and yet remains true to that collaborative ideal that will continue to sustain the CIC and its members for many more years.”
The CIC Strategic Review was facilitated by Richard Brindley of R Brindley Consult Ltd., and led by Tony Burton, CIC Chairman (2014/16), with support from Professor John Nolan (CIC Deputy Chairman 2015/16 and Chairman from 30 June 2016), Graham Watts and CIC staff members, a Strategic Review Steering Group, comprising several member representatives, and workshops of member representatives at the 2015 and 2016 Members’ Conferences.
CIC is the representative forum for the professional bodies, research organisations and specialist business associations for professional services providers in the construction industry. It provides a single voice for professionals in all sectors of the built environment through its collective membership of 500,000 individual professionals and 25,000 firms of construction consultants.
