Wally Olins

Wally Olins was born December 19, 1930. He attended The University of Oxford where he studied history. After graduating he then went to London for advertising and got sent to his first big job in India where he was head of Ogilvy and Mather in Mumbai. He ended up staying there for five years. When he finally found his way back to London he then confounded Wolff Olins which was a international brand consultant representing brands in all sectors. He was chairman of this company until 1997 when he then founded Saffron Brand Consultants in 2001 with an ex-colleague from Wolff Olins, Jacob Benbunan. This is his current place of employment right now. Some of the leading organizations that Olins has helped create are 3i, Akzo Nobel, Repsol, Q8, The Portuguese Tourist Board, BT, Prudential, Renault, Volkswagen, and Tata. Aside from creating he also finds time to write books as well. Some of these books include ‘Wally Olins: On Brand’, which was published in 20 countries. His newest book out was published in May 2008 and was called 'Wally Olins: The Brand Handbook'. Over his lifetime he has recieved a number of awards, one of these awards was a CBE in 1999. He was nominated for the Prince Philip Designers Prize in 1999 and received the Royal Society of Arts’ Bicentenary Medal in 2000. He was given the D&AD President’s Award in 2003. He was given the Reputation Institute’s first ever Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. Wally Olins is one of the greatest brand designers of our time and will continue to change the way we think. He is by far one of my favorite designers.