Some brands evoke aspiration, even outside the realm of luxury. The Big 4 Consulting companies give you this experience, and PwC is one among those.
I started my career in 2010, as an analyst with PwC India, in their document services department under Advisory wing, which now comes under PwC Service Delivery Centre. Back then, the firm was popularly addressed as Price Waterhouse, and their identity featured:
- An all-caps word logo: PriceWaterhouseCoopers
- An abbreviated icon: PwC
After spending a couple of months with the company, around September 2010 there came a big announcement of renewal – their new brand trademark, and it carried four major changes.
- They officially shortened their trading name to PwC, while legally remained PriceWaterhouseCoopers. So, the word logo was removed and the abbreviation stayed.
- The new logo written in lowercase: pwc
- The typeface changed into a heavier form, retaining its Serif family.
- Introduction of red, tangerine, and pink pixels above the abbreviation.
This change was disruptive in a good way and visually rich to the internal and external stakeholders. For us in Document Services, it felt like shifting worlds much like Dr. Strange navigating dimensions in the Marvel universe. Detailed and new brand guidelines, and the enthusiasm in all the 240 team members of our department, to unlearn the old and embrace the new branding rules. This change was enticing for us, as we were the backbone of brand formatted files that went out to the public from PwC. That newness rapidly became our normal and changed the way I looked at branding.
15 years later around April 2025, PwC brought another brand design revamp, through a campaign called “So You Can”, which gave the global stage an even more minimalistic logo. This new look replaces the multi-colored pixels with two orange bars, which are called the “momentum marks”, that convey the traits of being bold, collaborative and optimistic. The new brand identity reflects PwC’s ever evolving, powerful technology-driven and unwavering focus on its clients, especially in today’s world where the future is pacing fast to our present. To signify their new philosophy, PwC becomes F1’s official consulting partner.
There are many thoughts afloat amongst brand influencers, about this new logo. And I believe that the New Symbol is Absolute, as it brings forward minimum alteration and only two colors, that rightly conveys clarity given the current state of uncertainty with the sudden surfacing of AI and its application in various sectors. Big 4 companies have always played pivotal roles in decoding every industrial revolution. Having simple crisp logo, now, is need of the hour, to channel confidence in consulting, services and across industries, and devolve promise of consistency down the pyramid, since transparent information, equality and inclusiveness are being woven into the corporate fabric, much more than before.
Brand consultants Wolff Olins have created both versions of this logo, previous and present. The first version that got released in 2010, took 2 years to process the transformation in collaboration with PwC employees and clients.
As someone who lived PwC’s first wave of change in 2010, I see the 2025 revamp as a continuation of PwC’s commitment to clarity, confidence, and future-readiness.
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