BHP, the global resources company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, traces its roots to the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, founded in 1885 as a silver and lead mine at Broken Hill in western New South Wales. The company merged with Anglo-Dutch miner Billiton in 2001 to form BHP Billiton, and in May 2017 it rebranded back to the simpler name BHP, a name the company said Australians had known it by for generations. The rebrand was accompanied by a new logo and the slogan “Think Big.” [1] [2]
Design and History
The 2017 rebrand introduced a logo consisting of the uppercase letters “BHP” in a bold orange sans-serif wordmark. The new mark replaced the previous identity, which had featured the lowercase “BHP Billiton” lettering accompanied by three stylized orange blobs or dots. Those graphic elements were introduced in 2001 following the Billiton merger, and the 2017 redesign removed them entirely. [3] [4]
The 2001 identity was created by FutureBrand (formerly FHA Image Design), with Richard Henderson serving as creative director. Henderson has been credited with leading the branding program for BHP Billiton, and the FutureBrand case study confirms the agency developed a design system to apply the corporate brand across the newly merged company’s divisional structure. [5] [6] [7]
The 2017 rebrand was supported by the company’s first consumer marketing campaign in more than three decades, created by the agency Big Red. The campaign and new branding were rolled out in Australia in May 2017, with a phased global launch planned for other markets where BHP operates. [8] [1]
Meaning and Symbolism
The 2017 rebrand was framed by BHP as a return to its Australian heritage. Chief External Affairs Officer Geoff Healy said the company was moving “to a brand that Australians have known us by for generations,” noting that the abbreviated name BHP was already “used colloquially around the world.” The change was part of a broader effort to reposition the company as a large Australian enterprise rather than a multinational conglomerate. [1] [4]
The 2001 identity, by contrast, was designed to symbolize the merger itself. The three stylized blobs were described as representing two entities merging into a new combined form, a visual metaphor for the union of BHP and Billiton. [9]
Typography and Design
The current BHP logo is a typographic wordmark set in bold uppercase sans-serif letters. The 2017 design replaced the lowercase lettering of the previous BHP Billiton mark with an all-caps treatment. The logo’s orange color was carried over from the earlier BHP Billiton identity, which had used a bright orange for its graphic elements. [4] [3]
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