Telegate was a German directory assistance provider founded in August 1996 by Klaus Harisch and Peter Wünsch, offering services through the phone numbers 01199 and later 11880.[1][2] The company went public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in 1999 and expanded into Spain and Italy before narrowing its focus back to Germany.[1] In June 2016, shareholders voted 99.7 percent in favor of renaming the company from telegate AG to 11 88 0 Solutions AG, a change intended to represent a unified corporate presence under the established 11880 directory assistance brand.[3]
Design and History
The Telegate wordmark was a text-based logo that paired the company name with the directory assistance number 11880, which became the central element of the brand’s identity. The number was promoted heavily in German advertising during the late 1990s and 2000s, most memorably through the slogan “11880, da werden Sie geholfen” (roughly, “11880, you will be helped”), delivered by celebrity spokesperson Verona Pooth.[4]
[5] The logo’s visual evolution over the company’s two decades under the Telegate name is not well documented in available sources.
The 2016 corporate renaming to 11 88 0 Solutions AG marked the end of the Telegate brand at the parent-company level. The company continues to operate the 11880.com online business directory and related services under the 11880 Solutions name.[3][6]
Meaning and Symbolism
The core of the Telegate visual identity was the number 11880 itself. The company’s directory assistance service became widely known in Germany by this number, and the 2016 renaming to 11 88 0 Solutions AG was explicitly justified as a way to align the corporate identity with the consumer-facing 11880 brand that had become the company’s most recognizable asset.[3] No official source documents additional symbolic meaning in the Telegate logo itself.
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