My rekindled focus on 35mm has, inevitably, brought me to this place in time: 1966, when Ronald Armstrong, of Design Research Unit, introduced the Ilford 'starburst' corporate identity.
Representing 'both camera shutter and flashbulb', that beautiful motif is coupled with Univers Medium Condensed with a rationalism typical of the very best corporate ID programs of the 60s and 70s.
It's reminiscent of Otl Aicher's Olympic ID of course, but that was still a few years off, so Armstrong wins.
I can't find much reference material to the Ilford ID. What is online is already on my bookshelf in Michelle Cotton's 'Design Research Unit 1942–72' and the rather marvellous volume from John and Avril Blake, 'The Practical Idealists: Twenty-Five Years of Designing for Industry'.
Here's the DRU team, pondering important 1960s design matters, smoking tabs and playing chess.
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