The Open University Logo
1969

In reference to Picture Story Productions.

The Open University (OU) was founded under a Labour government in 1969. Like a night school, the idea was to enable students from all walks of life to access the highest standard of higher education, but delivered partly via regular television broadcasts.

The OU logo was designed by the Vice-Chancellor, Walter Perry, and drawn up by the Director of Design, Douglas Clark. It is made up of an ‘O’ inside a ‘U’. Apparently over 40 versions were produced, subtly changing the size and position of the ‘O’. The BBC wanted a centred ‘O’, but thankfully Perry and Clark won the argument and settled on a Barbara Hepworth-esque design.

It is rumoured that the ‘O’ is suggestive of the circle of a moon in the night sky. It is rare to find this level of poetry in a logo, which I find as moving and profound as the idea for The Open University itself.