In August 2011, The Advisory Board Company unveiled a new corporate logo, reflecting the transformative change that has taken place in health care and the Advisory Board's evolution into a global firm impacting health care around the world.
Today we partner comprehensively with our members to help them solve their most pressing challenges, with expanding capabilities that make us not only a trusted thought partner but also a trusted operational and technology partner.
With our new logo we renew our commitment to our values and to serving our members with the Spirit of Generosity: “Our ambition is to serve the members and each other beyond expectation, with honest appreciation in every encounter.” These principles will never change.
Evolution of the Advisory Board Logo
1979
David Bradley founds the company in Washington, D.C., as the Research Council of Washington with a total of five employees. After initially operating out of David Bradley’s mother’s Watergate building condominium, the firm moves to a townhouse on Capitol Hill.
The very first logo for the company is inspired by that town house.
1983
The firm changes its name to The Advisory Board Company. The business evolves across the next decade, focusing first on research for the financial services industry and subsequently launching a strategic research division dedicated to the health care industry.
1990
David Bradley commissions design of a logo for the firm that takes inspiration from Thomas Jefferson—the force of his ideas, the power of his intellect, and the passion he displayed for innovation. The Jefferson-inspired logo centers on an interpretation of the Jefferson Memorial, overlaid with Thomas Jefferson’s initials and surrounded by the firm’s name. The pillars represented in the logo inspire the firm’s mission and values.
2011
Recognizing that the 1990 logo is not optimized for online use and disproportionately represents the research portion of the Advisory Board's business, the firm commissions design of a new logo that reflects the firm’s dramatic transformation to a provider of technology solutions, consulting, and management services, while maintaining a connection to the firm’s Jeffersonian legacy.
Among the many inventions of Jefferson’s Monticello—the moldboard plow, dumbwaiter, great clock, orrery, surveying compass, and spherical sundial—was a revolving bookstand, likely a Jefferson design from 1810 to hold five books open at adjustable angles, allowing Jefferson to consult multiple works at once.
This device—a prototype of the database—demonstrates Jefferson’s ability to synthesize knowledge from many sources and his lifelong commitment to creative problem solving.
The design team develops an abstract version of the bookstand that also suggests the letter A.
Choosing this new logo inspired by Jefferson signals both our continued evolution as a company and our continued commitment to thought leadership and innovation.
