Mercer’s activities are mainly aimed at improving management efficiency, improving interaction between employees, and creating cohesive teams. They work on creating a corporate culture, improving the system of customer relations, developing professional development programs, and promoting a creative atmosphere.
The history of Mercer dates back to 1937 when a benefits and compensation division of Marsh & McLennan, Inc. was created in the United States. The name “William M. Mercer” it acquired after acquiring the company William M. Mercer Limited, which was founded by William Manson Mercer in 1945. And in 1975, the company became part of the group of organizations Marsh & McLennan. In 2002, the company got a new name, Mercer Human Resource Consulting.
In 2004, the company acquired Synergy HR Technologies. Three years later, the company became known simply as “Mercer”. In 2007, three consulting firms – Mercer Oliver Wyman, Mercer Management Consulting, and Mercer Delta Organizational Consulting – merged under one brand, Oliver Wyman.
The new Oliver Wyman became the foundation for the Oliver Wyman Group (previous name Mercer Specialty Consulting), which is part of Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. (MMC). The Oliver Wyman Group business is valued at $1.3 billion.
At this point, Mercer is considered to be one of the largest consulting companies in the world, with an impeccable reputation and strong influence. Annually, Mercer presents its ranking of the world’s most expensive cities to live, and the most comfortable places for living as well.
What is Mercer?
Mercer is the name of an international consulting company that specializes in international business recruitment consultancy. The company operates internationally in more than 40 countries and has more than 19 thousand employees. In 2012, Mercer was the world’s largest HR consulting firm.
In terms of visual identity, Mercer is a very stable company, with the logo representing professionalism, reliability, and expertise. Throughout the years the badge of the consulting company has remained stable and distinctive, even though its elements have been changed.
The old Mercer logo was executed in a delightful light blue color palette, with a bold geometric emblem placed on the left from the uppercase wordmark. The emblem depicted a stylized infinity sign, formed by triangles, a rhombus, and a trapezoid, drawn in different shades of blue and creating a three-dimensional figure. There was no negative space in the symbol. As for the lettering part, it was set in a plain light shade of blue, with the capital characters written in a clean modern sans-serif typeface, with perfectly balanced spacing.
After the redesign, the Mercer logo became more strict and elegant. The light shade of blue was replaced by the navy one, and the emblem now is set in one tone. It is still an infinity sign, but completely redrawn, with an opened contour, resembling a horizontally-located stylized letter “S”. The inscription was also rewritten, and its uppercase turned into the title case. The typeface was simplified, introducing a wordmark, which represents professionalism and stability.
The clean title case lettering from the primary Mercer logo is set in a medium-weight sans-serif typeface with distinctive contours of the characters. The closest fonts to the one, used in this insignia, are, probably, Mangueira or Ricardo, with some minor modifications of the character’s contours.
As for the color palette of the Mercer visual identity, it is based on a dark and intense shade of blue, which usually symbolizes professional qualities, a fundamental approach, along a sense of security and excellence.