Woolmark is a wool industry certification mark used on pure wool products that meet quality standards set by The Woolmark Company. It is a trade mark owned by The Woolmark Company, which has since 2007 been a subsidiary of Australian Wool Innovation Limited (AWI). [1] The logo was launched in 1964 by the Woolmark Company under its previous name, the International Wool Secretariat.
The Woolmark logo was developed by the International Wool Secretariat (IWS), which had been founded in 1937. [2] The logo was launched in August 1964 by IWS, [3] then under the control of two Australians, chairman William (Archer) Gunn (1914-2003) and William Vines (1916-2011) as managing director.
The two main objectives of the logo were to position wool at the top of the textile market and to ensure that products bearing the Woolmark label were made from pure new wool and not blended with synthetic fibres. The logo had been selected by IWS following a competition in 1963 won by Milanese graphic artist Francesco Saroglia (most probably a pseudonym of Italian architect, graphic designer Franco Grignani). [4] [5]
The logo was originally owned by IWS, which in 1997 changed its name to The Woolmark Company Pty Ltd. [5] The Woolmark Company Pty Ltd and Australian Wool Innovation Limited (AWI) were subsidiaries of the Australian Wool Research and Promotion Organisation, which was succeeded by Australian Wool Services Limited (AWS). AWI was de-merged from AWS in 2002 and The Woolmark Company was sold by AWS to AWI in 2007. [6] Since 2007, the Woolmark Company has been a subsidiary of AWI, a nonprofit organization that conducts research, development and marketing along the global supply chain for Australian wool on behalf of approximately 60,000 woolgrowers that cooperatively fund the company. What remained of AWS became Graziers’ Investment Company Limited, which as at March 2020 was in the process of liquidation. [6]
The logo has been such a success that it eventually ranked with a large scallop shell or three-pointed-star in terms of consumer recognition and understanding. [7] In 2011, British design magazine, Creative Review , declared the Woolmark number one of the top twenty logos of all time. [8]
AWI licenses the Woolmark trade mark to be used by affiliated vendors on their products as a certification mark that the product conforms to the standards set by AWI. [9] AWI claims that the mark is employed on textile products as an assurance that the product is made of 100% pure new wool. [3] It signifies the brand of wool. [10]
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal wool.
Op art, short for optical art, is a style of visual art that uses optical illusions.
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Cashmere wool, usually simply known as cashmere, is a fiber obtained from cashmere goats, pashmina goats, and some other breeds of goat. It has been used to make yarn, textiles and clothing for hundreds of years. Cashmere is closely associated with the Kashmir shawl, the word "cashmere" deriving from an anglicization of Kashmir, when the Kashmir shawl reached Europe in the 19th century. Both the soft undercoat and the guard hairs may be used; the softer hair is reserved for textiles, while the coarse guard hair is used for brushes and other non-apparel purposes. Cashmere is a hygroscopic fiber which essentially means that it absorbs water from the air. This helps regulate the body in both warm and cool temperatures by absorbing and releasing moisture based on the surrounding environment.
Elders Limited, formerly known as Elder, Stirling & Co., Elder Smith and Co. and Elder Smith & Co. Ltd, is an Australian agribusiness that provides agricultural goods and services to primary producers in Australia.
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Ermenegildo Zegna N.V., also known as Zegna Group or the Ermenegildo Zegna Group, is an Italian luxury fashion house headquartered in Milan. It was founded in 1910 by Ermenegildo Zegna in Trivero, Biella, in the Piedmont region of northern Italy. It is led by the Zegna family and is one of the most renowned Italian men’s clothing businesses internationally. As of 2021, it is a public company that is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
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Silk Mark is a certification mark in India for silk textiles. The mark certifies that the piece of textile which bears the mark is made of pure natural silk. The certification is managed by the 'Silk Mark Organisation of India', a society set up by the state-controlled Central Silk Board of India. Even though promoted by the government of India, the mark is only advisory in nature and is not legally endorsed. The certification scheme was founded by the Central Silk Board in 2004. In the original format, the mark included a silk mark logo woven on a hang-on tag on which a unique numbered hologram would be affixed. But the hang-on tag tended to be faked (reused) hence, a new method with the mark woven onto the textile itself has been proposed.
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The International Wool Secretariat (IWS) was formed in 1937 to promote the sale of wool on behalf of woolgrowers and review research carried out by independent bodies such as the Wool Industries' Research Association at Torridon, Headingley Lane, Leeds, England.
The Australian Wool Board was an Australian Government statutory board that existed in its first phase between May 1936 and January 1945; in its second phase between June 1945 and June 1953; and in its third and final phase, between May 1963 and December 1972. The first Wool Board, in 1936, together with the Wool Boards of New Zealand and South Africa decided to form an organisation to promote wool, to meet the growing challenge from synthetic fibres, which led to the formation in 1937 of the International Wool Secretariat. There have been other reorganisations of the management of the wool sector in Australia since.
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