Commonfund

"The Common Fund" was founded in 1971, by the Ford Foundation, to bring more professional management to the endowments of American schools and colleges.  By 1998, it managed some $20 billion, the largest pool of educational endowment and operating funds in the world, for 1,350 schools and colleges.

But competition from for-profits like State Street was fierce. CEO Bob Bovinette felt the need both to broaden implied scope from a single "fund" (long since outgrown) to a range of services, and to refresh the company's self image with a new sense of competitive energy.

Working with the agency Clarion, Tony Spaeth proposed replacing the too-descriptive and boringly Common name with the one-word, creatively-twisted Commonfund, a word that could be owned. He recommended scrapping the relatively meaningless and distracting 'bricks' symbol in favor of a reserved but unique wordmark, that would focus attention on the name itself.