Two rail franchises have new logos – one by a US design guru, the other the result of a public competition and a botched free-pitch.
The identity for transport conglomerate Sea Containers’ rail franchise Great North Eastern Railway is by New York’s Massimo Vignelli.
The new logo, launched last week, will appear on the livery of 100 daily high-speed services between London, Yorkshire, the north east and Scotland.
InterCity East Coast was renamed by the holding group “to recapture the memory of a golden era when travelling by train meant stylish travel and a promise of excellent service”, says Christopher Garnett, chief executive of Sea Containers subsidiary GNR, which is running the line.
The logo appears in gold coming out of red on letterheads and locomotives, and also in white coming out of red. Vignelli had done previous work for the holding group (DW 19 July).
Sea Containers is now bidding for the InterCity West Coast franchise, which will be awarded next year. It is too early to say whether Vignelli will handle that identity, says a GNER spokesman.
Meanwhile, English Welsh & Scottish Railway’s call for a consultancy to work up the winning design from its public identity competition fell on deaf ears.
The freight company approached Venture, Peartree Design, HGV and IKA to free-pitch for the job (DW 9 August). However, “the response was very poor”, says a company spokeswoman, with only IKA submitting designs. The winning logo, created by Rail Magazine reader Tom Connell, was tweaked in-house.
Franchises will be awarded towards the end of the year for Anglia Railways, CrossCountry, Great Eastern, West Anglia Great Northern and Mersey Rail.
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