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We’ve reached the end of December, and train stations are
packed with travellers heading home to spend Christmas with their
families. This year, UK passengers will notice the new branding
adopted by Great British Railways, signaling the nationalisation of
the railways.
As someone once said to me, design is not just about creating
attractive logos, it’s about building uniform systems, applying
rules and logic, and creating something that embodies a
company’s values.
The distinctive double-arrow logo is both simple and timeless.
Created in 1960, it has remained in use ever since, with only minor
variations, which attests to its enduring design.
When changes are made to distinctive aspects of a logo, it is
essential to secure new trade mark protection for it.
The Great British Railways’ new brand was designed in-house,
and earlier this month the Secretary of State for Transport filed
new UK trade mark applications for variations of the new logo, as
well as a plain word mark: GREAT BRITISH
RAILWAYS.
These applications cover an extensive range of goods and
services, including clothing, education and training services
related to travel and transport, button badges, transport and
travel arrangement services, and many others.
They also include “downloadable travel tickets” and
“computer application software for rail travel”,
reflecting the launch of the Great British Railways app. This app
will allow passengers to book train tickets without paying booking
fees (a welcome change!).
As J.D. Salinger wrote in The Catcher in the Rye:
“Certain things, they should stay the way they
are…” I share that sentiment, yet as the year draws to
a close, I’m reminded that change is inevitable. Sometimes,
like the Great British Railways, we too have to rebrand our
journeys. Safe travels!
The GBR logo is the distinctive double-arrow logo
currently used by National Rail, which provides journey, ticket and
fare information, and was created in the 1960s as the logo of
British Rail – the state-owned company which previously operated
Britain’s railways.
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