It seems to me that senior management at Stagecoach UK Bus feel that maybe the overall Stagecoach brand is being diluted with the various branding and unique liveries.
I like the present livery but it fails in its upper front end light blue and orange as the lines never seem quite right -though this might be a result of how difficult it must be to paint or mask out. I've never been a fan of the 'Stagecoach' word logo as it appears unstated being in lower case.
However I think that the biggest problem, and what does dilute and 'cheapen' the Stagecoach brand, is some of the horrid schemes that have been applied for example at Stagecoach Manchester, North East and East Midlands (plus other divisions)
The Zone at North East - looks like a 90's night club flyer, Manchester's X34/34 - white typeface on light blue... 'Mansfield Move' :roll:
What does work is the quality branding such as the various Park & Ride liveries, The Kings City, X5, The Falcon, Coastliner, The Southdowns, The Lakes etc. Plus normal Stagecoach livery can work with more subtle branding such as Cambridge Citi, Basingstoke, the Northampton route branding etc. Most of these are designed by Best Impressions.
Im not here to advertise the work of Ray Stenning as there are some I am not too keen on such as more or some of his earlier work for TrentBarton, But he seems one of the only guy at present to be able to create a quality brand and a livery on both the railways and buses.
Then there is the Stagecoach interior... Light blue, orange and Ann Gloags infamous red floors which looks garish. Im sure that senior Stagecoach management dont specify their premium brand company cars in this scheme. Neither did I on my present Audi.
If they do redesign lets hope it is Best Impressions.