Jordan Adam
Established Member
They were also behind Pulham Coaches rather bland and boring Citaro's... And to think they got paid money to come up with this "design"!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/steves-travels/37261516532/
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Go North West
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They were also behind Pulham Coaches rather bland and boring Citaro's... And to think they got paid money to come up with this "design"!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/steves-travels/37261516532/
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Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
I'll be honest, I quite like that one.
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
That's not a livery, that's the kind of thing the depot manager could come up with himself...
Jordan Adam
Established Member
Paint a bus grey and put some white text vinyls on top. The only bit of design that went in to that was selecting the font!
LOL The Irony
On Moderation
It has nothing on the old route branding liveries.
jonesy3001
Established Member
39219 is the next one to go for repaint/refurb;
https://twitter.com/gnwbus/status/1136282000707465217?s=09
https://twitter.com/gnwbus/status/1136282000707465217?s=09
Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
On a low loader? Wouldn't it be cheaper to drive it there?
jonesy3001
Established Member
Knowing first, there's probably something wrong with it and they left it to go ahead or it's an hybrid probably won't hit 55 on the motorway.
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
Not really
You have a low loader with one driver and one tractor unit/trailer. Alternatively, you have a bus with one driver AND then a car with another driver following to pick up the first one or at least pay out for taxis/train fares to get them back.
That's because refurb takes a few weeks. Should you be transferring a number of vehicles at the same time, then it does make sense to drive them in convoy and then have a driver in a car to repatriate the drivers.
Jordan Adam
Established Member
It's standard practice for Thornton's to collect and redelivery the vehicles. Typically speaking they'll do two at a time. So when the first two are finished they take them back to the operator and then take another two down.
Depends where the limiter is set, B5LH's can quite happily sit at 60MPH.
Depends where the limiter is set, B5LH's can quite happily sit at 60MPH.
Robertj21a
On Moderation
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Thorntons collect/deliver all their refurbs and repaints on their low loaders as far as I know.
Had a colleague not been "in the know" I would have swore blind it was the work of Best Impressions. It isn't bad, but did hope for something a little more revolutionary.
That said, anything is better than the pastels of Olympia.
KendalKing
Established Member
Kian Lewis also reports that they have 33843.
overthewater
Established Member
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I doubt all the fleet getting sent, especially if brand new stuff is bought. Could it be 50%
no 33843 is a Bolton bus a driver Buses 2012 on flicker who works there said no more are moving this person who reported it has told me stuff that is false and i do get weekly reports for FGM
RustySpoons
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This is what I don't understand. Stenning's designs are well known in the industry, any bus manager who is looking to work with a design agency will be aware of his designs, so when another agency comes up with a design like this why do they hand over money and go along with it? Surely it wasn't the only design they came up with? Just paying money to make your bus look the same as everyone elses.
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
But does it look the same as everyone else’s? It looks similar to 15 POTN vehicles of Transdev of which most are in central Lancashire or Yorkshire. Spotters know that - the average punter won’t
RustySpoons
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True. It's not unusual for Transdev to run PotN liveried buses into Manchester though, so there probably is a chance they'll cross paths at some point.
If I was paying for someone to design a livery/brand for my company though, I wouldn't be impressed if it looked the same or similar to another company operating in the same field. I understand that there are only a finite amount of colours and designs you can put on a bus, but it doesn't take a lot to have a classy and unique livery. Look at the pre-Transdev Blazefield liveries, or Reliance, Delaine, etc.
The whole two-colour-diagonal-line livery has been done to death and seems synonymous with Best Impressions, which I guess is why most people seem to think the GoNW livery is one of their designs.
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
That’s my point - it won’t be most people. Really just enthusiasts to be honest.
Jordan Adam
Established Member
But if that's the case why bother getting a so called "designer" to design a livery for your company when you could just copy another operators livery and change the colours. Seems a waste of money and a fraud to me.
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
What job do you do? Are you a marketeer?
Whiteway215
Established Member
Laira, I see that UKbuses.co.uk have today entered a Go North West fleetlist on their website.
Jordan Adam
Established Member
I'm not a marketeer but i could probably do a better job of designing a livery that was at least not a copy+paste of somebody else's work!
Thanks I have just found this in the last hour.
Go North West operate the 17 into Rochdale. Rochdale is the main base where Rosso works out of so they will cross plenty of times in Rochdale bus station.
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
Oh what it were so simple! I sit next to our firm’s graphic designer and it is a definite skill and more than just a nice colour scheme in MS paint.
Mind you, the similarity is definitely there. It’s not a direct copy but it’s not far off and I’m a bit surprised that it’s not more exiting!
It’s four vehicles at Rochdale.
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Jordan Adam
Established Member
I'd agree, it's not simple creating a livery/brand and takes a true talent. My point was just about how these people are being paid to blatantly rip off some else's design (Two tone design with front colour wedge and some "decorative" vinyls just after the colour split).
With Go North West using Firsts' fleetnumbers, does anyone think this could be the start of a National numbering scheme. It would make sense especially if Go Ahead were thinking of expanding. It would need tidying up though to become more logical.
tbtc
Veteran Member
I do find this opprobrium towards Ray Stenning and Best Impressions perverse to say the least, particularly when he's getting the blame for a scheme that he's not responsible for.And who'd have thought so many graphic designers would be on this board
The reality is that most design agencies have a house style. Should an operator want something completely new, then I'm sure that BI would do it. However, that they can reuse designs and collateral means that they can create a livery plus all the other marketing collateral at a lower cost.
Also, liveries that are designed that reflect the two main manufacturers styling so they're going to look similar. I might also add that this is of little interest to the 99.99% of passengers; if you're a passenger on the Norwich Park and Ride, are you going to know that it's similar to Buses of Somerset? I'm guessing not.
Opinions are personal but I do tend to agree with the overall view on the GNW livery; it's restrained bordering on dull and I was thinking they might have gone for something bolder and brighter as a greater break from the past.
Agreed - poor old Ray, getting the blame because people don't like the livery on a bus that he's had nothing to do with...
I was underwhelmed with the colour scheme when I first saw it - I was expecting something a bit more vibrant, a bit more *orange* - but enthusiasts will criticise any livery - too busy, too bland, too many lines/colours, too plain, too vivid, too dull etc. Route branding gets too confusing but then operators who don't have branded buses are too corporate. You get the idea.
Realistically though, there are only so many designs that'll work on a bus. It's going to have to be fairly bold/ recognisable from a distance (so that passengers can identify it before it reaches their stop, know which one to run for).
Due to the big "black" space taken up by modern windows/ destination screens, there's a lot less "bus" to play around with, which means "clever" liveries like the Stagecoach horns can't really fit onto the bus shape, so I can see why a simple diagonal livery would be chosen - it should work on most vehicle types (rather than being designed for just one and then looking less good on others - e.g. the way that the Wrights "w" on the rear of the vehicle seemed to be integral to the First "Olympia" livery) - nothing new under the sun though, and with hundreds of current liveries/branding known to enthusiasts (and hundreds more of historic ones) it's not surprising that it looks a bit like the shape of another livery.
In a similar way, look at how most modern train liveries look the same as each other - the only difference is the door colour and the swoop of colour that comes down to the cab!
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