New Chiltern Railways Branding

[sjoh]

I quite like it, though agree the R would be better capitalised. To be honest, though, it depends what they do with the rest of the livery. I have a niggling suspicion it'll be plain white with pale blue doors and some of that swishy stuff at the ends - which leaves much of the train looking rather bland. However, given that most of their units are quite short, it might work.

 

[bnm]

I don't think we have a truly good brand since GWR

I agree, GWR is a great brand.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I quite like it, though agree the R would be better capitalised. To be honest, though, it depends what they do with the rest of the livery. I have a niggling suspicion it'll be plain white with pale blue doors and some of that swishy stuff at the ends - which leaves much of the train looking rather bland. However, given that most of their units are quite short, it might work.

The white thing with frilly ends does work better on 2-car Northern units than on a 9-car Pendolino, certainly.

 

[whhistle]

I'm not sure I understand...

I get the wanting a refresh idea, but design/execution is just plain weird. I would have thought they would keep the white/red/blue combo, as many operators are increasingly using white and grey. With their introduction of silver, I would have expected this to continue.

The range of blues... I'm not a fan. Neither am I of the typeface either. Seems very... Arriva. Maybe Arriva are trying to tie their brand together a bit more instead of owning seperae companies. Maybe they should just paint them all Arriva corporate colours and be done with it. Or the DB plain red...

Shame they don't have the DB white/red combo from Germany's ICE trains...

 

[HowardGWR]

I agree, GWR is a great brand.

I have never read anything about how it was received back in 1935. It was clearly an attempt to break free of the deeply conservative (or indeed Conservative) County Set image of the GWR. I would have liked the present TOC to have gone back to the 'crest' and indeed that would look rather good along the sides of the coaches. Of course brown and cream would be even better.

 

[XCTurbostar]

Can we expect a CrossCountry and Northern rebrand at some point in the future then?

 

[221129]

Can we expect a CrossCountry and Northern rebrand at some point in the future then?

Northern has been done... And XC won't be until the new franchise...

 

[Bletchleyite]

Northern has been done... And XC won't be until the new franchise...

How long do we have to put up with XC before it's refranchised?

 

[185]

This is not really required. The franchise has managed to go entirely without a rebrand and now it’s only a few years away of being re-franchised..

Thus the millions spent on the new logo it will only go a few years before it's scraped off again.

 

[221129]

How long do we have to put up with XC before it's refranchised?

December 2019.

Thus the millions spent on the new logo it will only go a few years before it's scraped off again.

Fairly unlikely.

 

[XCTurbostar]

Well if they’ve already change the twitter page then they must be serious about and it doesn’t seem as subtle then as a rebrand like Thameslink.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Odd that "by arriva" has replaced "part of Arriva, a DB company" soon.

 

[TBSchenker]

Don’t DB want to dispose of Arriva? Therefore if and when they do sell Arriva (and all it’s subsidiaries), they don’t need to do anything to the branding

 

[Bletchleyite]

Don’t DB want to dispose of Arriva? Therefore if and when they do sell Arriva (and all it’s subsidiaries), they don’t need to do anything to the branding

I do wonder if some of it is that, yes. I had expected it to go the other way long term i.e. [DB] ARRIVA and a red based livery, but domestic German opinion at present seems to be that DB need to pack in the international conquests and get their own house in order.

 

[capital12]

Looks cheap, tacky and not very good. In fact quite naff.

That's just Arriva in general I think - If their new bus livery and logo are anything to go by!

Love them or hate them, Virgin is a brand that people relate to. Arriva just isn't - they look awful and the only people who think they do relate are those within Arriva!

There's nothing special about Arriva, it's a bland and tacky image, and I don't see any benefit in sticking it on everything.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Given the general poor quality of their operations, it's rather a toxic brand, a bit like First became on the railway.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

We had a thread recently about longest running logos (just prior to the demise of South West Trains iirc).
As for this logo, I'm not a fan. Firstly it's bland. Secondly the C doesn't fit with the rest of the text meaning that it looks like some sort of graphic device accompanying "hiltern railways" (what's wrong with capital letters by the way?). Thirdly the "by arriva" looks like an afterthought. If it's important that you get the group name in there then call it "Arriva Chiltern", "Chiltern Arriva", "Arriva Railways Chiltern", or something like that.

Apparently they considered 'Chiltern Arriva Railways', but the abbreviation would send entirly the wrong message in terms of encouraging people not to drive ...

 

[rebmcr]

The detailing on the C is fine, but I don't like the typeface they've used — too many swishy corners makes it look way too casual and unprofessional. The lowercase r is a bad choice, too.

 

[RPM]

There's actually two versions of the new logo: the one pictured upthread and a version with the 'Chiltern railways' text all on the same line. The lower case 'r' jars much less on the latter version.

 

[wipers]

I really don't see the point of the 'Abellio' name being included in the logo. Abellio isn't a brand and is of no interest to people. It's like DB buying EWS and then slapping little DB logos on the front of the locos... does anyone really care who the parent company is or does it give any benefit?...certainly not the brand, given that EWS locos operate in the UK and DB is a German compay.

 

[DJames]

I do quite like the new logo, but it's far from perfect. Still, I think it's an improvement over the old one, however I think it'd be a lot nicer with a bit of red in there like the old one had. It's just a bit too plain right now for my liking, but it may be fine once it's applied to a train.

Speaking of which, I wonder if there'll be a new livery to go alongside it...

 

[Bletchleyite]

It seems to match the Mainline livery quite well so probably not.

Talking of red, it'd be nice to see it *removed* from the local train interiors. It makes them look really Spartan - basically has the same effect as the Ryanair yellow.

 

[trash80]

I really don't see the point of the 'Abellio' name being included in the logo. Abellio isn't a brand and is of no interest to people. It's like DB buying EWS and then slapping little DB logos on the front of the locos... does anyone really care who the parent company is or does it give any benefit?...certainly not the brand, given that EWS locos operate in the UK and DB is a German compay.

Well having worked in marketing for 20+ years and been involved with a number of brands and rebranding i can safely say a rebranding has little to do with what customers want or care about and more about director ego

 

[Doctor Fegg]

It's quite a voguish style - the typography isn't a million miles away from the new Cycling UK logo (formerly CTC):

(I'll confess I don't like that much either.)

 

[Chris M]

"We are cycling The cyclists' champion UK"
How did that one get through focus groups? Or even a single proofreader?

 

[U-Bahnfreund]

Short note: Abellio does not belong to DB, it's a part of NS (Nederlandse Spoorwegen). Arriva is the company that DB bought.

 

[boxy321]

"By Arriva" ??!

They've gone all Sainsbury's.

'Because I'm worth it.'

Definitely done by a newbie to graphic design, given a project to do. Probably offspring of someone at 'A'rriva.

 

[Bletchleyite]

"We are cycling The cyclists' champion UK"
How did that one get through focus groups? Or even a single proofreader?

I'm personally a bit bored of all the great sports National Governing Bodies being renamed from their long-running and well-respected names into some marketeer's dream. At least the BMC[1] managed to be kicked into touch over it[2] and has given up.

I mean, for example, why wouldn't "The Grand National Archery Society" gain more respect than "Archery GB"?

It's all Olympics-driven nonsense.

[1] British Mountaineering Council, was to become "Climb Britain" which sounds like some sort of climbing tourism company.

[2] It took an attempted vote of no confidence at the AGM to make them listen.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Though I'll have to admit to being a bit old fashioned - I was sad when internal restructuring at Stagey brought the Bedford and Northampton operations under Cambus and lost us the wonderful "United Counties Omnibus Co., Ltd." wording on the side of the local Stagecoach buses.

FWIW that cycling one looks like some form of disease research charity, possibly because "We are Macmillan" is such a strong brand. Brand plagiarism doesn't always achieve what you want.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

I'm personally a bit bored of all the great sports National Governing Bodies being renamed from their long-running and well-respected names into some marketeer's dream.

(Slightly off-topic but...)

Cycling UK is what used to be the Cyclists' Touring Club. The national governing body for cycling is British Cycling, formerly the British Cycling Federation.

I suspect that, for the national sports governing bodies, rebranding is a tool in their attempts to reach out beyond their traditional confines and, frankly, overreach. British Cycling runs road and track cycling (etc.) in the UK, and that's fine. But it keeps trying to muscle in on everyday and commuter cycling, which is decidedly not fine, especially when you get muppets like Bradley Wiggins pronouncing on everyday cycling, or some keen young thing in the marketing department doing "shareable" graphics about "you must always wear a helmet! and hi-viz!".

The Royal Yachting Association has a similar affliction (though mercifully hasn't tried to rebrand). Running yacht and dinghy racing and the like? Sure. Portraying yourself as the consultative and governing body for pleasure boating on rivers and canals? Kindly get stuffed.