Hmm.... Northern Spirit has always struck me as better suited to be the name of a train rather than the name of a TOC. I've always thought just calling it anything which refers to "the North" as one block is a bit impersonal.
You could do it by counties"Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland, County Durham, Yorkshire and some bits of Cheshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire Railway"
No two ways about it the franchise then turned very quickly into a dogs dinner, but that was a management and financial problem. Had it not been called Northern Spirit back then and stayed as RRNE until Arriva took control I imagine the Northern Spirit name now through the lens of today would be viewed more favourably and seen as galvanizing though still cheesy.
I like your third one best.Along with the rest of the forum, I had a play around on Paint to have a go at some logos
I've tried to incorporate the upside down horseshoe as it looks a bit random without Arriva's style font next to it.
View attachment 79550
The new logo is for internal use only, it won't be used externally for now
So there are now two logos, using the same name, one internal (no doubt designed at great expense by some consultants) and one external. What an absolute shambles of an organisation - it can't even decide how to present itself.
Hmm... absolutely nothing wrong with those designs in principle, but "On the right track" is incredibly easy to make fun of...
WhatDoTheyKnow user said:Dear Northern Trains Limited,
When you took over from Arriva Rail North you updated your logo simply by removing the "By Arriva" part but you kept everything else the same. Now i see you have just decided to change your logo again but it seems that all you did was change the letters from lowers case letters to upper case letters but otherwise the logo is still very similar. So i just have a couple of questions in regards to these two changes. My questions are as follows below:
• 1. How much did it cost (this should be the total cost for everything involved in updating your logo including changing signage and anything else) for your first logo change (where you simply removed the "By Arriva" part)?
• 2. Was any design company involved in your first logo change (where you simply removed the "By Arriva" part)?
• 3. If yes to Q2 then what is the name of the design company involved?
• 4. If yes to Q2 then how much did the design company charge for this?
• 5. How much did it cost (this should be the total cost for everything involved in updating your logo including changing signage and anything else) for your second logo change (where you changed all of the letters from lower case letters to upper case letters)?
• 6. Was any design company involved in your second logo change (where you changed all of the letters from lower case letters to upper case letters)?
• 7. If yes to Q6 then what is the name of the design company involved?
• 8. If yes to Q6 then how much did the design company charge for this?
I look forward to hearing back from you regarding this information. Thank you for your help.
Yours faithfully,
Howard Wilkinson
Questions regarding changes that have been made to your company logo. - a Freedom of Information request to Northern Trains Limited
When you took over from Arriva Rail North you updated your logo simply by removing the "By Arriva" part but you kept everything else the same. Now i see you have just decided to change your logo again but it seems that all you did was change the letters from lowers case letters to upper case...www.whatdotheyknow.com
Northern Trains Limited said:
It is, there is a potted history on Wikipedia:
Wikipedia said:In 1964, Volkswagen AG bought Auto Union GmbH from Daimler Benz. The main active brand of Auto Union was DKW, but it was soon dropped by Volkswagen and replaced by Auto Union's dormant Audi brand. In the early 1970s, the dealer organizations of Volkswagen and Audi merged. In the following years, Volkswagen AG re-thought their future strategy. They envisioned buying several car companies to round out their offerings. They also envisioned selling a multitude of brands under giant dealer roofs. The new dealer organization, financial services, and all other non-car related activities were to come under one branded umbrella. Eventually, Volkswagen intended to use this umbrella as the name of their holding company: General Motors in reverse.
GGK Düsseldorf was tasked with the branding concept. Finding a distinct typeface was an integral part. Volkswagen at the time had Futura as their typeface. Audi at the time used Times. The new typeface would be neither sans-serif (like Futura) nor serif (like Times), and the idea for a rounded typeface was born. After the company failed to find an existing rounded typeface at the time, the new typeface had to be developed. The original idea was conceived by Wolf Rogosky (creative director) and Gerd Hiepler (art director). Over several years, the identity concept was refined by Bertel Schmitt (creative director) and Manfred Schwarzer (art director). The original typeface was rendered by hand. It was then perfected on a PDP-8 minicomputer.
How VAG Rounded was born
In 1978, the whole Volkswagen and Audi Dealer Organization worldwide was re-branded as V.A.G using the distinct V.A.G Rounded (or V.A.G Rundschrift) as the font for all signage, and for all headlines in their advertising. The V.A.G logo did not use the font. Worldwide availability of the font was a problem. To solve the problem, V.A.G Rounded was put in the public domain[citation needed]. As Desktop Publishing emerged in the mid 1980s, V.A.G Rounded was included in most free font packages and became widely used for that reason. A free modern implementation is MgOpen Modata.
VAG Rounded - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
