Rebranding the Journey

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!).