House style for the 1970s : Netherlands Railways' new look - article by S Wijsenbeek, Modern Railways, March 1971
It is always interesting to see how other organisations faced the challenges of changing and updating their corporate identities and, amongst European railways, Netherlands Railways / Nederlandse Spoorwegen have for many decades had a strong unified public image. Much of what is now seen on the network has its roots in the work described here and it follows the 1966/1967 review into the 'look and feel' of the system. Despite the writer's concern as to timescale and changing fashion, NS's identity has arguably stood those tests quite well, certianly in comparison with British Rail whose pioneering work in 1964/5 (that was emulated by so many other transport organisations) has been carelessly thrown away in the disasterous visual segregation that are railways in the UK these days.
Here we have a concise narrative as to the reasoning behind several of the decisions made - such as to typeface (amended Univers), colours and symbols. NS also redrafted their timetables in 1970/1 to reflect the 'new look'. The article is by Siep Wijsenbeek who was one of the key people who had worked on the new visual identities for NS - and the following article is well worth a read.
House style for the 1970s : Netherlands Railways' new look - article by S Wijsenbeek, Modern Railways, March 1971
It is always interesting to see how other organisations faced the challenges of changing and updating their corporate identities and, amongst European railways, Netherlands Railways / Nederlandse Spoorwegen have for many decades had a strong unified public image. Much of what is now seen on the network has its roots in the work described here and it follows the 1966/1967 review into the 'look and feel' of the system. Despite the writer's concern as to timescale and changing fashion, NS's identity has arguably stood those tests quite well, certianly in comparison with British Rail whose pioneering work in 1964/5 (that was emulated by so many other transport organisations) has been carelessly thrown away in the disasterous visual segregation that are railways in the UK these days.
Here we have a concise narrative as to the reasoning behind several of the decisions made - such as to typeface (amended Univers), colours and symbols. NS also redrafted their timetables in 1970/1 to reflect the 'new look'. The article is by Siep Wijsenbeek who was one of the key people who had worked on the new visual identities for NS - and the following article is well worth a read.