Reaction from the professionals in
Design WeekDesigners on British Rail’s logo update: “The worst sustainability-by-numbers thinking”
National Rail raised eyebrows this week with a green revamp of its logo – we spoke to designers including Astrid Stavro and Matt Baxter about the change.
But then ... doesn't the very fact it's generated such outrage prove that it's reaching people as intended
Perhaps it's understandable that "design" professionals should react to the design per se, and ignore the words. But even they are not justified (and still less other media) to dismiss it is
only greenifying a logo and criticise the campaign as being nothing but the logo-tinkering, or as doing nothing to decarbonise the railways or attract passengers. In a literal sense no campaign ever
does anything, it can only entice and prod others. Decrying the campaign for what it doesn't contain, and making it hard to find by not providing a link to it (while there is a link to other advers comment), looks distinctly self-serving.
It's as if they had not looked at
the RDG‡'s message at all! Mind you, the same is true of (almost?) everyone else too. If you do, it's surprising how much of it is pitched to government, to get them to simplify fares (in a particular RDG-preferred way), and start a rolling electrification program.
So, if you are a grouping of businesses which never had much control over how green your railway was, and will have less in the future, and as RDG have limited influence on anything, how do you put over such a message? You could also ask why they are bothering to. But ultimately the message (like most anti-apple-pie campaigns) isn't good news in itself, so any headlines grabbed will be about something else - this logo, a claim too far over the top, or of course "demonstrating" as now understood by the self-righteous.
