Orange is the new Green

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Nexusdj
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Orange is the new Green

Post by Nexusdj »

Rumours have been doing the rounds on the web about a change of livery at Freightliner to bring it in line with its parent company (Genesee & Wyoming) and today its been confirmed by the company at the Multimodal Exhibition at the NEC :
https://www.freightliner.co.uk/news/fre ... ultimodal/

"Freightliner today unveiled its new brand identity at the Multimodal exhibition at the NEC Birmingham.

Following parent company Genesee & Wyoming’s acquisition of Pentalver Transport last year, the businesses’ commercial teams now serve customers across three core platforms of Rail, Road and Terminals. “With this in mind, it now makes sense to align the Freightliner brand with that of G&W, providing consistency across the three platforms,” said G&W UK/Europe Region CEO Gary Long.

The new Freightliner logo is consistent with that of Pentalver and more than 120 G&W freight railroads in North America, Australia and Europe. The logo is included below and comes into immediate effect on the Freightliner website – http://www.Freightliner.co.uk.

Freightliner will shortly commence rebranding its intermodal and bulk rail freight terminals throughout the UK as well as its Freightliner Road Services trucks whilst taking a phased approach with other assets, including locomotives and wagons.

Along with the rebranding comes substantial investment in the businesses, primarily through a major transformation in technology. “This investment will drive further improvement in service performance and efficiency from a customer perspective and also facilitate future growth,” says Long. The effort includes developing IT solutions around planning and rostering, terminal operations management and terminal booking, as well as HR & Payroll and asset management globally.

The focus on continuously enhancing the overall safety culture, which has already achieved world-class performance since the G&W acquisition, will continue.
"

This is a class 66 of Rotterdam Railfeeding which is another Genesee & Wyoming owned rail company based in the Netherlands :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23121380@N03/30818659653/
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Re: Orange is the new Green

Post by blackwatch13 »

Looks a little bit BNSF to me
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Re: Orange is the new Green

Post by MF01 »

They took an inspiration from the Colas Rail logo
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Re: Orange is the new Green

Post by PFX »

Something else for the livery frothers to get exercised about!
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Re: Orange is the new Green

Post by cyberdonblue »

Just another coat of bullsh*t really.

Cheers

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Re: Orange is the new Green

Post by klambert »

Nexusdj wrote:
This is a class 66 of Rotterdam Railfeeding which is another Genesee & Wyoming owned rail company based in the Netherlands :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23121380@N03/30818659653/
Is it me or does the livery look a bit naff?
It looks like it should be on a brio train or something knocked up in Paintshed circa 2005.

Why havn't we established since Colas that orange used like this generally doesn't work. I'm currently doing a design degree and I'd be failed if I used orange and black in this manner. Actually I wouldn't even bother pairing orange and black together, it's an insult to good design.
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Re: Orange is the new Green

Post by PFX »

Has to be green and red. :lol:

Out of interest, have you seen the reproduction BR corporate identity manual? It's a lesson in good, concise design. I'm a big fan of less is more. I think it's still available but it's a bit of a luxury purchase.
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Re: Orange is the new Green

Post by PerRock »

Uhgh I was hoping the G&W would go the other way and change their hideous design to be more in line with Freightliner.

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Re: Orange is the new Green

Post by cyberdonblue »

America has something of a reputation for "off the wall" or outrageous colour schemes in many walks of life. The trouble is, a lot of the idiots over here think it's stylish and so throw various multi-coloured paints all over our trains and think it's "Cool man!" If they just paused for a minute they'd see that it looks like somebody has vomitted from upon a bridge onto a train passing beneath. Today's "designers" (and I use that term extremely loosely) seem to think that bright, garish colours are fantastic and that they really impress people; whereas in fact most people look and gasp before saying, "What the f*** is that?"

I thought that the old CIE orange and black was superb (sorry Karl) but this bright garish version G & W have chosen is bloody awful. Far too bright and in your face. The sooner it's all nationalised again and returned to BR blue ( :o ) the better.

Cheers :lol:

Dave ;)
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Re: Orange is the new Green

Post by PFX »

cyberdonblue wrote:I thought that the old CIE orange and black was superb (sorry Karl) but this bright garish version G & W have chosen is bloody awful. Far too bright and in your face. The sooner it's all nationalised again and returned to BR blue ( :o ) the better.
Don't worry Karl, it was known as black and tan so technically, not black and orange. ;)
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Re: Orange is the new Green

Post by klambert »

cyberdonblue wrote:America has something of a reputation for "off the wall" or outrageous colour schemes in many walks of life. The trouble is, a lot of the idiots over here think it's stylish and so throw various multi-coloured paints all over our trains and think it's "Cool man!" If they just paused for a minute they'd see that it looks like somebody has vomitted from upon a bridge onto a train passing beneath. Today's "designers" (and I use that term extremely loosely) seem to think that bright, garish colours are fantastic and that they really impress people; whereas in fact most people look and gasp before saying, "What the f*** is that?"

I thought that the old CIE orange and black was superb (sorry Karl) but this bright garish version G & W have chosen is bloody awful. Far too bright and in your face. The sooner it's all nationalised again and returned to BR blue ( :o ) the better.

Cheers :lol:

Dave ;)
The Americans have never been fans of good taste. The issue nowadays is that a lot of aspects of design are constantly looking for novelty rather than creating good tasteful lasting designs that are a tribute to the thinking of the era.
PFX wrote:
Out of interest, have you seen the reproduction BR corporate identity manual? It's a lesson in good, concise design. I'm a big fan of less is more. I think it's still available but it's a bit of a luxury purchase.
There's an online version that's worth a look: http://www.doublearrow.co.uk/manual.htm which forms the foundation for most of my uni work. But BR design came out of an era when designers realised they had an obligation to the public to create good lasting design, that harmonised rather than competed, tasteful rather than novel. How successful they were is up for question, but that same era and thinking produced the Routemaster, The Mini Cooper and Andy Warhol.

This modern obsession with non-coherant competitive vulgarity can be seen in all fields from Vehicle design (most modern cars are hideous, the worst looking car being the Nissan Juke). Architecture (The Walkie Talkie building), Adverts etc. Rather than trying to harmonise with the surrondings, design is competing, so what you get in effect is an incoherent mess, paradoxically where nothing really stands out. We're almost back to the baroque period, over gilded objects, serving no purpose other than to outdo each other. In 50 years we will have no examples of design from the current era that can truly be considered iconic.

Although there are signs of a reaction against over-ostentatiousness, and we're going back to simpler form follows function type rules. The GWR livery is an example of this, one of my favourite modern liveries, large block colours, subtle without looking drab that suits the form of any train, a nod to the classic but also still looking contemporary. The Scotrail and TSGN livery are other examples of tasteful simplicity. It's becoming very common now for websites to also simplify their colour schemes.

Companies like Freightliner and Virgin are showing how behind the times they are by creating these disgusting complicated colour schemes. The chap who designed the Virgin livery needs to be hung drawn and quartered.

Right that's the art lecture over.
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Re: Orange is the new Green

Post by PFX »

It sounds like we may share common ground when it comes to design.

I note your mention of the GWR colour scheme. In a way, it's similar to the GNER one. Both are modern takes on a simple design and both, for me, offer simple elegance, are instantly recognisable, and feature sharp design. A number of the post privatisation companies have managed this but not many. I liked the SPT carmine and cream in particular and while I like the Scotrail saltire livery, I think it could benefit from some simplification.

The double arrow page has certainly come on a long way since I last looked at it.
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Re: Orange is the new Green

Post by cyberdonblue »

PFX wrote:
cyberdonblue wrote:I thought that the old CIE orange and black was superb (sorry Karl) but this bright garish version G & W have chosen is bloody awful. Far too bright and in your face. The sooner it's all nationalised again and returned to BR blue ( :o ) the better.
Don't worry Karl, it was known as black and tan so technically, not black and orange. ;)
:lol: Yes, I stand corrected, Innis, but the correct title didn't exactly serve my argument at the time - and the history of "Black and Tans" is painful, if not infuriating, to some in Ireland :( . I'm not seeking to raise any political discussion with that comment either, by the way. It was merely an explanation of my mindset for my choice of words on this topic.

I agree with you both, Innis and Karl, re: modern rail company colour schemes too. I think an expression I heard a while back sort of describes it best. "Less is more." I'm not a fan of the expression but it does feel quite appropriate in this case. I also think you covered my feelings on modern architecture quite succinctly, Karl. I certainly wouldn't have been able to put it into words in the space that you have (but that's often my problem, isn't it? :lol: ) I don't see too many of these big, ugly, glass box abortions being built all over the place today still being around in fifty or a hundred years time. Personally, I would shoot the architects of some of London's more recent deposits (I can't bring myself to call them buildings.) The Shard, Walkie Talkie, City Hall (London), The Gherkin; they're all absolute abortions and strike me as having had very little thought or imagination required to dream them up.

I hate the majority of the social legacies left behind by the Victorians. They set this country back a hundred years or more in many ways but their engineering skills and their architecture is still breathtaking to this day. IMHO Victorian and Georgian architecture is a joy to behold and should be held up to the students of modern day architecture as a lesson in just how joyous their creations could be. Alas, nowadays people just want to build a functional box for minimum cost and sell it on for maximum profit. There is no such thing as pride in building anymore.

Cheers

Dave
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Re: Orange is the new Green

Post by rjhowie »

Think the old Irish livery was neat and although locally called it tan it was in all practice, well orange.
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