Corporate identity
The Little Red Book
Start Design's work with Virgin includes the essential 'Little Red Book': a specification guide to using Virgin red.
'Red is the lifeblood of our look. It says 'Virgin' in a way that's immediate and obvious. Few organisations have so effectively aligned themselves with a colour as Virgin has: most consumers readily identify our brand with a rich and vibrant red. Red acts as a trigger to say 'Virgin' to customers, with all the values that brings. Red marks us out from the competition. So if red's doing a good job for us, it's important we support it.
That means producing it as accurately and consistently as possible.
whether it's company vans or cola cans, stationery or station signs, the red should be as close to ideal as possible....Of the several paint manufacturing standards, our preference is NCS (Natural Colour System).'
Virgin Enterprises Ltd.
Contact:
Start Design Ltd
Transport for London
With over 3.6 million London Underground and 6.8 million London Buses passenger journeys every day, Transport for London runs one of the busiest and most complex transportation systems in the world including; Buses, Underground, Overground, Light rail, Taxis, Trams and River.
Carefully controlled use of corporate, mode, safety and London Underground line colours is highly effective in communicating the strengths of the organisation. Consistent use of colour across journey planners, signage and livery etc, also helps guide passengers to their destination.
For more than 20 years NCS has featured in the Transport for London guidelines.
Contact:
www.tfl.gov.uk
FirstGroup plc
FirstGroup plc is one of the leading public transport operators in the UK, delivering road and rail public transport services. Since the launch of its corporate identity nearly ten years ago, the company has maintained a strategy of using common colours throughout all fleets.
The NCS Colour System is the Group's main instrument of colour specification and identification for interior and exterior communication across new build or refurbished vehicles.
FirstGroup works with a diverse range of manufacturers and suppliers from all over Europe to deliver major build projects, including the Siemens built Class 185 trains and the Wrights built FTR Road Vehicle.
Lawrence & Pierce assisted FirstGroup with the development and implementation of their corporate identity using the NCS System.
Contact:
Lawrence & Pierce
www.lawrencepierce.com
Seymour Powell Ltd
Working across diverse industries often requires Seymourpowell to specify colour for concept designs and industrialisation briefs. In many instances NCS enables us to do this effectively with it being an increasingly widely used system of reference and with a wide scope of colours.
During recent work with Midland Mainline, Seymourpowell have worked to a tight time frame designing a fleet of Meridian trains due in service in 2004. NCS was a vital tool for helping us to decide the considerable colour specification for the interior and the external livery of the trains. The relevant NCS notations are now documented in the finishes schedule which Bombardier Transportation required for the realisation of the vehicles.
Anna Henry, Designer - Seymour Powell
Contact:
Seymour Powell Ltd
www.seymourpowell.com
Jones Garrard Ltd
Gatwick Express is one example of many where the Natural Colour System has been utilised within the Jones Garrard creative process.
'Prior to the switch to NCS, the specification of colour within design projects had always been a problem. The communication of colour and finishes to powder coating, laminate and paint suppliers was limited to either the supplier's given range, or severely restrictive colour systems. The NCS System offers an almost unlimited range within each colour spectrum and combined with the quality and prompt delivery of colour products, provides Jones Garrard the flexibility within tight timescales that customers within industry demand.'
Simon Hopkins - Jones Garrard
Contact:
www.jonesgarrardmove.com
