Once upon a time, the ideal of livery was thoroughly uncontroversial. And, time was when livery was just that. It had nothing to do with branding, this being a recent phenomenon within the bus industry. It’s lustrous lacquers just clothed and protected the bus.
Up to the end of the 1960s, whether in the public (THC), private (BET) or municipal sectors, liveries tended to be two colours and were applied according to the vehicle bodylines. Often, this involved cream as a secondary colour. There was frequently a local pride about a livery, especially within the municipal sector.
Then came PTEs and the National Bus Company. Both swept aside everything that had gone beforehand but both were traditionally applied.
There was a sea change from the early- to mid-1980s. One of the pioneers to realise that livery could do more than protect and, in fact, was a method of projecting a brand, was an unlikely Plymouth City Transport.
In 1982, it extended the amount if cream available on its buses. Red still featured but the lower deck application was determined not by the vehicle’s bodyline but to provide a consistent area of cream between skirt and lower deck windows, irrespective of whether the vehicle was an Atlantean, National or even LH. This gave equal room for a stylised Plymouth City Bus (or Country Bus) logo and coincided with a major marketing campaign following significant services changes. Branding was born and, in Plymouth, it worked well.
As operators increasingly put minibuses on the road—an idea more about marketing than anything else—and were progressively privatised, there blossomed a raft of individual liveries once again. The difference was that a number now disregarded the vehicle’s natural bodylines altogether. Suddenly, and often not very subtly, local liveries blossomed. Badgerline, North Western, Northumbria and Midland Fox all spring to mind. They may now seem crude but they, too, swept things aside, this time the previous conceptions about how a livery should be applied.
From the early- to mid-1990s, during the era of the Big Five, liveries tended to become all too predictable. Stagecoach stripes had already cocked a snook at tradition while retaining a relatively conventional base colour. As more locally managed businesses sold to Stagecoach, so the “stripes” spread. Towards the end of the decade, both Arriva and First followed in the Stagecoach corporate footsteps, though First had a number of inconsistencies with its early Barbie. Go Ahead, though, did not; it preferred local variations. Meanwhile, what was left of the former NBC at Trent Barton sang a rainbow song while East Yorkshire remained true to tradition.
The latter part of the decade saw First regress to the 1980s with its pastels, Arriva lose much of its cream and Stagecoach had already gone swirly. A number of operators that were relatively traditional in their designs have progressively changed to Stenning or Stenningesk designs, still largely ignoring the vehicle’s bodylines and favouring flowing & sweeping curves and coach lines. One such is Wilts & Dorset.
And then along came Ipswich Buses.
18 comments:
Surely the very first proponent of a livery that did not match the body style was SELNEC (Manchester). Its orange stripes were (as per publicity at the time) applied to ensure that the ornage would show as unbroken "superstripes" on a long line of vehicles. Once vehicle buying policy was standardised this was OK but in the early days it creted some really ugly looking vehicles.
Its ironic that at the moment Plymouth is seemingly having second thoughts about its own Stenning design. Buses are currently being repainted in plain red whilst the new management team decide what livery they want.
Given that East Yorkshire sort of remained true to tradition as Busing says, I've never understood why they didn't revert to blue and primrose. Not the dark blue, perhaps, which looks rather too dark on the branded routes where they have used it, but traditionally they also used a lighter blue for coaches and DPs.
The turning point (if one can use such a fairly blunt description to something that in reality was a relatively slow and elongated evolution) was probably the early 70s with the formation of the PTEs (SELNEC particularly, as FBB says) and NBC. Whilst neither were especially radical layout-wise, this was the beginning of a sea-change towards corporatism in lieu of the traditional mentality of doing what felt right and looked reasonably smart. This was when the 'brand' really started to take off as an entity in its own right. NBC might have had a traditional layout, colour-wise, but it's application was fixed and standardised which led to it sitting very uncomfortably on many inherited vehicles compared to those bought new. Remember NATIONAL white on ECW bodied RELHs and Duple Viceroys? It also saw the brand applied much more deliberately across buildings, signage, bus stations, timetables, letterheads, publicity etc instead of just the paintwork on the buses. This led to the brand, livery, marketing etc all merging into the one entity that we see today. This had already happened in some other industries, perhaps the bus industry was merely catching up? It certainly needed to, by the early 80s, with the likelihood of deregulation on the horizon and marketing taking on a whole new importance.
The 1982 PCT livery (still one of my all-time favourites) was probably one of the first to come out of a design-house, not unusual today but rare 30 years ago especially for a municipal!
EYMS avoided the traditional livery after privatisation as it was felt it was too similar to KHCT's livery of the time and could lead to confusion. Particularly as the two were at war at the time!
Graham Richardson wrote: “Its ironic that at the moment Plymouth is seemingly having second thoughts about its own Stenning design” Thank goodness for that I personally did not think their new livery did anything for Plymouth Citybus, other than make them look like Oxford Bus Company or some London based bus company.
Interesting that you mention Badgerline, which was an incredibly striking livery. I'd say the same about Yorkshire Rider too, with the green and cream of the PTE being updated with a striking use of jonquil and red as well.
First tried the regional variations at first. I actually don't think they worked because they were too regional, there wasn't enough coherence, but then again I actually like the barbie livery. I also think Arriva's interurban livery, increasingly used as the standard, is quite lovely.
Go Ahead don't seem to know whether they are coming or going. Up in the north east many of the buses seem to have lost their route branding; some route branding has been updated with new logos, but not all of them have. There seems to be more buses in the all-over red with Northern branding which, actually, looks incredibly cheap. It doesn't surprise me that they're looking at branding elsewhere either, especially at W&D.
Stagecoach still lead the way with the use of corporate identity though. They know what they want and they implement it across the business. I see that now with the number of buses hired in to Newcastle because of the Olympics, it's interesting that day and weekly tickets are called the same thing across the country.
Current Stagecoach livery seems to tick all the boxes. What is even more impressive is how they keep it so clean and fresh. Do they repaint more frequently than the others or is it the quality of the paint ?
"Anonymous said...
Graham Richardson wrote: “Its ironic that at the moment Plymouth is seemingly having second thoughts about its own Stenning design” Thank goodness for that I personally did not think their new livery did anything for Plymouth Citybus, other than make them look like Oxford Bus Company or some London based bus company."
That pre-supposes that any Plymouthian traveller knows what a bus in Oxford looks like. I thought the livery looked good and only an anorak/industry insider would know it was a Stenning creation and not the man or woman on the street. In a localised setting, this isn't an issue. When commissioned to do national liveries, I'm such Mr Stenning takes the potential of clashes into consideration!
Funny I mentioned Midland Fox and Badgerline just the other week when Ipswich came up. One of my pet hates is when a designer comes up with a good livery and logo/fleetname. A few years down the road and it's then simplified by the operator (down to cost usually) and it loses all its style. The Hayden Hyphen livery for North Western was striking when first unveiled but not to everyone's liking. The later simplification in British Bus days was more like a poor man's Accrington Corpy.
David
On this I agree with you :o) I was in my native north east and saw GNE's ops at close quarters. There's noticeably more red Northern vehicles and it does look cheap. Also, the Angel vehicles, with existing pink based graphics on red vehicles really devalues that brand, as do the number of unbranded vehicles on various services along the Scotswood Road and into Derwentside. It's starting to look a mess in many ways.
Stagecoach do project a uniformity of image and the temporary influx of vehicles into Newcastle is helped by the commonality of approach; some ads for Dumfries Megariders have had to be covered in plain vinyl to avoid confusing the good folk of Newcastle though. I would say that I've seen a few tatty Stagecoach vehicles across the UK, usually the red starts to go, but they are usually decent with repaints. Arriva North East are perhaps some of the worst with vehicles of 1998/9 vintage being withdrawn without ever having seen a paintbrush!
The problem with some less enlightened managers is, IMHO, that they think a livery and a brand are the same thing. I'm no expert but my understanding is that a brand extends far further than just the bus but encompasses all that you're trying to sell (e.g. a bus that is convenient, good value, environmentally sound, etc). That's what Oxford and B&Hove do so well!
Anon 16:19 said: "The problem with some less enlightened managers is, IMHO, that they think a livery and a brand are the same thing. I'm no expert but my understanding is that a brand extends far further than just the bus but encompasses all that you're trying to sell (e.g. a bus that is convenient, good value, environmentally sound, etc). That's what Oxford and B&Hove do so well!"
Indeed, a brand is all of that plus everything else which can be attributed to the operation, be it garage signage, publicity, stationery and even the culture i.e the way that employees speak, act and represent the company. It's the whole thing, the whole image (of which a livery is but a small albeit important part) which is what I tried to get across in my post at 10:20. It's the attention to detail and the consistent application that's important.
Interesting that you mention B&H and Oxford as these fleets have had consistent and reasonably stable strong images and brands for years. It must help. Seems that not all of Go-Ahead can say the same unfortunately (I don't have any recent experience of GNE).
Also as Stagecoach has mentioned, it certainly is noticeable how uniformly vehicles are presented countrywide, especially at the moment - on my travels, the buses transferred between fleets and those reinstated from reserve, that I've seen, without exception all look good and there's very little presentation-wise to suggest that old, laid-up and near-end of life vehicles are out and about (in large numbers in some places). I think Stagecoach has done a superb job.
Anonymous said...
"The turning point (if one can use such a fairly blunt description to something that in reality was a relatively slow and elongated evolution) was probably the early 70s with the formation of the PTEs (SELNEC particularly, as FBB says) and NBC. Whilst neither were especially radical layout-wise, this was the beginning of a sea-change towards corporatism in lieu of the traditional mentality of doing what felt right and looked reasonably smart."
I think there is a confusion between a "corporate identity" and a "nationwide identity". Whilst it is true to say that the BET group didn't have a nationwide corporate identity (or livery), the individual subsidiaries most definitely did - you cannot say that Southdown, Devon General or East Kent didn't have corporate identities pre-1972. Many of those liveries (and their associated styling features) were very distinctive, long lived, and well established in their own regions. Given that most bus passengers only travel a few miles, a nationwide identity is largely irrelevant, whereas a strong local image is probably much more important. Insofar as such things can be measured, I would imagine that those local images were probably stronger than the modern nationwide images, particularly as they were generally not subject to dilution from frequent 'makeovers' or excessive advertising (whether of the operator's own products or other businesses).
Perhaps the most ironic aspect of the modern day nationwide corporate identities is that some argue that they are necessary to retain the attention of investors in the City of London... except that you won't see those liveries very often in London!
To Anon at 11.50.
Thanks for the explanation about EYMS livery. I'd often wondered.
Anon at 10.09.
A different slant on liveries!
Have been to see the assortment of various buses around Weymouth & Portland - a fine collection of vehicles in use by First (Bristol and Bath registrations) on their town and the currently hourly X53 coastlinX services to Poole or Bridport - run as two routes, and from tomorrow passengers wishing to travel through Weymouth have to walk across the town due to DCC's traffic management.
Additional the new W&D Volvos (schedules for M1 and M2 duties in Bournemouth and Poole) on Olympic duties + other Go South Coast double deckers all missing their logos including the distictive Bournemouth Uni double deckers devoid of print. Many were parked up on the site of the old tank farm.
A weekend photo shoot for Busing?
Forester
@ Anon 1619:
On this I agree with you :o) I was in my native north east and saw GNE's ops at close quarters. There's noticeably more red Northern vehicles and it does look cheap. Also, the Angel vehicles, with existing pink based graphics on red vehicles really devalues that brand, as do the number of unbranded vehicles on various services along the Scotswood Road and into Derwentside. It's starting to look a mess in many ways.
The Angel is one area where I feel a bit sympathetic to Go Ahead. The buses they put on the Angel weren't up to it and the current ones are just temporary until the new hybrid order comes in. But the branding looks a total mess at the minute.
The rest of it is ridiculous though. They've taken the vinyls off the route-branded buses to update some of the route branding (the Red Kite and Prince Bishops have new designs) but anyone sensible would have planned it to be as smooth as possible. Some buses have been running around unbranded for two months now, it just looks so shoddy.
It's a shame because the route branding idea is actually a really good one, and Go Ahead generally managed to keep correctly-branded buses on the routes.
I can't help but think Stagecoach's branding will suffer from the LOCOG contract though. Saw the buses on Whitehall on Monday; they have all the localised branding still on, except the Stagecoach brandname has been covered over with white stickers. It looks appalling.
David
I agree, at the minute GNE vehicle presentation isn't the greatest it's ever been.
Even when the branding is eventually reapplied, it's not as good as the previous branding IMO. Certain brands, e.g Blaydon Racer now look a bit cheap to me.
The Vykings should never have been bought for the Angel. The Angel is one of GNE's busiest trunk routes and they introduced 7/8 year old (as they were then) secondhand vehicles on to it. Refurbished, yes, but they didn't even take the centre doors out.
Chris
Go North East have gone too far with roure branding in my opinion and have created an unholy mess of clashing colurs and logos.
http://www.simplygo.com/view-all-routes/
Route branding should be fairly subtle on a base livery - Brighton & Hove is an excellent example of how to do this.
Reading Buses also do this well too. Their 'Premier Routes' branding applies the route colours in a uniform style.
I thing GNE and to a lesser extent TrentBarton's use of route names instead of numbers is a bit tacky. I wouldn't feel comfortable about having to travel on something with the rediculous name 'Prince Bishops'. Having said that I never had an issue on travelling on Badgerline buses! Badgerline was a very distinctive brand of the West of England, and if my memory is correct was well liked by the public. Local press articles at the time were usually positive, especially the Bath Chronicle's coverage of the minibus conversion and associated increase in reidership.
To be fait to GNE, a lot of the liveries those from further afield find ridiculous actually have very strong local connections that people buy into.
Durham is marketted as 'The land of the prince bishops' and the puruple livery reflects Durham Uni's colours. I prefered the original livery to the updated version though.
I guess the silliest GNE livery is the 'Whey aye 5-0' but everyone i've spoken to thinks it's it's funny and its certainly raised the profile of a half hourley route between two places that don't have a natural connection.
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