The British Rail Corporate Identity Manual is a corporate identity guide created in 1965 by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

. It was conceived in 1964, and finished in July 1965 by British Rail's

Design Research Unit The Design Research Unit (DRU) was one of the first generation of British design consultancies combining expertise in architecture, graphics and industrial design. It was founded by the managing director of Stuart Advertising Agency, Marcus Brum ...

, and introduced British Rail's enduring double arrow logo, created by Gerald Barney and still in use today as the logo for

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the p ...

. The manual spanned four volumes, and was created as part of a comprehensive redesign of British Rail following the

Beeching Cuts The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised British Rail, railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Develop ...

as part of a plan to attract more passengers. It is noted as a piece of British design history.

History

The first volume, published in July 1965, introduced

Rail Blue The history of British Rail's corporate liveries is quite complex. Although from the mid-1960s to the 1980s the organisation was associated with "Rail Blue", a number of other schemes were also used, especially when it was split into operating u ...

, a standardised colour for use of

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can b ...

liveries and the total adoption of

Rail Alphabet Rail Alphabet is a typeface designed by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert for signage on the British Rail network. First used at Liverpool Street station, it was then adopted by the Design Research Unit (DRU) as part of their comprehensive 19 ...

, a

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are list of type ...

Jock Kinneir Richard "Jock" Kinneir (11 February 1917 – 23 August 1994) was a British typographer and graphic designer who, with his colleague Margaret Calvert, designed many of the road signs used throughout the United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies, and ...

and

Margaret Calvert Margaret Vivienne Calvert (born 1936) is a British typographer and graphic designer who, with colleague Jock Kinneir, designed many of the road signs used throughout the United Kingdom, Crown Dependencies, and British Overseas Territories, as w ...

, for use across the British Rail network. It was exhibited at the

Design Council The Design Council, formerly the Council of Industrial Design, is a United Kingdom charity incorporated by Royal Charter. Its stated mission is "to champion great design that improves lives and makes things better". It was instrumental in the prom ...

, London in the same year. The second volume was published in November 1966, contained guidance on printed publicity such as posters and regional logos. The third and fourth volumes, issued in 1970, focused on the non-rail sectors of British Rail, including architecture, and new branding for

Sealink Sealink was a ferry company based in the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1984, operating services to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, Isle of Wight and Ireland. Ports served by the company included: Dover, Folkesto ...

. In 2016, the manual raised £55,102 for a reprint, combining the four volumes into one book.

References

{{reflist 1965 non-fiction books British Rail Train-related introductions in 1965