Classic logo: Greater Manchester Transport, 1974
Kenneth Hollick's 1974 logo for Greater Manchester Transport.
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Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (abbreviated to GMPTE) was a British public service originally formed in 1969 as ‘South East Lancashire North East Cheshire’, more commonly referred to as SELNEC.
SELNEC had branded its transport network and vehicles with a ‘dynamic S’ and an italic wordmark set through the centre, and employed an orange and white colour palette.
To differentiate each of the divisions that made up SELNEC the ’S’ was given a unique colour: magenta for Northern, blue for Central and green for Southern. For corporate operations, the parcel operations and coaching fleet, the 'S' remained orange.
In 1974, when the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester was formed, SELNEC was replaced by GMPTE, with the Greater Manchester County Council taking over the joint transport authority.
With the intention of continuing to expand it services by acquiring other operators (later this would include the Wigan Corporation which had a fleet of over 130 vehicles), a new visual identity was sought out to help unify the growing fleet and geographical extent.
To support this, the name Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive would be simplified to Greater Manchester Transport.
The goal of Greater Manchester Transport was to make journeys as easy, comfortable and attractive as possible and ensure recognition across places and for all people.
Establishing a unified design standard, applied across ‘common decor’ of bus stations, staff uniforms and vehicle liveries, would be essential in fulfilling these objectives. Part of this would include the design of a new logo.