Progress and power
Tel Design's 1967 logo for Dutch rail network Nederlandse Spoorwegen.
This post is supported by LogoArchive – The home of historical logos. Discover over 5000 of history’s greatest designs from the world’s finest designers. Updated every single day. Always find the logo inspiration you need for your next logo or branding project. Start here.
Just like the rail networks of the United States (AMTRAK), the United Kingdom (British Rail), and Canada (Canada National Railways) the pressures of private car ownership and the commercialisation of air travel began to effect the rail network of post-war Netherlands. In the face of these pressures, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), the national rail network, began looking at developing a policy of reorganisation and improvement. Part of this would include the modernisation of its image.
The process of modernising began in 1967 by looking to other countries for successful examples. One of these was the work that Design Research Unit had done for British Rail in 1965. G. Williams, who had been part of the British Railways corporate image (CI) program, was invited to share his experiences. As well as looking at rail projects, inspiration also came from the other pioneering CI programmes of the 1960s. These included airline KLM by FHK Henrion and and PAM by Total Design.
A working party was formed. This followed the example of British Railways and consisted of Chief of Passenger Marketing, Public Relations Officer, Chief Publicity Officer, Chief Architect, and Industrial Designer.
The group conducted research to find out how NS was perceived. This included analysing how train passengers saw car owners and vice versa. The results suggested that people's image of NS was not good, and had been described by some as ‘stagnant,' 'bureaucratic,' and 'slightly old fashioned.' But there were also positive evaluations. These included the perceptions of NS as being 'friendly,' reliable' and an ‘efficiently run organisation’. Car owners described train passengers as “old noodles" and the passengers themselves agreed with that characterisation. Just like British Rail, the application of a rationalised system, and powerful new logo would seek to change these perceptions and signal a new era for the rail network. This would begin with a new logo, but go on to include many other aspects such as wayfinding and rolling stock liveries.
