Paquexpres (also written Paquete Exprés or Paquexprés) was a parcel and express freight service operated by the Spanish state railway company RENFE. Its visual identity was created in 1990 by José María Cruz Novillo, the prolific Spanish designer responsible for many of the country’s most enduring public and corporate marks, including those for Correos, Renfe, the PSOE and the Policía Nacional.[1]
Design and History
Paquexpres emerged from RENFE’s parcel business, which was reorganised into a dedicated business unit in the early 1990s.[2] Cruz Novillo, who was already working as the designer for Renfe, received the commission to create the identification system for this new company specialising in goods transport. The name “Pack Express” had already been chosen, and he was given total freedom to develop the visual concept.[3]
The mark was applied across the service’s rolling stock and road vehicles. Archival photographs held by the Archivo Histórico Ferroviario document the logo on the sides of red-liveried freight vans and lorries, sometimes accompanied by the slogan “A tiempo” and a telephone number.[4][5] The service operated under the Paquexpres name until the mid-1990s, when it was gradually wound down and finally suppressed in 1996.[2]
Following Cruz Novillo’s death in 2026, the transport company itself acknowledged the longevity of his work, describing the designs as “made to last and to travel”.[1] The Paquexpres identity is also cited among the works that Cruz Novillo and his son Pepe, the duo behind the studio Cruz más Cruz, look back on with particular fondness.[6]
Meaning and Symbolism
Cruz Novillo’s graphic design work is broadly characterised by simple geometric forms, a restrained use of colour and conceptual richness.[7] In the case of Paquexpres, the designer has described his brief as creating a full identification system for a new Renfe company dedicated to goods transport, with the name already fixed and full creative freedom granted for the visual solution.[3] No further documented explanation of specific symbolic elements within the Paquexpres mark itself has been published by the designer or his studio.
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