The British Railways Board was the statutory corporation that ran Britain’s nationalised railway network from 1963, established by the Transport Act 1962 which abolished the British Transport Commission.[1] Its most enduring visual legacy is the “Double Arrow” symbol, created in 1965 as part of a comprehensive corporate identity programme that replaced a patchwork of earlier railway branding with a single, unified mark.
Design and History
In 1964, the Design Research Unit (DRU), Britain’s first multi-disciplinary design agency founded in 1943 by Misha Black, Milner Gray and Herbert Read, was commissioned to create a new corporate image for the railway industry.[2] The corporate image had remained largely unchanged since nationalisation in 1948, reflecting what was seen as a disjointed and outdated transport system.[2] The company name was shortened to “British Rail,” and Gerry Barney, a young lettering artist at DRU, conceived the famous “double-arrow” device.[2]
The new identity and Double Arrow were rolled out in 1965.[3] The British Rail Corporate Identity Manual, originally issued in July 1965, spanned four volumes detailing the symbol, logotype, lettering and colour palette, with guidance on signposting, vehicles, stationery and uniforms.[4] The new symbol replaced the British Railways “totem” and the initials “BR” on printed publicity, certain structures and equipment.[5]
With the privatisation of the railways in the mid-1990s, the trademark registration for the logo was transferred to the Secretary of State for Transport.[3] The Double Arrow has survived nearly 60 years without any major designer interventions, though it has undergone minor refinements over the years.[6]
Meaning and Symbolism
The Double Arrow is formed of two interlocked arrows across two parallel lines, symbolising a double-track railway, and an outward journey and a return.[6] Barney himself explained its logic simply: “It worked because it was obvious. When you think of railways, you think of parallel lines: up this way, down that way.”[7]
Typography and Design
Alongside the Double Arrow, the 1965 identity introduced Rail Alphabet, a bespoke sans serif typeface created in 1964 by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert.[5] Signs using this typeface with words set in upper and lower case were designed to be significantly easier to read at a distance, with letters sensitively crafted and precisely spaced.[5]
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