New Irish Rail and DART logos

gobnaitolunacy

I had heard something about it being a new Infrastruture division logo, but having it on public timetables and posters that wouldn't make sense. having said that the new blue/white signage being introduced sporadically in a number of locations doesn't make sense either, not matching anything in the corporate colours.

The '3 pin plug' is quite good but as pointed out, 'IE' doesn't fit with the company now being referred to as Irish Rail/IR.

Conway635

I think the points logo, while brilliant, was probably discontinued because it made it look as if there was corporate approval of having branch lines . .

:-)

C635

Stonewolf

I heard the points logo was dropped because people were spraypainting an A after it.

icdg

New logo is on the website banner now.

I'd hope the first rolling stock they'll tackle with it is the DART rolling stock - it only just struck me that the majority of DART rolling stock is still carrying the "DART25" logo when it is nearly the thirtieth anniversary!

bk

Christ the anti-aliasing on the logo and text on the website is dreadful. I dread to think what it must look like on one of those new retina screened macs.

Pity because otherwise the IR website is excellent.

If I was them, I'd demphasize the Irish name IE even more, leave it out of the logo all together, like DB have done. With their website, iphone apps, etc. all called by the english name IR now, they really need to emphasize this as the brand name.

Solair

Not very reproducible either as it's in colour.

Odd choice of logo.

They've been trying to drive traffic to www.irishrail.ie I suppose, hence the re-focus on "Irish Rail".

Iarnrod Eireann is hard to spell and quite a mouthful to pronounce too.

Most railway logos I've seen in recent years are pretty bland though. It's just one of many European rail rebrands that looks a bit ... meh.

carlmango11

Bit ridiculous that the DART seems to just be the same thing only with the word DART. Surely it would be useful to have a recognisable logo for the DART to print on maps, other modes of transport etc. (although that sort of integration is a bit much for our planners).

I actually think the DB logo would be good as an all-Dublin brand. Different colours for different modes. DB could be it's normal yellow on a black circle. Luas could be pink on purple or something. Dart could be light green on dark green.

The problem there would be that the logo still spells 'db' so it may not be suitable as a standard logo for all services.

IsaacWunder

I think the new logo is awful. It sort of looks like a 'N' formed between the two arrows, but overall the two arrow motif and orange colour reminds me of the Navigon (sat nav company) logo



I'm no sentimentalist, but any of the old logos are preferable.

dermo88

If I was to pick any logo, and never change it, I'd choose the 1987 IR Rails Logo. The picture speaks a thousand words, you know EXACTLY what it is the moment you see it. Simple, smart, attractive. It probably took them seconds to think of it back in 1984-1986 when Jim Mitchell filed the Transport Act setting up the 3 subsidiaries. Dublin Bus still has the Castle logo.

The Plug and socket logo, could be anything. Electricity, Telecoms.....its just....one of those Gaeilgoiri things, as in lets use Gaeilge because its not Bearla, and those Sassanach ba$tards won't be able to pronounce it. Not that I mind Irish, but you get the general idea on the nationalism and linguistics thing. Its often pointless, which is certainly the case with the 1994 logo introduced on the 201 Class and 2600 Class Arrow sets, and 'cutting your nose to spite your face'.

As for the new 3rd logo. Each time this is done, it confuses the brand identity. Change liveries by all means. But try and come up with a standardised simple typeface, a logo that will last, and keep it. Its not rocket science.

Solair

I'm confused, why is it now called N?

At first glance I thought Northern Irish Railways had been re branded by Sinn Fein or something.

That logo says nothing to me and it's certainly not memorable.

How about just a simple IE and actually call themselves. IE in branding too, rather than the long winded Iaranrod Eireann / Irish Rail

Irish Rail was a rip off of British Rail & they even just ripped off the intercity branding too from BR.

That being said most railways have fairly mediocre branding.

Kintarō Hattori

Is there anywhere that has a collection of past logos I can look at?

Original "flying snail" logo:


1964 "broken wheel" logo:


1987 logo:


1994 logo with CIÉ 2000 font:


Current "broken wheel" logo:


New 2013 Irish Rail logo:

Davy

Karsini wrote: »

1994 logo with CIÉ 2000 font:

This is much better than the new one

icdg

Solair wrote: »

How about just a simple IE and actually call themselves. IE in branding too, rather than the long winded Iaranrod Eireann / Irish Rail

Irish Rail was a rip off of British Rail & they even just ripped off the intercity branding too from BR.

Now in fairness, loads of railways around Europe use InterCity is a brand, though ironically enough, Great Britain doesn't any more (despite attempts by at least one TOC to hold onto the brand after privatisation). And while "British Rail" was just a trading name for the organisation more properly known as the British Railways Board, "Irish Rail" is actually part of Iarnrod Éireann's legal name.

The problem with Iarnrod Éireann is the website, English speakers are notoriously bad at pronouncing and spelling it, which wasn't a problem until they started to try and promote the website hard, hence the re-introduction of Irish Rail. Another (lesser) problem is that while the name "Bus" is the same in both English and Irish, "Iarnrod" and "Rail" don't even resemble each other.

gobnaitolunacy

Davy wrote: »

This is much better than the new one

Any one of them is better than the new one!
Sucktacular piece of graphic design.

Poxyshamrock

I can't help but see an N aswell.

Really cheap looking.

Just think of the uniform costs alone! :eek:

steamengine

icdg wrote: »

Now in fairness, loads of railways around Europe use InterCity is a brand, though ironically enough, Great Britain doesn't any more (despite attempts by at least one TOC to hold onto the brand after privatisation). And while "British Rail" was just a trading name for the organisation more properly known as the British Railways Board, "Irish Rail" is actually part of Iarnrod Éireann's legal name.

The problem with Iarnrod Éireann is the website, English speakers are notoriously bad at pronouncing and spelling it, which wasn't a problem until they started to try and promote the website hard, hence the re-introduction of Irish Rail. Another (lesser) problem is that while the name "Bus" is the same in both English and Irish, "Iarnrod" and "Rail" don't even resemble each other.

Why not 'Raille Eireann' instead of all this 'iron road' mallarkey ?

Solair

At least it didn't get lost in that era of giving everything totally meaningless names like when they tried to rename the Royal Mail, Consignia !!!

Or, something totally unoriginal like Translink which is also used by several other transportation orgnaisations : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translink

The SNCB / NMBS in Belgium also can't decide what it's called half the time and resorted to just using a large B in a circle as their logo!

It gets mind-boggling confusing as they've also had different versions of the same website on www.sncb.be, www.nmbs.be, www.b-rail.be and www.belgianrail.be !!!!

They make IE seem absolutely web savvy and blazingly efficient !

How about simply:
IE Train / Traein

---

IE Intercity
IE DART
IE Commuter
IE

---

service name.

IE = Iarnrod Eireann & also the domain root for Ireland .ie and international symbol for Ireland / Irlande on lots of things.

Stylise the IE into some kind of logo ... maybe a more modern version of the plug/socket thing and drop the use of Iarnrod Unpronounceable.

steamengine wrote: »

Why not 'Raille Eireann' instead of all this 'iron road' mallarkey ?

It looks to me like whoever was coming up with the dictionary tranlation for Rail in Irish was inspired by French - "chemin de fer" (paths of iron).
Shouldn't it be Iarnbother Eireann anyway?

Captain Chaos

steamengine wrote: »

Why not 'Raille Eireann' instead of all this 'iron road' mallarkey ?

You can just imagine people putting the Irish Rally spin on it. Blasting through the countryside going around corners sideways. Can just picture a jack knifed 22k coming around a bend.

CIE

Solair wrote: »

It looks to me like whoever was coming up with the dictionary translation for Rail in Irish was inspired by French - "chemin de fer" (paths of iron). Shouldn't it be Iarnbóthar Eireann anyway?

The proper Irish for "railway" is "bóthar iarainn" indeed. But modern Irish does have quite a few loan-words; if not from Latin roots, then from our neighbours to the direct east (hence "ród" versus "bóthar" and of course "iarainn" for iron).

Most other names for railway do translate as "iron road" anyhow (Spanish ferrocarril, German Eisenbahn, Greek σιδηρόδρομος and so on).

steamengine

Captain Chaos wrote: »

You can just imagine people putting the Irish Rally spin on it. Blasting through the countryside going around corners sideways. Can just picture a jack knifed 22k coming around a bend.

- The fáda eluded me for a while, so it's 'ráille', which makes it 'rawl-yeh' pronunciation wise - I think !!!

steamengine

Solair wrote: »

............It looks to me like whoever was coming up with the dictionary tranlation for Rail in Irish was inspired by French - "chemin de fer" (paths of iron).
Shouldn't it be Iarnbother Eireann anyway?

Then in either case, 'ród' or 'bóthar', the translation back to English is 'Irish Railway', not Irish Rail.

CIE

steamengine wrote: »

Then in either case, 'ród' or 'bóthar', the translation back to English is 'Irish Railway', not Irish Rail.

To be pedantic, railway would properly be rendered bealach iarainn in Irish (cf. mótarbhealach for motorway).

D.L.R.

This logo seems to imply Catholicism is backward thinking and Protestantism is forward thinking

foggy_lad

D.L.R. wrote: »

This logo seems to imply Catholicism is backward thinking and Protestantism is forward thinking

Only for comrades that look to the East:D

formerly scottish paddy

D.L.R. wrote: »

This logo seems to imply Catholicism is backward thinking and Protestantism is forward thinking

Yes, and your point is?

steamengine

CIE wrote: »

To be pedantic, railway would properly be rendered bealach iarainn in Irish (cf. mótarbhealach for motorway).

Originally locomotives were called 'iron horses' as clearly there was no generic term to describe them, similarly with railways. It seems a bit odd to refer to our railway company as ' Irish Iron Road', either translate it properly from the English and vica versa or introduce a new simple generic term that needs no translation. Eg 'Eirail'

gobnaitolunacy

steamengine wrote: »

Originally locomotives were called 'iron horses' as clearly there was no generic term to describe them, similarly with railways. It seems a bit odd to refer to our railway company as ' Irish Iron Road', either translate it properly from the English and vica versa or introduce a new simple generic term that needs no translation. Eg 'Eirail'

Can't use 'Eiretrains', it's probably copyrighted now!

Solair

EirTranz

Nobody could complain about that one as it's completely meaningless in Irish and English!