I'm a big fan of them and believe they can bring a lot - if the organisation involved, takes the time and effort required to make it a success.
In the discussion, reference was made to several panels, the involvement (or lack of) of panel members and the sort of things they are involved in.
I've just been made aware of the following article on Austrian railways. http://transportdesigned.com/railjet-bea...tset-game/
They took their consultation to another level - way above any 'sampling' seen or discussed on this forum
There are some interesting points in the link, but the link also refers to the lengths the organisation went to, in a bid to find out what their paying customers wanted.
Spirit Design produced three different concepts for the livery, which were to be tested on 1:1 scale – no illustrations or models produced for board members here – three of Railjet’s Taurus locomotives were painted in each of the colour schemes. Two of the locos received an OBB red base colour, with grey/white and grey/red striping respectively and the final received a bordeaux-red base colour with grey/red striping. They were also duly named as Spirit of Salzburg, Spirit of Linz and Spirit of Vienna. OBB then asked Austrian tabloid ‘Kronen Zeitung’ to conduct a nationwide poll, via its website, to pick a winner.
In late 2007, the results were in, the third colour scheme featuring the bordeaux-red base colour with grey/red striping was the winner and became the new design approach and style for all Railjet rolling stock, uniforms, marketing material and more. A unique approach for a livery taken by OBB which, I suspect, was to match the unique service they were trying to build – plus the more you ask people for their opinions and thoughts on a transport concept, the more they will want to come and try it for themselves, usually with a feeling of ‘I had a hand in creating this’.