(29 Jan 2021, 12:22 am)Wybus wrote I have both opinions on Ray and Best Impressions. If the current situation is bland and boring, his liveries are great and really bring the company into the modern era. Take the refresh of East Yorkshire as an example of this, the old regime ran it very traditionally and it needed pulling into the 21st century, or the various bits he’s done around FirstGroup such as the Excel in Norfolk.
But when you’ve already got strong unique branding, I think bringing in Best Impressions has been a retrograde step. GNE seems to be gradually turning into a carbon copy of Transdev in Yorkshire and Lancashire. Rather than unique brands like The Blaydon Racers and Red Kite we’ve got nondescript brands that could be anywhere, all the with the same thin and thick font, and slogans on the back like we see everywhere. I know Fab56 flowers and all were ridiculed here, but how long did it take to come up with Cityrider?!
There's a time and place for design agencies like Best Impressions, and to me GNE really isn't the place.
Like you say, what they did for East Yorkshire is excellent. They went from blending in to really standing out.
The issue is when you have a fleet that already stands out like GNE did, applying the Best Impressions 'copy and paste' design just makes everything blend together.
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if in the Best Impressions office there was just a fruit machine with their design options, you pick whether you want the line to be at the front, back or middle, whether you want it straight, forwards or backwards, and if you want a swoop, line, or if you want to look like you're really cool, *multiple lines*
Something a bit like this, and yes, I probably put more effort into this joke than Best Impressions put into their designs
![[Image: Best-Impressions-design-o-matic.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/dtdHCbF/Best-Impressions-design-o-matic.jpg)