Pulse was supposed to represent it running through the heart of Gateshead, not to mention the QE link too, but it wasn't the greatest of brands. It replaced Kingfisher, and I believe was a result of a competition at the time? I can only imagine what kind of suggestions they got...

I used to quite like some of GNE's brands, but i think they've become quite dated. So its welcome that with investment, they're getting rid of some of them and going towards an Xlines spec. I think that in itself is worlds apart from anything else in the North East at the moment.

Outside of the North East, I quite like some of Best Impressions work but adamantly not all of it. The East Yorkshire brand refresh is really good. Same area, and I think Coastliner is one of the best around.

As for hated brands, I have a few. Arriva Frequenta stands out, as does the Fab 56, but both for different reasons. Frequenta just doesn't make any sense other than being 'frequent' - it only added a few different stickers on the same Arriva livery, and there wasn't much other promotion around it. Fab 56 was one of the first GNE brands iirc, and I think it was OK in its day, but its so dated now and needs to just go asap!

Special mention has to go to the yellow centurion brand that GNE briefly ran with - https://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgrah...289395/in/
I somehow don't think we'll see a repeat of that again.