brightonbususe
New Member
Hi all,
First post here. Probably also a long one. I'm a designer and have always been fascinated by Brighton & Hove Buses' branding. I remember when they first introduced the Metro branding onto their most popular routes by changing the red on their BH2 (diagonal stripe) livery for the route colour. It was a great initiative but to a certain extent degraded their red and cream branding.
I was over the moon when they introduced the BH3 livery, the now-familiar swoosh. It took the recognisable elements of BH2 and modernised them. It also elegantly fixed the problem of multicoloured buses by instead replacing the black part of the swoosh with the colour for the Metro route as an accent.
This rebrand was a total masterclass, one that I have held high as a shining example of a rebrand done right. The logo, the messaging, the livery... it all worked beautifully, especially when you see it on buses like the Geminis where the swoosh is so organic and fits perfectly around the front of the bus.
But then in recent years, they have really lost their way and damaged the brand. It's hard to say what does a B&H bus look like anymore.
The initial Coaster and Regency route branding was OK, then they completely diverged from the BH3/4 swoosh - and they're still updating these so we have several versions of both Coaster and Regency running on the same routes. Then they introduced the Live & Breathe livery (for the hybrid buses) which make up a huge proportion of their fleet. Then you also have all the special wrapped buses. All of this really degraded their brand. The city is full of these buses with different designs, different colours, no continuity of style.
However, almost every livery they created is an absolute work of art.
I love the Live & Breathe buses, such a fun design. The new harlequin Regency livery is great. The special buses like the Pride one and the street art one are brilliant. And the iconic swoosh is still one of the best liveries out there - totally timeless.
And now onto BH5, the new rebrand.
I don't like the logo. I promise I'm not someone who always says that about new logos, but it's too busy and just doesn't fit as well onto the buses. I see what they were trying to do, but it looks like it was a classic example of design by committee.
The new livery... um... exists. I love the colours, really vibrant. It's a shame to see the classic B&H red/cream go, but I'm not too sentimental about it. But the livery is just mediocrity. The swoosh is really unimaginative and basic, the multicolour 'icons' at the back don't really compliment the new brand colours, the detailing on the back of the bus is horrible, too much going on. It's so corporate and soulless, it could be any bus company in the UK. No clever messaging, no distinctive shapes, just nothing in particular. Does anyone know who did the new livery? I can't imagine it was Ray Stenning/Best Impressions again.
I'm excited for a bit of continuity of style. It will be nice to finally see (maybe?) just the three main liveries; BH5, Regency and Coaster. It's just a shame we're going to be stuck with the most mediocre, boring livery they've ever created.
I'm really surprised they didn't just expand the whole Live & Breathe livery from their hybrid buses onto the whole fleet. It's a fun, vibrant, distinctive livery with clever messaging and seems unapologetically Brighton and Hove. They've already done the hard work with this one, it's on 50+ buses already so I don't know why they had to come up with a Poundland version of it with slightly different colours.
I'm absolutely not against rebrands, but it's such a downgrade and by not using the Live & Breathe livery it makes the problem of too many liveries even worse, at least in the short-to-medium term.
Sorry for the long post.
First post here. Probably also a long one. I'm a designer and have always been fascinated by Brighton & Hove Buses' branding. I remember when they first introduced the Metro branding onto their most popular routes by changing the red on their BH2 (diagonal stripe) livery for the route colour. It was a great initiative but to a certain extent degraded their red and cream branding.
I was over the moon when they introduced the BH3 livery, the now-familiar swoosh. It took the recognisable elements of BH2 and modernised them. It also elegantly fixed the problem of multicoloured buses by instead replacing the black part of the swoosh with the colour for the Metro route as an accent.
This rebrand was a total masterclass, one that I have held high as a shining example of a rebrand done right. The logo, the messaging, the livery... it all worked beautifully, especially when you see it on buses like the Geminis where the swoosh is so organic and fits perfectly around the front of the bus.
But then in recent years, they have really lost their way and damaged the brand. It's hard to say what does a B&H bus look like anymore.
The initial Coaster and Regency route branding was OK, then they completely diverged from the BH3/4 swoosh - and they're still updating these so we have several versions of both Coaster and Regency running on the same routes. Then they introduced the Live & Breathe livery (for the hybrid buses) which make up a huge proportion of their fleet. Then you also have all the special wrapped buses. All of this really degraded their brand. The city is full of these buses with different designs, different colours, no continuity of style.
However, almost every livery they created is an absolute work of art.
I love the Live & Breathe buses, such a fun design. The new harlequin Regency livery is great. The special buses like the Pride one and the street art one are brilliant. And the iconic swoosh is still one of the best liveries out there - totally timeless.
And now onto BH5, the new rebrand.
I don't like the logo. I promise I'm not someone who always says that about new logos, but it's too busy and just doesn't fit as well onto the buses. I see what they were trying to do, but it looks like it was a classic example of design by committee.
The new livery... um... exists. I love the colours, really vibrant. It's a shame to see the classic B&H red/cream go, but I'm not too sentimental about it. But the livery is just mediocrity. The swoosh is really unimaginative and basic, the multicolour 'icons' at the back don't really compliment the new brand colours, the detailing on the back of the bus is horrible, too much going on. It's so corporate and soulless, it could be any bus company in the UK. No clever messaging, no distinctive shapes, just nothing in particular. Does anyone know who did the new livery? I can't imagine it was Ray Stenning/Best Impressions again.
I'm excited for a bit of continuity of style. It will be nice to finally see (maybe?) just the three main liveries; BH5, Regency and Coaster. It's just a shame we're going to be stuck with the most mediocre, boring livery they've ever created.
I'm really surprised they didn't just expand the whole Live & Breathe livery from their hybrid buses onto the whole fleet. It's a fun, vibrant, distinctive livery with clever messaging and seems unapologetically Brighton and Hove. They've already done the hard work with this one, it's on 50+ buses already so I don't know why they had to come up with a Poundland version of it with slightly different colours.
I'm absolutely not against rebrands, but it's such a downgrade and by not using the Live & Breathe livery it makes the problem of too many liveries even worse, at least in the short-to-medium term.
Sorry for the long post.
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