Metro: "METRO" Design & Branding by Futurebrand

Category: Large Scale Corporate Identity Schemes
Advertiser: METRO TRAINS MELBOURNE
Product/Service: METRO
Agency: FUTUREBRAND
Date of First Appearance: Nov 30 2009 12:00AM
Entrant Company: FUTUREBRAND, London, UNITED KINGDOM
Managing Director: Erminio Putignano (FutureBrand)
Creative Director: Ken Shadbolt (FutureBrand)
Associate Design Director: Nunzio Miano (FutureBrand)
Design Director: Christian Tenniswood (FutureBrand)
Senior Digital Artist: Andrew Fowler-Brown (FutureBrand)
Associate Director, Business Management: Karen Morton (FutureBrand)
Senior Designer: Katie Byrnes (FutureBrand)
Media placement: Corporate Identity - Melbourne Metro Touchpoints - 30 November 2009

Describe the challenges and key objectives
To overcome local perceptions that the Chinese-owned MTR may not understand the unique needs of the city, we developed a brand strategy, identity and communications system that positioned the new brand as ‘synchronized with the rhythms of Melbourne’.

Describe the brief from the client
An international tender was called to revitalize Melbourne’s metropolitan train network. We were appointed by an international consortium led by MTR to develop a new franchise brand for the operator of this network.

Describe how you arrived at the final design
We developed a brand identity system that encapsulated the unique visual language of the city’s architecture and local culture.

Give some indication of how successful the outcome was in the market
The entire program was developed initially as part of a competitive tender process and proved a persuasive aspect in MTR being awarded the USD $7 billion contract. The identity system is currently being rolled out (unchanged) across all brand touch points.