Wright – THE BEAUTY OF TRANSPORT – MAP ME GORGEOUS 2013

Description

Best Impressions, led by Ray Stenning, transformed UK passenger transport design—reshaping vehicle liveries with curves, unusual colours and bold branding, and redefining public-transport mapping. The agency worked on many operators (Stagecoach, Arriva, Southern Vectis, ScotRail, Midland Mainline, South West Trains and others) and even international projects. Its key innovation in mapping, “streamlined geography,” balances geographic accuracy with schematic clarity: key places remain correctly placed while roads and routes are straightened so multiple coloured routes can be followed easily and individual stops are shown. This solves problems of both London-style diagrammatic “spider” bus maps (which obscure distance and position) and cluttered road-faithful maps. Best Impressions applied the approach to bus and rail maps—examples include Harrogate and a redesigned Surrey rail map—producing attractive, readable designs (sometimes using light text on dark backgrounds) and interactive or isometric enhancements for digital and printed maps. Their work is praised for combining graphic-design skill with transport expertise, making networks more usable and visually appealing.