How a legendary brand guideline manual was reborn

There's something borderline OCD about identity guidelines, brand manuals and style guides. Designing the perfect combination of lettering, pictograms, colour schemes and other brand elements, ensuring they can be used across huge numbers of assets and products of vastly differing scale and shape, and then meticulously assembling a guide to ensure that no unwanted variants of the carefully prepared identity are utilised… it's an obsession, but one that many of us will find hugely rewarding.

Graphic designer Wallace Henning read an article by Michael C Place about the British Rail Corporate Identity Manual, a four volume, 220-page set of brand guidelines for the UK's national rail service, and was instantly hooked. He focused his MA in communication design on "creating an identity for a renationalised transport network", then came up with the idea of reprinting the original manual.

The original

The crowdfunding

In 2015, Henning launched a Kickstarter campaign to republish the British Rail corporate identity manual.

"This book celebrates British Rail’s identity in its entirety – not only its distinctive symbol but its full graphic design programme, from detailed specimens of the famous Rail Alphabet typeface to the livery of the Inter-City 125," says Henning.

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The proposal was backed by the Department of Transport and the plan was that the new book would feature a foreword by Michael C Place of Build, introduction by former British Rail head of design Tony Howard and essay from James Greenfield, creative director and founder of Koto.

The crowd funding campaign ran until 22 December 2015, and comfortably exceeded its target of £40,000, eventually topping out at £55,102. The next stage could now begin.

The paper

Being a graphic designer as well as a British Rail enthusiast, Henning was determined that every aspect of the print production would be carefully selected and managed.

"The book has been printed with a rare H-UV litho press that dries the ink faster than traditional methods, resulting in an uncompromised sharper printed image," says Henning. "The uncoated smooth paper has been sourced from Sweden and required special making which ensured that it has a short grain, allowing this 472 page book to lay open easier, giving a more enjoyable read."

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The britishrailmanual.com website goes into great detail about the paper utilised. Supplied by Fenner Paper in the UK, Lessebo Design Smooth White in 130gsm is from the Lessebo Mill, located in remote area of southern Sweden called Småland. Founded in the middle of the 17th century as an iron mill, it was granted permission by the local government to produce paper in 1693.

"The custom making for the British Rail Manual meant that grain direction could head to foot of the book (i.e. parallel to the spine)," says Henning. "The grain direction refers to the way the fibres lie in the direction of the paper machine and is one of the most important physical characteristics of a paper. This is important because of the way the paper feels and 'rolls' and the way the text flops and lays open."