Pictograms & Signage
Why Pictograms?
Eurostar is an international service with many nationalities of people using the service every day. Non-written communications are the only practical way of sign posting the essentials on board. From safety information to where to find your nearest glass of Champagne.
The pictograms used on board had evolved from basic standard icons and needed a total overhaul to ensure everything the customer experienced was easy to understand, efficient and lightly reminded people that they were on board a Eurostar service.
What inspired the Pictograms & Signage design?
We created an entire set of pictograms and symbols that both conformed to European safety standards, and were ground breaking in the way they connected the sculptural twisting forms of the brands sculpture to the wayfinding.
‘We wanted to create pictograms with enough detail they were interesting at large sizes and held the sculptural form present in the sculpture, but that also worked well at a glance (and conformed to international safety standards) —it was quite a tall order, but I think the ambition has paid off’
Is there anything else that makes them different?
SomeOne also designed functionality into the pictograms that makes them more useful to the customer — for example, where possible they can animate or simply change colour… colour change systems will indicate if a facility is vacant or engaged.
While these pictograms and symbols are going to be used primarily on board they are also going to be applied online where the brand needed to signal actions in globally understood non-written format.
What do Eurostar think of it?
‘We asked for a new set of symbols that conformed to international safely standards, but that felt ‘Eurostar‘ — we got so much more… it’s an entirely ownable visual language that extends from our core brand identity’
Ruben Arnold, Head of of Commercial Development at Eurostar